Have you ever tried walking through the woods at night? If not, let me tell you that hiking in the dark is hard! You can’t see the trail very well, you can’t see the trees lying on the ground, you can’t see the holes and ditches in front of you. If you are going to hike in the dark you really need a flashlight. This morning I was reading proverbs 4:10-19, and it talks about something very similar. The proverb is not about hiking but about how we walk through life. As I read the proverb I thought about the illustration of a flashlight. Just like a flashlight illuminates the path to help you avoid danger, wisdom also illuminates thing to help us avoid danger.
The proverbs talk a lot about wisdom. They say that wisdom is a priceless treasure that should be searched for. It says that we should hold on the the wisdom that we get. The wisdom it talks about is not secular wisdom, or something that can be measured with an IQ test. The wisdom it talks about is wisdom from God. The only way to judge the amount of wisdom from God that we have, is to look at the way that we live our lives. The more righteous we live our lives, the more wisdom we have.
God’s wisdom is what keeps us from spiritual dangers. God’s wisdom is like a flashlight because it helps us to see the evil things infront of us. God’s wisdom illuminates our path and shows us the things that will cause us to stumble. God’s wisdom shines in front of us so that when we come to a fork in the path we can look ahead and see which path is the path of righteousness.
Proverbs 4:12 says “When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble” If we have God’s wisdom, not only can we walk on the Path, but we can run and not stumble. How much more could we accomplish for God if we were running. Here’s what really struck me this morning. With God’s wisdom I can run and get more accomplished. If I want to be a productive servant of Jesus Christ, I need to get all the knowledge from him that I can. I need to constantly seek to gain knowledge from God, so that I can run on the path and not stumble. Can you imagine what our churches would look like if we all started to really seek out God’s wisdom, and start running!
