The Pursuit of Wisdom Brings Security

Proverbs 2; I die daily devotional.

² Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding;

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ATTENTIVE

How does one make their ear attentive to wisdom? I know I at least, can make the mistake of thinking that earthly wisdom is what this verse is suggesting to mean: thinking back when I was child, obey my parents; years later, drive the speed limit; beat the deadline, get the promotion. All good things, but these things of our present time only last for a short while. Our lives on earth are but a vapor in the wind; we’re here, and then we’re gone, but what will we leave behind as a testimony to us, and where are we going according to Who, and why?

We can thank God for designing our souls in a way that inspires a choice. How are we going to live our lives in respect of what this verse of ‘attentive wisdom’ and a ‘heart of understanding’ mean? Will we go on to live a lifestyle of sin according to the gospel after claiming the label as to be a Christian? And if we do so—having deliberately chosen that course of sin—then are our hearts truly inclined to understand the meaning of Wisdom?

INCLINE

There is a serious tone with this instruction—incline your hearts to understanding. Because the nature of good and evil that we presently experience is obvious, but we treat our situation like a joke. And that’s not intended to be taken as condemning … we can joke, but not in regards to our faith in salvation through Christ by God our Father according to the gospel. That is serious. Our salvation in Jesus Christ is serious because He is going to return, and our faith will reveal the true nature of our hearts position. Do we actually believe? Do we actually understand the power of Heaven on earth that took away the sin of the world?

If one says they have faith in that spiritual reality of the cross (Jesus)—being our redemption from sin—and we continue to be in our sin: sexually immoral, addicted to pornography, creating lustful fantasies of others while intimate with our spouse’s, or just lustful arousal stirred up at the sight of ‘his’ or ‘her’ attractive features, and I haven’t even touched on lying let alone anger, or any other sin. But if we continue in this behavior… then are we truly inclining our hearts to understand the meaning of our faith in Jesus and the cross? If any of these struggles have pricked at your conscience, and you’re still reading, wondering how it’s possible to inherit the Kingdom of God. The short answer is faith, but it’s important to be reminded that faith without works is as dead as our flesh and blood. And wisdom is instructing us to cry for discernment and to lift up our voice for understanding—coming in our devo tomorrow.

• What does it mean for me to have an ear attentive to wisdom?
• Is my heart inclined to understand, but still choose to sin?
• Is there any sin in my lifestyle according to the gospel that needs the cross?
• Do I take serious that my sin was taken away by the cross of Jesus Christ?

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P.S. Please feel free to reach out to us authors of T4P if there are any questions and or are in need of prayer, but otherwise, seek a brother and or sister in the Body of Christ when necessary to be prayed over with spiritual hands… be cleansed, and healed, in Jesus name [Hebrews 10: 19-22, James 5: 13-16]. Amen.

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RECOURCE

[BP]

Proverbs 2 (NASB)—blueletterbible.org
¹ My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, ² Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; ³ For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; ⁴ If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; ⁵ Then you will discern the fear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God. ⁶ For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. ⁷ He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, ⁸ Guarding the paths of justice, And He preserves the way of His godly ones. ⁹ Then you will discern righteousness and justice And equity and every good course. ¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart And knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; ¹¹ Discretion will guard you, Understanding will watch over you, ¹² To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things; ¹³ From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness; ¹⁴ Who delight in doing evil And rejoice in the perversity of evil; ¹⁵ Whose paths are crooked, And who are devious in their ways; ¹⁶ To deliver you from the strange woman, From the adulteress who flatters with her words; ¹⁷ That leaves the companion of her youth And forgets the covenant of her God; ¹⁸ For her house sinks down to death And her tracks lead to the dead; ¹⁹ None who go to her return again, Nor do they reach the paths of life. ²⁰ So you will walk in the way of good men And keep to the paths of the righteous. ²¹ For the upright will live in the land And the blameless will remain in it; ²² But the wicked will be cut off from the land And the treacherous will be uprooted from it.

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COMMENTARY

Matthew Henry (P2-V2) Commentary
Job had asked, long before this, Where shall wisdom be found? Whence cometh wisdom? (Job 28:12, 20) and he had given this general answer (v. 23), God knoweth the place of it; but Solomon here goes further, and tells us both where we may find it and how we may get it. We are here told,

• I. What means we must use that we may obtain wisdom.
  • 1. We must closely attend to the word of God, for that is the word of wisdom, which is able to make us wise unto salvation, v. 1, 2.
    • (1.) We must be convinced that the words of God are the fountain and standard of wisdom and understanding, and that we need not desire to be wiser than they will make us. We must incline our ear and apply our hearts to them, as to wisdom or understanding itself. Many wise things may be found in human compositions, but divine revelation, and true religion built upon it, are all wisdom.
    • (2.) We must, accordingly, receive the word of God with all readiness of mind, and bid it welcome, even the commandments as well as the promises, without murmuring or disputing. Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears.
    • (3.) We must hide them with us, as we do our treasures, which we are afraid of being robbed of. We must not only receive, but retain, the word of God, and lodge it in our hearts, that it may be always ready to us.
    • (4.) We must incline our ear to them; we must lay hold on all opportunities of hearing the word of God, and listen to it with attention and seriousness, as those that are afraid of letting it slip.
    • (5.) We must apply our hearts to them, else inclining the ear to them will stand us in no stead.