How to Achieve Wisdom

Treasure God's Word and Achieve Wisdom

Photo by Humble Lamb on Unsplash

This month’s focus is wisdom, and let me tell you, I need some of that this month. My full-time job will be reduced to a part-time position starting in September. As a result, I am looking for something else to supplement my income. It might need to be more than one thing.

I’m reminded again of a previous month’s verse: 

"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." ~Philippians 4:19

Job change is one of the hardest things to do. It requires new applications, which take time, interviews, which usually involve practice and strong people skills, and references, and you hope your references talk you up. 

I can tell that God is working in my life. This job change is a huge part of that. While I have started another part-time job, I have to see how it works out. I had to cancel two clubs, and I sense the Lord has other changes for me as well before I find out what His complete plan for me is.

There’s just so much uncertainty. What I need to focus on during this time is finding the wisdom to make strong choices with what God gives me. I need to focus on my theme for this month: treasure God’s words and achieve wisdom.

"My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you, So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding; Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God." ~Proverbs 2: 1–6

My verse for this month indicates how we can have wisdom:

1. Receive and treasure

2. Incline your ear, apply your heart

3. Cry out and lift up

4. Seek and search

5. Understand and find.

Receive and treasure

The first step involves being in the Word. God’s Word is filled with His wisdom, so we need to receive it by reading it, and then we need to care about what we are reading. We need to value it. We need to treasure it.

If we love Jesus, we should value His Word. We can say we value it, but how much time do we really spend doing that? And compare that to all the other time spent in your life on other things. How does it measure up? One of the reasons to treasure God’s Word is that it gives us much-needed wisdom to navigate the decisions of day-to-day life.

Incline and apply 

This step goes beyond just reading the Word and valuing it. This is studying and applying it. We can read “Be kind to one another … forgiving one another,” but if we can’t forgive, we aren’t applying that to our lives. It’s only when we apply the Word to our lives that we gain understanding. It is only through this understanding that we can gain wisdom. Understanding of the Word and wisdom go hand in hand, as seen throughout Proverbs.

"How much better to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver." ~Proverbs 16:16

Cry out and lift up 

I see this as a form of expression or passion, both internal and external. First, we read, then we study, and the next step is to be passionate about it. Internalize it, and don’t be afraid to speak it to God and others. It should be an expression of that understanding, or a visible or auditory application of it. This is part of the process of prayer. Cry out to God in prayer, or lift up your voice to speak to Him or others about what you are learning.

Seek and search

We cannot find wisdom if we don’t seek it and search for it. Search in the Bible. The Lord has planted the guidelines for wisdom, and it has everything to do with loving and respecting His Word.

Understand and find 

When we first start reading the Bible, it is hard to understand. But the more we read it, the more we understand. Wisdom and understanding go hand in hand. We read God’s word and then understand it, and then find wisdom.

“I have been finding treasures in places I did not want to search. I have been hearing wisdom from tongues I did not want to listen. I have been finding beauty where I did not want to look. And I have learned so much from journeys I did not want to take. Forgive me, O Gracious One; for I have been closing my ears and eyes for too long.” ~Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

God has promised to give us wisdom when we do those things listed above (receive and treasure, incline and apply, cry out and lift up, seek and search). He might not deliver it in a way that we recognize. It might be in a place we did not want to search, from tongues we did not want to listen to, or from a journey we did not want to take.

The Challenge 

I think we sometimes consider wisdom as something that is out of reach. Or maybe we consider it something that we only gain through an undetermined amount of experience. God says we can have wisdom and gives us the steps to achieve it. It’s all about finding the joy of the Lord. He is the treasure, and His Word leads to wisdom. Where are you on your journey to find wisdom? See if you can place yourself in the process: Receive and treasure? Incline and apply? Cry out and lift up? Seek and search? Understand and find?

"God is most glorified in us when our knowledge and experience of Him ignite a forest fire of joy that consumes all competing pleasures, and He alone becomes the treasure that we prize." ~Sam Storms