How do I pursue God’s wisdom (Proverbs 2:1-4)?

1. Don’t just go through the spiritual motions but earnestly seek God (vv.1-2). Is your heart hard to God’s Word or do you treasure it? Just going through the motions or reading the Bible or attending church will not make you wise. You must exert yourself seeking to learn from God’s Word. What does this hard work look like? Memorize Scripture. In memorizing the Bible we fill our minds, like vaults, with the treasures of wisdom. Just as Jesus used memorized Scripture in his encounter with Satan in the wilderness to fend off temptation, if we memorize Scripture, we can do the same. Be a good listener at church. Don’t show up sleepy or distracted. Go to bed at a reasonable hour on Saturday night so you can give your best on Sunday. A lazy attitude toward our personal reading and study of God’s Word and/or a lack of attentiveness to the preaching of the Bible will not produce wisdom.
2. Cry out in prayer for understanding (v. 3). Our sin makes us mentally and morally blind. We need the Holy Spirit to give us understanding (1 Cor. 2:14). Ask God to open your eyes so you can see the wonderful things in his Word (Psalm 119:18). Ask God to open your eyes to the wisdom in his Word.
3. Slow down and meditate on what you read (v. 4). It is easy to whiz through our Bible study and when we finish, not remember a thing we read. Read the Bible slowly. Read your daily chapter two times asking God to help it sink into your mind. Underline important verses in your Bible. Keep a notebook and write down important verses you read. All of these will be used by God to help you understand what you read.

What are the benefits of seeking wisdom (Proverbs 2:5-22)?

1. You will know God personally. (vv. 5-8). In knowing God comes wisdom. Wisdom doesn’t come from ourselves or our own ways. Wisdom comes from God. The more we pursue knowing him the more wisdom for life he gives us.
2. Wisdom will transform you as a person (vv. 9-11). When God gives us wisdom, we become changed people. We can discern right from wrong. We can make wise and just decisions. We will experience success in the important relationships in our lives. Like most people, I would love to eat donuts and cookies at every meal. Imagine if I woke up one day and desired vegetables like sprouts and broccoli. You would say a miraculous transformation took place. That is how wisdom from God changes our lives. It changes our desires from things that are sinful to things that are holy and right. God’s wisdom makes us into new people from the inside out, beginning with changing our desires.
3. Wisdom will deliver you from dangerous people (vv. 12-15). When teenagers get in trouble parents often say their kids wouldn’t act that way but they were involved with the wrong crowd. Wisdom from God helps you recognize and stay away from evil people and their wayward paths.
4. Wisdom delivers you from the sexually sinful woman (or man) (vv. 16-19). Here the writer of Proverbs begins to warn his son against the dangers of sexual temptation. This is a major concern for the entire book. Sexual sin is rampant in the world and among professing Christians. It is easy to become trapped by our lusts. Here the Bible tells us in a few short verses how to get freedom from the trap of lust. The key is you must see the immoral woman (or man) the way God sees her or her. God’s wisdom allows you to put on a pair of glasses that allows you to look beyond a strange woman’s (or man’s) outer beauty and seduction to see the ugliness of her/his character. It allows you to see her or his disregard for the marriage vow. God’s wisdom will transform what you see from seduction to repulsion as you understand a strange woman’s (or man’s) desire is not for your good but for your destruction.