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)
