Knowledge. Understanding. Wisdom.
The more time I spend with the Lord, reading and praying on the Word, the funnier He is. I don’t mean funny as in sense of humor, like I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. This time, I mean funny as in mysterious and deliberate. Stay with me, and I will tell you what I mean.
For the last year and a half, I have been blessed to be a part of a Tuesday morning men’s group with five other Christian men. We have done Bible study, book studies, and numerous video series. Sometimes we just talk and share life – the blessings and the concerns. There is a lot of wisdom in the room that has aided me more than once with struggles I have had. Currently, we are doing a video study of Louie Giglio’s Built series. Each installment is a video of approximately 45 minutes filled with insights that have stayed with me. Today I would like to write about one such insight.
First, let me say that a 45-minute video that doesn’t have explosions, car chases or machine guns will have a difficult time holding my attention. Louie Giglio is a terrific communicator, but it is still difficult for me to focus on every single thing he says. This week was no different, but he did touch on three important words that have followed me the rest of the week (so far). Those words are Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom. I don’t normally take written notes during videos, but this week I wrote these three words down in the Notes app on my phone as something to think about.
On the surface, they could seem somewhat interchangeable. Yet beyond the initial glance, they are much different. To me, they come listed in an increasing order of intensity, or maybe depth is a better adjective. At the end of Louie Giglio’s video this week, he challenged us to read a chapter of Proverbs each day and write down the one verse from each chapter that speaks to us the most. This is where the Lord snuck up on me, in a mysterious and deliberate way.
So far, I have read the first five chapters of Proverbs, averaging a little over a chapter a day so that I would be finished with the 31 chapters by the end of May. Invariably, in each chapter thus far has been a scripture directly addressing knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Here is an example:
“For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” – Proverbs 2:6 (Holman CSB)
Not being very smart, nor able to pick up on subtleties, my prayer is always for the Lord to make things He wants me to learn really obvious. The verse above qualifies for obvious, does it not? Yet this is not the only verse speaking plainly and simply enough for me to digest.
Here is what else the Lord has put in front of me this week, all from the Holman CSB:
Proverbs 4:17 – “Wisdom is supreme – so get wisdom. And whatever else you get, get understanding.”
Proverbs 5:1-2 – “My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen closely to my understanding so that you may maintain discretion and your lips safeguard knowledge.”
Am I the only one that sees an obvious pattern here? These are certainly not the full collection of verses I’ve encountered in Proverbs dealing with this topic, but a large enough sample to insure that it isn’t accidental that He is putting these scriptures in front of me. By the way, if you’d like to view the entire list, I suggest dusting off that Bible on the coffee table or downloading a version of said book on your mobile device. :)
It is still early in the process, and I’m not quite sure where this is leading, this study in Proverbs. One thing I do know is that the Lord does indeed give wisdom, and spending time in the Word is a perfect way to obtain this gift. Thus far, I am gaining the knowledge of what He has to say. The more I read and pray about what I’ve read, the greater my understanding. My biggest hope is that the cumulative effect will be that I will gain in wisdom and become a wiser man, instead of being a wise guy.
Have an amazing day, y’all, and remember:
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” – Proverbs 1:7 (Holman CSB)