Day Two, Proverbs 9:6a; Lay aside immaturity, and live. While this verse can have deep spiritual meaning, it also contains a very practical message for getting the most out of life. I once knew a grown man who was known for pouting when he didn’t get his way, he was also given to temper tantrums and could be offended by the smallest slight. Needless to say, he was self-centered and selfish—in other words, he acted like a little child! Of course, immaturity isn’t just confined to temper tantrums, pouting, etc. It includes a whole host of traits that can hold us back in our career, our relationships and even our walk with and for God. This passage advises us that if we want to really live life to it’s fullest, it is our responsibility to remove (“lay” means we are to put these things down) immature attitudes from our lives.
Day Three, Proverbs 9:6b; And walk in the way of insight If the first step toward living life to it’s fullest is to lay aside immature attitudes, the second step according to this verse is to replace those immature thoughts with careful reflection about the things we do and how we react to people and situations. We gain this type of insight from life experiences, other people’s experiences and from applying ourselves to learning the principles necessary to make wise choices. The Bible, wisest of all books is full of these principles and can provide the foundation for our thinking that will not only guide us right, but make life an abundant experience.
Day Four, Proverbs 9:9; Give instruction to the wise, and they will become wiser still; teach the righteous and they will gain in learning. Just as a baby is not born with a head full of knowledge, so none of us ever learn everything there is to know about life. There are always lessons to be learned, applied and assimilated. This verse points this fact out and reveals that those who are true students of “wisdom” and desirous of doing right realize it to be true. Someone once said that we never arrive—we just reach a higher plane of understanding.
Day Five, Proverbs 9:10a; The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I don’t know about you, but I’ve met a lot of people that would have been described as “educated fools” by past generations. These folks have lots of book learning, but for whatever reason can’t seem to use it for any particular purpose. In our comment on the first verse, we saw that there is a place we can go for wisdom, this verse reminds us that simply gaining wisdom without a purpose makes it useless. Just as a person doesn’t go to medical school out of curiosity (they go for the purpose of become a physician), so we shouldn’t expect any wisdom we gain from the Bible (or even life’s lessons) to be fully useful until they are focused on finding and doing God’s will in our lives.
Day Six, Proverbs 9:10b; And the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. I grew up in an era when we were taught to study the lives of great men and women. The purpose of this type of study was so we could identify the characteristics that made them contributors to society, as well as to understand and adapt their philosophy for living to our own lives. Today, I see people in all walks of life following the same idea. Depending on their careers, they invest in books about or written by great business leaders, preachers, etc. in order to find out their “secrets for success”. While there is nothing wrong this practice, we need to understand that as Christians, the ultimate test for all these “insights” is a knowledge of the way God thinks about things. We can get this only from reading His book and through prayers for guidance. As one business man I know told me, “Donald Trump’s books, tempered by God’s book has helped make me successful.” What he meant was that using the wisdom he got from God’s book, he was able to separate and adapt the business lessons he had learned, and use them to become more successful.
Day Seven, Proverbs 9:12; If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; if you scoff, you alone will bear it. Years ago, I had a friend who was always quick to claim the credit anytime something he was involved in turned out good. But he was always quick to assign blame to someone else when things went bad. When that happened, those of us who knew him usually just humored him, even though we knew that ultimately the decision leading to the bad outcome had been his own. The reason we need wisdom and the ability to apply it is that we are responsible for the outcome of the decisions we make about life and eternity. In that sense, we become wise to benefit ourselves, and in doing so, our decisions will touch the lives of others in a positive way.
God Bless You In Every Way, Everyday, All The Way!
Robert Hidde
