Choose to Listen to Instruction and Gain Wisdom.

In the quiet of the early winter’s morning the rain sifts down gently onto my patio. The word comes to me “You will only be truly free when you really believe in the extent of my love for you and know and allow yourself to experience that love” (Ephes 3:18,19). In my mind’s eye I see a great cloud beneath me and I am being invited to let go and launch myself into that cloud which represents God’s love, where I can see no end to it. Scary but hugely inviting.

My reading is from Prov 8:1-11. . Wisdom is calling out to me, inviting me to receive it. The call is (vs 5) “gain wisdom, gain understanding”. It is an instruction, but how does one obey that simple instruction, especially seeing that true wisdom only exists in a relationship with the source of all wisdom – Jesus?

Well friends here it is again vs 6 “Listen……..I have worthy things to say, I open my mouth to speak …. Then comes the thing that really surprised me vs 10 choose ……..Choose my instruction, ……knowledge, wisdom, rather than the most valuable of jewels.

So yes friends, just like trust involves a choice we make and obedience is a choice we make, So Wisdom is also a choice we make. But here is the rub, we don’t gain wisdom in a vacuum. We gain wisdom within the relationship we have with Jesus. He invites us first, He instructs us first, He empowers us first, yet in a miraculous, supernatural sort of way we still have to make that choice. It starts with that relationship and the important part, which is the backbone of my blog, starts with true listening. That in turn, as we have seen before, starts with humility, being prepared to hear, recognizing our need to hear, asking for the grace to be teachable.

Have you ever felt, when you start reading a passage in the bible, “oh I know this so well” and your mind takes off at a tangent and soon you are thinking of something completely different?

Seems to me that we have to continuously make the choice to listen and obey, because change is so hard and takes so long to come about. That, of course is why God sometimes shakes the very foundations of our faith by some crisis or other, to soften our hearts and help us to be more teachable.

According to Selwyn Hughes, the second pillar of wisdom is integrity. Remember the first one was trust. We will now see how closely integrity is associated with trust. But suffice to say today that, like trust, integrity is a choice you make. And, yes I was patting myself on the back about this till I allowed The Spirit into my heart and He turned up a few thoughts and actions, which pulled me up short and made me rethink.

So friends, practice listening. Decide before you start your reading to listen and obey. Ask God to speak into your heart. Reflect and meditate on what He has said to you and stay close to Him as you go into the day, because wisdom is more precious than silver, gold or precious rubies.

May He bless you as you “hear” Him speak.