Gaining Wisdom is a Hard Road
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Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.
Proverbs 18:1 (KJV)
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
James 1:5 (KJV)
In order to gain wisdom, a hard road must be traveled. Yes, it is true that the Apostle James truthfully says that if we need wisdom then we should ask of God and He will give it, but this does not mean that it will come easily (although God certainly can do a miracle). In light of the whole Word of God, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes especially teach a hard road to wisdom.
When I was about twelve or thirteen years of age, I set my heart to gain wisdom. I looked around me and saw my peers living for fun and pleasure and didn’t see any real life in it. I wanted to get what mattered in life and get truth. So I began to seek the Lord by reading a Proverb a day in a quiet time with the Lord.
Note that the first thing I did was, separate myself from others to spend time in God’s Word because I desired wisdom (the Proverb above). Now, I am not saying don’t pray. I have prayed for wisdom on many occasions because of I just didn’t know what to do and was in the middle of situation where decisions had to be made; yet my daily life was set upon seeking the Lord to glean wisdom as well.
As time went on, I also separated myself from some foolish companions. How did I know that they were foolish, because the Word of God—the Proverbs—characterized their actions as being that of the fool. I sought out wise friends. Most of my friends even to this day, I mean my closest friends are older men. Most are my Father’s age or older. I am not trying to say that I did everything perfectly and that my story is flawless, but God’s Word teaches what I’m talking about and, sadly, we don’t here must about it today.
If you desire to be wise, you’re going to have to look at the hard stuff. In other words, wise people are not always going to focus on the happy things, they are going to look at the “hard” things and mediate on them. As Solomon put it:
It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. 3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. 4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. 5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. 6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity. Ecclesiastes 7:2-6 (KJV)
And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. 18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Ecclesiastes 1:17-18 (KJV)
