50 DAYS OF WISDOM - DAY 16 - "Wisdom as Understanding" Proverbs 8

SALT WATER

El Salvador the land I love - aerial shot

CLEAN WATER

I got to teach kids about how effective gravity based water buckets are at cleaning water. This is the water before its filtered

LIVING WATER

Billy Perez. Awesome human being. He has led worship many times at OCNWTR. Here we are working on our water project in El Salvador.

WISDOM AS UNDERSTANDING - PROVERBS 8

I want to talk to you about wisdom as standing out of Proverbs chapter 8. It says, does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? So it's really important to understand that God is trying to talk to us all the time, really in all sorts of different ways. Sometimes it's through His Word, sometimes it's through nature, sometimes it's through another believer, sometimes it's during worship, and sometimes it's during prayer. God's always trying to communicate with us. It's why He created us so that He could communicate with us. So it's really important that we understand this word understanding here because wisdom, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

We want to get wiser. We want to be able to have the ability to process information in the correct manner. We want to have the ability to actually make advances in our life based off of the right assumptions. And so that's why it's important that we have understanding.

So wisdom is understanding. So what does this mean here? Well it means four things.

First of all, it's an act. What do you mean understanding is an act? It's a decision. It's related to your will. It's you deciding that you want to perceive what is wise. So it has to do with intent, it has to do with direction. It's literally you saying, God show me what is wise. Lord help me to understand wisdom. So it's an act related to a decision. It's a posture. You're basically saying, Lord you hold all of the information. You hold all of the wisdom. Would you help me to understand it? And think of it this way, would you download your wisdom and your understanding into my life so that I can be more effective for you? So it's an act.

Secondly, it's a skill. Now this gives us hope because skills are something that you can develop through repetition. So you've heard me say this before, I really recommend you get in a one-year Bible reading program on the U-version Bible app. You can search U-version Bible app, download it, and pick a plan. I do an annual plan so that I can hear every word of God spoken to me every year. Pretty good goal. So it's a skill that you develop through repetition. It's a posture, an act related to your will. It's a skill. It's you saying, wow this is something that I can get better at. That's pretty exciting.

Thirdly, it's intelligence. What does that mean? Understanding is intelligence. Actually you make radical advances in your thinking when you understand that you don't know everything. Seems counterintuitive.

Ryan, are you saying that I'll actually become more intelligent if I admit that I don't know everything? Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying.

So again it's rooted in humility. Ironically when you admit you don't know everything, when you admit that there would be no way for you to possibly have all the information, that is literally one of the biggest signs of having an intelligence brain.

Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you have a beautiful day.