The "Secret" of Gaining Godly Wisdom

Proverbs 2:6-8

6 For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
7 He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest. He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.
8 He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him

How does it help us to know that God grants (or gives) wisdom?

For one thing, it helps us to realize that we cannot gain true wisdom by simply growing older and discovering knowledge on our own, through education or experience. Even the sharpest minds of our day can study for years and come up with the most absurd things. All you have to do is flip on the television and tune into your local PBS station to find examples of this. "The Power of Intention", where all you need to do to be happy and successful is to somehow tune into the secret Source, and then simply "expect" things to happen and your mind will create mystical vibrations in the universe that will then draw those things directly to you. Do you think I'm making this up? Just watch for yourself sometime. This is the same conclusion that the best-selling book, "The Secret" has drawn. Just tell yourself, "I have a new car", and that car will begin to roll into your life. Is this is the pinnacle of human intellectual advancement? Unbelievable! People have spent millions of dollars trying to tap into this "source" of so-called knowledge. The biggest tragedy of all, is that some TV evangelists are now blending these ridiculous concepts into their sermons. We must always remind ourselves that true knowledge and true understanding come from His mouth. If what we hear conflicts with what God says, then we can know that it is wrong. Of course, we have to know what God says to be able to accomplish this.

This passage continues with promises to those that live with godly character. Interestingly, God bestows a treasure of common sense to those who are honest. I'm going to take a stab at why these two might be linked. When people lie, they must create false realities that exist side by side with the true reality. I can imagine that living this way can destroy a person's true sense of what is real and what is false. To be a "good liar", a person must actually begin to believe their own lies. I believe that living like this can actually damage the mind and can cause one to lose touch with reality. Always striving to live by the truth, however will keep one's mind clear and able to receive the treasure that God promises to grant.


The last three statements are similar in that they describe God's inclination to protect those that exhibit the character traits of integrity, justice, and faithfulness to Him.


According to these proverbs, we can trust that God will be on our side, looking out for us in a special way, so long as we are pursuing to imitate God in these ways in our day to day lives.


Integrity - Consistent public and private adherence to personally held morals and ethical principles.
Justice - Decisions and actions that are based on fairness, truthfulness, and righteousness.
Faithfulness - Single-minded devotion to God and a shunning of all other things that would temp or distract.

This last one - Faithfulness, stuck in my mind as I was studying this passage. As a Christian, I am part of the bride of Christ...the church. Then I thought about my own marriage... I would never consider being unfaithful to my wife. Not in a million years would I cheat on her. But, it occurred to be, that I cheat on Christ every time I willingly choose to sin. Even worse, when I do this, I cheat on Him, right in front of him! I had a whole new perspective of "faithfulness", when I considered things from this perspective.


I think we all can admit that we have some things in our lives that need to be adjusted to line up with this promised blessing.


Continue to the next post in my Proverbs study