Putting the I into WISDOM
The Christians who have most influenced me for good have had a fully functional familiarity with the book of Proverbs. They were (and are) able to take their considerable knowledge and apply it to their lives, providing both godly examples and godly advice. Join with me as each of us endeavors to put the I into WISDOM. Let us seek to exemplify God’s wisdom in our daily lives. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Hamlet famously declaimed, “Words! Words! Words!” We would paraphrase, “Blah! Blah! Blah!” Yes, words have been coarsened and cheapened, yet as we saw yesterday, they are powerful. Part of the strength of words is that they sink in deep. We should not focus exclusively on emotions (as postmodernists do), but we are emotional beings and are thus affected by what is said to us. Proverbs 12:18 says, “There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.” Words can carve a wound or create a cure. When I was young and decidedly slender, I was often told, “You couldn’t fight your way out of a wet paper bag.” I may have been thin but I was also a thinker. I thought, “When will I ever be in a wet paper bag?” and “Even if I were, why would I have to fight to get out?” Because I found humor in what others wanted to be hurtful, I could dismiss “the piercings of a sword.” However, some cannot easily discard the effect of negative words. Thus, we must be careful of destructive language. May the prayer of David become our prayer for wisdom regarding words: “Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips” (Psalm 141:3).