Wisdom —

Wisdom and vanity seem to have consumed King Solomon’s life. As we encounter the book of Proverbs this month, we will get a chance to contemplate what kind of wisdom God wants us to gain. Moving through the book of Ecclesiastes will bring us into Solomon’s struggles with meaning and purpose.

The older I get in this life, the more I discover that I have a great need for wisdom. Personally, I have experienced gaining wisdom from my daily reading and studying of the Word. I have learned that there is more to life than lived experience, there is experience we can gain from interacting with the ideas God has recorded in the Scriptures. We can choose to learn wisdom first and proactively apply it to our life. This can save us a lot of heartache and pain that would come from making unwise choices and then gaining wisdom through dealing with the consequences.

While Proverbs and Ecclesiastes have different purposes and styles, a contemplation of both books reveals a theme of paying attention to God in all things. Wisdom encourages us to consider that God has made us and that we will face Him soon. Learning wisdom is not about making us feel good about ourselves, but to tell us the truth about how to live for God. With some of these foundational thoughts, let’s get started in these interesting books.