Exploring the struggles & joys of following God

Proverbs 31 envisions what a wise life looks like practically, demonstrated through a woman. As she seeks God and His wisdom, she is becoming more like Him. She’s discerning, disciplined and known for her kindness.

The work we do on earth matters echoes into eternity. If we forget about our eternity, we’ll live and work on earth without investing into it. The Proverbs describe how our desires impact how we work. If our desires are aligned with God, so will our work.

Have you ever considered who your close friends were? The Proverbs advises on the importance of people and friends you’re influenced by. The people around you can either bring you closer to God or further away from Him.

What we choose to say is so important. The Proverbs talks about the power we have in our tongue. As Christians, we’re either bringing people closer to God or further away from it through our words.

Who would think that reproof could be life-giving? While it’s not always used this way, godly reproof will always lead us back to the feet of Jesus. Even if it doesn’t feel good, it will be what we need the very most.

Anyone who lives life apart from God is a fool. But it’s not always obvious who is in folly and who is following wisdom. We’ll walk through 3 sneaky disguises that folly shapes into: the perverse, the simple-minded and the scoffer.

Proverbs describes the righteous as those who follow God and those who don’t follow Him as the wicked. Heavy language, which can easily lead to destructive thinking.

Godly wisdom is always available to us - but are we willing to forsake our own wisdom to seek His? If we aren’t pursuing it, we’re either ignoring or rejecting wisdom. We are only able to do this when we see the overwhelming value of God’s wisdom over our own.

The pursuit of godly knowledge begins with knowing who God is. Do you want to be wise? First, know who the author of wisdom is. Proverbs discusses a few themes to get us there: fear God, value knowing Him, and don’t pursue evil.

No matter what earthly wisdom, God’s will always far exceed it. After all, He is the author of wisdom. We can’t seek His wisdom without knowing Him and therefore our need for Him first.