Do you know that God wants you to learn? He wants you to be on our constant journey in your life with growing and getting stronger in your faith. He wants you to renew your mind so you can fulfill His plans for your life.
Learning and growing can be fun and life-affirming. Growing keeps us vital, youthful, and energized. It keeps us current and knowledgeable. And as followers of Jesus Christ, we want all that we do, think, say and learn to begin with God and His wisdom. I love this scripture and the motivation it provides:
Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.
Proverbs 4:7
Throughout the Bible, wisdom is often paired with the understanding. In a nutshell, the instruction is to get wisdom from God. Start there. Then put in some effort to understand what He is teaching us. When you think about it, this makes so much sense.
Understanding is a powerful force. To understand means “to comprehend, to grasp an idea.” And I especially like the definition in Greek, epistamai “I know how, I know,” literally “I stand upon.” So we are being called to get wisdom from God, study it, comprehend and grasp what He is teaching, and then stand upon it! To me, that’s very exciting! Why? Because God’s wisdom working in us is life. It’s growth. It’s vitality!
I like to think of God’s wisdom like truth seeds that enter my heart. I get those seeds from His Word and through my time in His presence. The little seeds drop into my heart and each and every seed is alive with truth, power and knowledge. Then, it’s up to me to get the understanding for that wisdom . . . “in all your getting, get understanding.”
In the process of gaining understanding, that seed of potential is able to grow. And the more I learn, ponder, meditate and comprehend, the more implanted God’s wisdom can be in my heart. The Bible says from James 1:21, “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” An implanted word is a truth that is understood. It is truth from God that becomes our truth. We believe. We get it! We can stand upon the truth so that nothing is wavering and we are confident.
How do you “get understanding?” You start with the seed of God’s wisdom from His Word. And then you mull it over. You ponder it. You think about it. You talk to Him about it. This is all part of meditating on God’s Word. We can see the massive value in this as we see what God instructed Joshua to do when he assumed leadership over the Israelites while they were still in the wilderness.
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe 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
Why meditation? So Joshua could gain understanding. And when he could “stand upon” the wisdom that God imparts through His word, he could behave and lead consistently with the ways of God. And what results did God tell Joshua he would have? “For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”
There are a couple of other points about God’s instruction about wisdom and understanding that I think is good for us to see. Again, the Proverb says, “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore, get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” Do you notice the verb? The action we are to take? We are to GET wisdom. We are to GET understanding. That means it’s up to us to pursue God’s wisdom and then pursue understanding. Jesus teaches us in Matthew 6:33 to, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
We are the ones who are to take action! And I have to say; I see a lot of Christians floundering while they wait for God to do something. But clearly, that’s not how God set things up. He’s already created the banqueting table. He gives us an open invitation to partake in the feast. We just need to go and eat!
Then what? What happens after we “eat the seed” from the banqueting table? We digest it. That’s meditation. That’s putting in the effort to gain understanding.
One more point (I promise, it’s my last): Notice what happens when the Word is sown into our hearts:
The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.
Mark 4:14-15
Why would Satan come immediately and take way the word? First of all, he knows how powerful the implanted Word of God is for followers of Christ. And second, he needs to get it quickly before we take the time to meditate on God’s truth and gain understanding! Once we get understanding, God’s truth is our truth. The seed has been rooted into our thinking and we believe!
What does all this call us to do? To get into God’s Word. And then to set aside quiet time so we can ponder what the Lord is teaching us so we can gain understanding.
I hope this helps as you pursue God and His truth for your life.
If you want to meditate on the Proverbs that teach about Wisdom and Understanding, just click on the link or image below.
Be blessed as you continue to grow in the love and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Please send me the Wisdom and Understanding Scriptures.
