Going Deeper in the Currents of Wisdom

“For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men, from men whose words are perverse, who have left the straight paths to walk in dark ways, who delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil, whose paths are crooked and who are devious in their ways.” (Proverbs 2: 10-15, NIV)

A river runs through our town, and at this time of year, it’s partially frozen. The thing about a river is that for it to be totally frozen is rare. The temperature has to be way below freezing for an extended period of time in order to overcome the constant flow of water and freeze it solid. If you look at a river that is starting to freeze though, you’ll notice that the ice is primarily on the banks, where the current is the slowest. 

The last place a river would freeze is in the middle, but even if the surface did freeze, the river current would still continue to flow below the solid ice. So, the river’s strongest current is not on the edges where you dip your toe in to see how cold the water is. It’s the strongest in the middle, where you have already made a commitment to being in the river.

In the past couple of weeks, we’ve been looking at Proverbs 2, and diving deep into Godly wisdom and the counsel of God’s word. We’ve read through how Solomon impresses upon us the importance of seeking out righteous wisdom and letting it be the cry of our hearts that the Holy Spirit would illuminate His knowledge and understanding in us. We took some time to think on the fact that God’s wisdom puts us on a path well-trod by other Christians and how that better helps us to follow His word and obey His commands with the encouragement of other believers.  

Now, let’s think about how knowing God changes us. Before we followed Christ, we probably sat on the riverbank, watching that flowing water course on to other, unknown places. We knew next to nothing about God, His Word, and had no interest in diving in. Then, when you were saved, maybe it was enough to wade in the shallows. The current may have casually pushed you along, but nothing to where your position on the riverbed could be drastically changed. 

God’s Word has a way of changing us. The more we understand of Him, the deeper we wish to go. We realize that when His wisdom enters our heart and begins to transform us, it becomes sweeter and sweeter to our souls. I used to teach in youth groups for over ten years, and most of the time, when you challenge a young person to read their Bible and begin to search out knowing God, they will complain. They’ll say it’s too hard to read the Bible. They don’t understand it. It’s boring. 

But if that same young person just commits to reading God’s word and trying to understand– understand anything at all– you tend to find that they want to do it more and more. The more you read, the more time you spend committing yourself to understanding His Truth and His ways, the more you desire to know and reveal. 

Your very soul soon wants to go deeper to where you find that you’ve left the banks of the river and gone to the middle. You’re caught up in that current that is taking you wherever it wants you to go.

Solomon himself points out that God’s wisdom bears discretion and discernment within us. That spiritual knowledge guards us and protects us from people and things that would vye to either remove us from that submission to God’s will, or put us in a place where we can be frozen on the sidelines from building His Kingdom. 

The sad truth is that humanity is wicked. The deeper in sin we are, the more depraved our desires become and the more excuses for our sin we make. It’s harmless. It’s fun. It doesn’t hurt anyone else. It’s our business. Whatever label you want to put on it to excuse it doesn’t mask the fact that God sees our sin as wickedness.

Solomon even says that some have left the path in order to walk in their darkness. Some have left that relentless, sweet current of His Spirit to go back to the shallows. And even worse, some have bought into cheap gospels that compromise God’s truth. They think they’re in a deeply spiritual place because it’s rife with ethereal mysticism or rigid tradition. In reality, it’s all just shallow and misplaced understanding of the Lord and it relegates us to a paltry and watered down version of the Gospel.

Knowing the Word, searching out the Lord in the Bible, and accepting His Truth for what it is enlightens our hearts. Once our soul catches on to it, it becomes intoxicating and that proverbial current becomes stronger and deeper. It’s not a scary thing, it’s exhilarating and peaceful: To understand God for who He is and to see Him in all His beautiful glory. 

Once we know Him, it’s harder to be led astray by those we know who walk in darkness. Once we see Him, we are more assured that we won’t step out of that current for cheaper thrills and lesser desires. That wisdom is a current that washes us and changes us. And no one who walks by faith in that wisdom can be plucked out of His hand. 

Here’s the challenge: If you find yourself in that current, we must try to drag as many as we can from the shallows into the deep. We must live in a way that inspires others to search for Him and strike out from the shore. We should be ever ready to share Christ and encourage both believers and non-believers to know Him for themselves. 

Encourage those you know to get as far away from that riverbank as they can. When times get tough, that is the first place that will ice over and keep them stagnant. Wisdom is something you can never have too much of. When God reveals it and blesses you with it, don’t allow that wisdom to puff you up or give you a false sense of superiority.

Share it. Enlighten others with it. Whether you share it with the person that strikes up conversation with you in the grocery store, or you discuss it with a family member who’s calling to check in. 

Jesus shared His wisdom with the masses. No one was too good for it and no one was too simple-minded to sit under it. His wisdom lifts our spirits and comforts our souls. How could we not share it with everyone who is willing to listen?