Jim Maxim
He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who keeps understanding will find good. —Proverbs 19:8 (nkjv)
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding. —Proverbs 4:7 (nkjv)
I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. —Proverbs 8:12 (kjv)
I have three sons, three daughters-in-law, three incredible grand- children, and my loving, sweet, good-looking wife, Cathy! As of this writing, I’m sixty-seven years old. I tell my kids my number is 132… and of course, they ask, “What’s that, Dad?” My research shows that a man in Pennsylvania lives to an average age of seventy-eight. So, if I’m in the average, I have 132 months left to serve the Lord on this earth! God could give me 240 months if He wanted to, of course, and I’ll serve Him as long as I can, but my average would be 132.
What’s my point here? If I had one last message to give to my wife, my kids, or my grandkids, it’s the message in this prayer day. Why? Because God’s wisdom is vital in our lives.
If you want to know how to become the person God has truly intended for you to be for His eternal glory, you need to understand what His Word says on the critical importance of wisdom. My favorite wisdom passage of all is Proverbs 2:1–12. Here God gives us twelve stepping-stones on the path to the supernatural wisdom that He wants us to walk in:
- My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my com- mandments with you,
- Making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;
- Yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding,
- If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures,
- Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
- For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
- He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
- Guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints.
- Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;
- For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
- Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you,
- Delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech.
Read those verses again. God is declaring to you and me that if we truly listen and receive the wisdom of His Word, if we call out to Him and seek His wisdom as if searching for treasure, then He will fill us with the wisdom that He has stored up for us, His children. Read verse 10 closely: “For wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.” What a powerful promise from the God of the universe! The supernatural wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of God Almighty is available to come into your heart and soul!
The supernatural wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of God Almighty is available to come into your heart and soul!
One more time: where will God’s wisdom, knowledge, and under- standing go? Into your heart and soul! Some people think these words can be interchanged with mind, but in this context, it’s a much deeper meaning. The words heart and soul paint an eternal picture of what God is trying to tell us, that His wisdom will enter the depths of your being today, just like it would in Solomon’s day when the Proverbs were writ- ten. In our lives today, these verses mean that God’s perfect wisdom is available to you in every area if you will seek and receive it—wisdom for your marriage, your parenting, your ministry, your finances, your career, your relationships with family and friends, and on and on.
God is declaring in His Word that if you follow these instructions, placing Him and His Word first in your life, then His hand of blessing will rest upon you and everything you do. If you follow His instructions,
wisdom will guide your mind and heart to keep you focused on just why He wants you to have these blessings in your life. That why holds an important truth. God wants you to be what He has intended all along for His eternal glory, which is the person you really want to be deep in your heart. The wisdom, knowledge, and understanding you receive from God and His Word will reveal to you how that is possible.
I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. (Proverbs 8:12 kjv)
This is another wisdom verse that has meant a lot to me person- ally. “Witty inventions” are new, exciting ideas, and fresh plans revealed to us through the wisdom of God. I’m a business owner, so for me, this verse means asking God for His wisdom and witty inventions in how to run my business, to show me “great and hidden things that [I] have not known” (Jeremiah 33:3) in a way that would be successful and bring Him honor. God has been so faithful to answer me in ways that I would never have imagined.
The prophet Joshua reminds us of the importance of God’s Word:
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall mediate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (Joshua 1:8)
Let’s go to the throne room and pray for the understanding of how to walk in the wisdom and knowledge of these verses in God’s Word.
Excerpted from “21 Days of Deeper Prayer: Discover an Extraordinary Life in God” by Jim Maxim with Daniel Henderson, © 2020 by Jim Maxim. Published by Whitaker House, New Kensington, PA. Used with permission. All rights reserved. www.whitakerhouse.com.
Free audio prayers found here: www.acts413.net/deeperprayer