Proverbs 4:5-6 

⁵Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. ⁶ Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.

Car Key

In a TV commercial, a father was rushing to go to work. He picked up his bag and got out the door. His daughter saw the car keys on the table and took them. The father stood next to his car and searched his keys in his pocket but cannot find them. Then, his daughter came and gave him the keys. Have you seen that TV commercial, yet?

How many times you forgot your keys in the past? There are times when I forgot my keys; I locked the car only to realize my keys are left in the car. Leaving keys inside a car is solved by great innovations. Advance technologies had shifted and use remote control or smart key to open, lock or operate keyless entry or passive entry vehicles.

If you drive a car to go somewhere, you still need car key, smart or regular key. Similarly, wisdom is the key to unlock and open the secret door of advancement and progress of your career. You can think, dream or imagine, but not everyone has wisdom. Wisdom is indispensable asset and essential factor that sets successful individuals apart from ordinary thinkers or dreamers.

Personally, how do you interpret James 1:5-8? ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ⁶But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. ⁷That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. ⁸Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.

When it states, “double-minded and unstable in all they do,” it implies wisdom is absent. Doubt is related to foolishness. Really? Do something and you doubt if it works; that is wasted effort; it’s foolish, right? But if by faith we asked God for wisdom, he grants us generously. Wisdom should enable us to be firm and not doubt what we do.

Everyone is advised to get wisdom. Why not advise to get rich, get power or get famous among many other things that this world runs after? Those things are essential to lifestyle; the Lord gave them when King Solomon prioritized and prayed for wisdom.

1.   Prioritize

⁵Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them.

Godly commands require godly effort. This godly command “Get wisdom” we need God’s help to understand that we should prioritize it. If it is natural for human beings to get wisdom, we don’t need to be instructed to get wisdom. Wisdom comes from God; therefore, wisdom is godly. Human tendency is to resist anything godly.

The wise King Solomon advised, “Get, wisdom.” It means, wisdom is top priority! You’re wise if you can grasp its essence; ask God for wisdom and prioritize it. It is by the grace of God that we desire to get and prioritize wisdom. Can you accept that?

The practical blessings showered in the life of King Solomon exhibited favorable benefits of having wisdom. We’re foolish if we reject wisdom. It is instinctive foolishness on our part, if we are satisfied with what we know and don’ want to pray for wisdom.

        1 Corinthians 3:19 says, ¹⁹For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.

Fall

Autumn is wonderful season when green leaves turn into different bright colors. Autumn is also called fall because colorful leaves fall on the ground. Reflect on it.

Who can change summer into autumn season? Who can change simultaneously the color of leaves in autumn? Who can make leaves fall in autumn? We believe God Almighty does those changes. Do you like colorful leaves? How about on the ground?

Why is it that after leaves change into different beautiful colors, they fall? Dead?

Fallen leaves should serve as reminder that even colorful experiences on earth will end.

Fallen leaves make the ground very colorful, add fertility and moisture to the soil; our society remove colorful fallen leaves because they love green color of grass lawns.

How do you interpret what it says in 1 Corinthians 1:25? ²⁵The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

There are many interesting events happening on earth that may attract interest. First and foremost, we need to prioritize and get wisdom. We’re wise, if we love wisdom and get understanding at all cost. In autumn season, colorful leaves fall. It’s a reminder that even our beautiful life experiences on earth will certainly come to end.

Beyond this earthly experience, it is wise to look toward eternity. If we are hopeful for eternal contentment in the heavenly paradise of God, and our mind is not relegated only to temporary life experiences on earth, can you accept that wisdom is active in us?

Do everything you can to acquire wisdom and prioritize it. Spend sufficient time and seriously ask God for wisdom. Wisdom will protect you and things essential to you.

2. Protect

⁶Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.

Interestingly, wisdom is described as “she.” It’s feminine; it implies productivity. Wisdom is productive not idle. When it instructed, “Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you” it’s also properly interpreted, “Protect wisdom and it will not forsake you.”

Forsake and protect are opposing words. Wholesome protection from wisdom includes our interest or things essential to us. Wisdom protects the person who protects wisdom.

To protect wisdom, we should prioritize and love wisdom. To protect wisdom for the sake of love is beneficial and favorable in the long run. Biblical love for wisdom is to make wisdom top priority. When we say biblical love for wisdom, what is included?

This biblical love for wisdom, is it proper to use the definition of love mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8? ⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸Love never fails. 

Biblical definition of love is pro-active as compared to infatuation or attraction. When it says that love always protect, trust, hope, persevere and never fails, that is the biblical attitude needed to love wisdom. Love for wisdom is the most practical proof that we can present or give to ourselves. We benefit favorably when we love wisdom.

Spoiled food

On special occasions, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, we celebrate with foods. Individuals waste food after or during celebration. They throw cakes or shower drinks at each other. Is it good testimony for Christians to waste food? At times food is spoiled or just expired. Wasted food is wasted money and wasteful expenditure. It’s foolishness.

What is biblical lesson about leftover food? Twice it happened; Jesus instructed his disciples to collect and gather all the leftover food. It says in John 6:12-13, ¹²When they had all had enough to eat, Jesus said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” ¹³So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

All the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, had recorded the miraculous feeding of multitude. Interestingly, only John recorded particularly the instruction of Christ to gather the pieces of food that are left over. Why did Matthew, Mark, and Luke not include the Lord’s instruction to gather the pieces of food that are left over?

Matthew was tax collector. Mark was assumed to have come from rich family. Luke was a doctor. John was a son of Zebedee, who was big-time fishing magnate. John helped his father in their family fishing industry; and, that may have helped him understand how to run a business better than Matthew, Mark and Luke. Do you agree that business people are very thrifty? To avoid wasteful expenditure is open-secret to prosperity.

Spoiled and wasted food is wasteful expenditure; it is foolishness. Of course, wisdom exposes that foolishness is actually sinfulness as implied in James 4:17, ¹⁷If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Get wisdom at all cost; protect and prioritize it. Love for wisdom is love for our own self. We protect ourselves because we love ourselves. Wisdom can protect and help us not to do foolish thing or waste things intentionally. Of course, we need wisdom to comprehend that, too, and to take it very seriously. Pray for wisdom sincerely!

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