Learning to Be Wise

Have you ever gotten excited about finding wisdom, and then got discouraged when you realized how many questions you had that didn’t seem to have an answer? I have. More than once!

Here’s what it might look like:

New mother Michelle wanders aimlessly through Proverbs during her Bible reading, at times being challenged, but not really sure what she’s supposed to be looking for. One morning, she has a problem with a child. Michelle has no idea what to do. AHA. Here is the moment for asking for wisdom. Michelle asks God for wisdom, but the child is crying and she can’t hear God’s still, small voice through the chaos. Waiting… Waiting…. Her child is still crying, and she still doesn’t know what to do. She finally stops waiting for wisdom and determines to  do the best she knows how.

Turns out her decision was fine, but Michelle is now confused. Did God neglect his promise to give wisdom? Is wisdom the same as knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt what to do in a certain situation? Consider what God promises his children.

And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; ⁶ for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; ⁷ and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? ⁸ I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

Keep Asking, Seeking, Knocking

⁹ “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. ¹¹ If a son asks for bread^[d] from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Luke 11:5:-13

In Part 2, we’ll see some specific ways that God answers our prayers for wisdom even when he doesn’t tell us the future.