What should a man look for in a wife? I don't know if you have ever realized this, but Proverbs is primarily addressed to young men. However, the climax of the book of Proverbs is a poem praising the ideals of a Godly woman. It serves as both a guide for what men should look for in a woman and an encouragement to women for which they can aim.
Being a good parent can be difficult, but at the same time can be the most rewarding and fulfilling thing we ever do. The Bible has a lot to say about the way we can successfully raise our children to be men and women of God. As a good parent, our first and greatest task is making sure we know what God’s Word has to say about this task.
We need wisdom every day in every area of our lives. No area could be more pressing than the area of wisdom with money. Solomon asked God for "an understanding mind ... that I may discern between good and evil" (1 Kings 3:9). Why pray for that? Because we all need wisdom to discern between right and wrong as we are making decisions moment by moment in the complexities of everyday life. So let's offer our Lord our listening minds as he coaches us with his wisdom about money.
Wisdom is skill for living when there is no obvious rule to go by. Proverbs is for—gospel wisdom for complicated lives. A major area where wisdom helps us is friendship. So much is at stake in our friendships. God has wisdom for us today about real friendship. But it all begins with God himself.
Proverbs does not leave us hanging when it comes to wisdom and coaching in regards to our emotions. The Stoics wrongly believed we could ignore and distance ourselves from emotion. God created us as emotional beings. God Himself is the author of emotion and expresses emotion. Jesus expressed and felt all of the emotions. Emotions are not a sin and are not the problem. The problem is we don’t know what to do with them.
The theme of humility and openness and reasonableness and teach-ability is pervasive throughout the book of Proverbs. How can we grow in wisdom unless we are teachable? How can we change unless we are open to change? That upward growth trajectory requires humility. We can never approach God and expect to receive anything unless we are humble. If we do, He promises to pour out His grace.
We’ve all heard the saying, “Stick and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me”, but we all know that’s not completely true. Words have power, far more than sticks and stones. Let us never think, if we speak recklessly, “It's only words. It's not like I'm doing any-thing.” Words can penetrate to the heart.
As we come to Proverbs 9, we are confronted with a choice. The passage portrays two houses. On one side, a house stands open, with an elegant lady named Wisdom inviting us in. On the other side of the road, another house with a seductive lady named Folly. Which way will we turn?
God-centered wholeness of life is wisdom, and it is joyous. That is what Proverbs 8 is about, the joyous grandeur of Christ, relevant to all of life, with higher aims and richer rewards than we would otherwise even contemplate.
The Wise Counselor counsels us again about our sexuality. Why does it matter that much to God? How much difference can our lives make to him? Augustine asked God, "What am I to you that you command me to love you, and that, if I fail to love you, you are angry with me and threaten me with vast miseries?"' Especially in our manhood and womanhood, such an earthy aspect of our existence, why does God care so much?
Wisdom is to be sought and put to work. We do not come to church to fine-tune our own righteousness or to airbrush our appearances. We come because we want to grow and change. We want to know as much about God as He will tell us; we want to know as much about ourselves as He will tell us. We want His extreme grace for our extreme makeover, one step at a time.
When temptation strikes, it's too late to ask for preventative advice. When desire is fully activated, people don't want advice; they want gratification. The best time to learn the dangers and foolishness of going after forbidden desires is long before the temptation arrives. Resistance is more effective when you have decided ahead of time what you must avoid.
If you want wisdom, you must decide to pursue it. This will take a determination not to abandon the effort once you begin, no matter how difficult the journey may become. This is not a once-in-a-lifetime step but a daily process of choosing between two paths—that of the wicked and that of the righteous. Nothing else is more important or more valuable. Do you want wisdom? Pursue it at all cost!
Proverbs contains many strong statements about wisdom's many benefits, including long life, wealth, honor, and peace. If you aren't experiencing these benefits, does this mean you are short on wisdom? Not necessarily. Sometimes sin intervenes, and some blessings will be delayed until Jesus returns to establish his eternal kingdom. But we can be sure that wisdom will ultimately lead to blessing.
When life is sweet, trusting God with all our hearts feels unnecessary. When life is bitter, trusting God with all our hearts feels impossible. We need wisdom for those seasons in life when we are on top and for those seasons in life when nothing is going right. God is with us in both, with a wisdom that makes a positive difference.
To receive God's guidance, said Solomon, we must submit to God in all our ways. About a thousand years later, Jesus emphasized this same truth in Matthew 6:33. In many areas of your life you may already submit to God, but the areas where you attempt to restrict or ignore his influence will cause you grief. If you make God a vital part of everything you do, he will guide you because you will be working to accomplish his purposes.
Wisdom comes in two ways: It is both a God-given gift and the result of diligent searching. Wisdom's starting point is God and his revealed Word, the source of knowledge and understanding. But it is only on God's path that we discover his true and reliable wisdom. He will guide us to it and reward our sincere and persistent search.
In this present age of information and technology, we have plenty of head knowledge at our fingertips. But true knowledge-what the Bible calls "wisdom" is all too scarce. The foundation of true knowledge, God's wisdom, is to fear the Lord and to obey his Word.
In this present age of information and technology, we have plenty of head knowledge at our fingertips. But true knowledge-what the Bible calls "wisdom" is all too scarce. The foundation of true knowledge, God's wisdom, is to fear the Lord and to obey his Word.