The Word To LIve By: 8-27-25
Phil Waggoner
A house is built by wisdom, and it is established by understanding; by knowledge, the rooms are filled with every precious and beautiful treasure. Proverbs 24:3
The Word To Live By: I woke up this morning with the story of when Solomon asked the Lord for wisdom on my mind. This was unusual and random thinking for me. Not that I don’t often wake up with a scripture on my mind, but there’s usually a good explanation for it, such as coming from a song I’ve been hearing a lot or something I have been studying. So, I looked it up and reread it a couple of times (1 Kings 3:1-15). The first thing that jumped out at me was verse 3, “Now Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.” Solomon loved God, but he messed up sometimes. I love God, but I mess up sometimes. (Don’t tell God, but I mess up a lot of times.) The next verse that made me stop was verse 5, “In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. And God said, ‘Ask what you wish me to give you.’” God had not appeared to me in a dream, so that wasn’t it. But Solomon’s answer was a hint. He asked for wisdom and a discerning heart. Discerning means the ability to separate good from evil, truth from falsehood, and wisdom from foolishness. That brought this question to mind. What do you need the most right now? Opportunity, money, time, or wisdom? The answer is quite clear in the above scripture—wisdom - the wisdom that is established by understanding. James 1:5-6 is the first key to obtaining the wisdom of God, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” When you ask in faith, wisdom will show up in the form of knowledge of the right thing to do or say, or an opportunity. Now, the second key I want you to see is that Solomon didn’t ask for something for himself; he asked for the ability to help others. In Chapter 4 of James, he said, “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” God is not against you having pleasure in life; in fact, I would argue that the promises of God are for the purpose of bringing pleasure into your life. But pleasure from God is not in the form of things. It is in the form of loving your neighbor as yourself. The book of Proverbs was written “For learning what wisdom and discipline are; and for understanding insightful sayings.” So, I’ll jump into that tomorrow. For today, concentrate on treating others the way you want to be treated and see if the wisdom of God doesn’t show up in your thought life.
Read through the Bible in a year: John 7:1-24; 1 Chronicles 27-28; Zechariah 12;
Read through the New Testament and Proverbs: Proverbs 27, Mark 1:24-45, 1 Corinthians 14
The sum of Thy Word is Truth Psalm 119:160