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More Proverbs commentaries

Proverbs 1:1-7
The title, purpose and motto of the book

Proverbs 1:8-19
Warning against the enticement of sinners

Proverbs 1:20-33
A plea for wisdom

Proverbs 2:1-9
The conditions for gaining wisdom

Proverbs 2:10-22
God’s wisdom will protect you from immoral people

Proverbs 3:1-12
Exhortations to obedience

Proverbs 3:13-20
The high value of wisdom

Proverbs 3:21-26
The value of wisdom in building relationships

Proverbs 3:27-35
How to treat your neighbors

Proverbs 4:1-9
An exhortation to acquire wisdom

Proverbs 4:10-19
How wisdom will keep you out of trouble

Proverbs 4:20-27
The value of wisdom in producing health

Proverbs 5:1-14
Some of the consequences of adultry

Proverbs 5:15-23
Encouragement to moral purity

Proverbs 6:1-11
Warning against laziness

Proverbs 6:12-19
The description of a person who stirs up strife

Proverbs 6:20-35
Instruction about the tragedy of adultery

Proverbs 7:1-5
The son is exhorted to heed the father’s teaching

Proverbs 7:6-23
How naive can you get?

Proverbs 7:24-27
Lives are easily wrecked by immorality

An exhortation to acquire wisdom

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Proverbs 4:1–9
» View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway)

I want to share with you something really encouraging. Most of us don’t aspire very high in our reading because we don’t feel like there is any hope. But listen to this. Suppose you read about 250 words a minute and that you resolve to devote just 15 minutes a day to serious read … More

Wisdom

In this passage the key thought is to get wisdom and to get understanding (vv. 5,7). It starts out by saying listen to your father’s instruction (v. 1); that he is giving you good teaching (v. 2), just as his father and mother had given him (vv. 3-4). If you prize wisdom it will embrace you and honor you (vv. 8-9). Here are four biblical suggestions on how to get wisdom:

  1. Desire wisdom with all your heart. Proverbs 4:8 says, “Prize her highly and she will exalt you; she will honor you for your embrace."
  2. Apply ourselves in study and meditation to know the Word of God and do it. “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” (Psalm 19:7). (Consider the illustration above).
  3. Pray. “To thee, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for thou hast given me wisdom and strength, and hast made known to me what we asked of thee” (Daniel 2:23).
  4. Think of the shortness of this life and the infinite length of the next. “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” (Psa. 90:12).

Application

Today I wrote on my prayer Sheet to pray for wisdom for myself and  for each one in my family. Also to be more specific as I pray for wisdom in the lives of myself and my children. Wisdom for:

  1. Who to live life for?
  2. Who to live life with?
  3. What to live life doing?

Proverbs 4:1-9 (English Standard Version)

Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, "Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown."

View this passage in NIV (Bible Gateway) »

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