Journal - Pray For Wisdom - wk11

Hey, y’all. It’s Daisy, back at it again. And I’m inviting you to join me as we open our Bibles and spend some quality alone time with God together. As always, to follow along, you just need your Bible, a pen, and a designated journal. If you have our Alone With God journal, good for you. Use that. And if you don’t have our Alone With God journal, we want to get you one. So, let us know, or order one at wordbymail.com, and we will make sure you get one so you can follow along because it is the best journal ever. And it’s just the perfect way to really practice spending alone time with God and getting into the scripture, and letting the scripture transform your life in amazing ways.

Today we are going to be meditating on one of my favorite verses, which is Proverbs 22, verse 4. I will read it first, and then I’m going to let you pause, let you meditate on it, read it over a few times, and then we will come back together and continue the devotion.

Proverbs 22:4 (RSV)
4 The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.

So, take a moment, meditate on it on your own, and in the MEDITATE section of your journal, in your own words, write what this verse says.

For as long as I can remember, I prayed for wisdom. I have prayed every single day to be wise. And I remember one time I got in trouble for something, and my punishment from my dad was that I was going to have to write out by hand the Book of Proverbs, and each day of the month was a chapter. And I had to sit, and I had to really meditate on each chapter and go through all thirty-one. And there’s just this reoccurring theme of wisdom. And I think to be wise, you first have to be humble. And you have to know who God is. You have to have a reverence for him – the fear of the Lord.

There’s another Proverb.

Proverbs 3:13-17 (ESV)
13 Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding,
14 for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. (I just love that! Nothing that you desire in life can compare to having wisdom.)
16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.
17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

And so, I think the bigger thing is, you know, it sounds nice. Like the true humility and fear of the Lord leads to riches, honor, and long life. That sounds great, right? Those are human desires. But once you really get into it, you start to be humble. You start to really have this fear of God. This reverence for him, this love for him, this wanting to connect to and please him.

It changes your intention for everything. It changes your desires. It changes everything inside of you. And you just start to crave being in the presence of God, which is wisdom. And so, it’s a natural benefit that when you live your life in a way that is pleasing to God and when you live your life in a way that is wise, your life benefits from it. But more importantly, your soul benefits from it. You have a richer experience as a human and as a Christian. And so, you get so much more than you could have even imagined.

So now, as we move on to the application part of this devotional, think about how God is asking you to humble yourself. What areas of your life would be enhanced through humility, through having more wisdom, through having more access to the mind of God? So take a moment, and in the APPLY section of your journal, apply the scripture and then come back, and we will continue on to the response part of this devotional.

So, now as we respond to God, let’s think about what does humility look like in our life. What is a lifestyle of humility? What can we do this week to slow down, to humble ourselves? How do we seek the wisdom that God is trying to give us? So, think about that, and write down your response in the RESPOND area of your journal page.

Now, be sure in the PRAY  section, you write out your prayer to God, and then I will close us out in prayer.

Let me pray for you.

God, thank you for giving us more chances than we deserve. Thank you for your perfect guidance and protection. Thank you for supplying all of our needs. Help us to love you so deeply with all of our heart, mind, body, and soul. Help us to live in a way that is pleasing to you. Give us wisdom. Give us the courage to act on that wisdom. Align our hearts with yours. I pray that at the end of this life’s journey, we will be forever with you in eternity, soaking up the glory, the magnificence, the wisdom that is you, Lord. Thank you for forgiving us, for loving us, for nourishing us, for sustaining us. May we be leaders and disciples who love each other well and who carry on your mission and honor and respect the name of Jesus. In Jesus’ name, amen.