Proverbs 2
“For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with joy.” – Proverbs 2:10 NLT
Imagine being able to make wise decisions without having to stop and think about it. Consider what it would be like to avoid wrong choices or costly moral mistakes, because you instinctively knew what to do and did it without hesitation. Take a minute to think what your life would be like if you always knew what was the right, just and fair thing to do. What if you always knew the right path to take in life? That is exactly what God offers those who learn to fear Him and who pursue an intimate relationship with Him. He promises to put His wisdom in their hearts, providing them with a capacity and capability to live wisely and godly in the midst of a fallen world. Rather than His wisdom being some outside commodity that we have to consult and search for every step along the way, He wants to make His wisdom resident within us. He wants to provide us with the capacity to choose wisely, act justly, behave righteously, think purely and live godly. And the more we fear Him and grow in our knowledge of Him, the more we will recognize the wisdom of God motivating and guiding our lives on a daily basis.
God is out to change our hearts, not just modify our behavior. Christianity is not some list of rules or standards for us to attempt to keep. It is about the Spirit of God coming to reside within the hearts of men, providing them with the power to live in a way that honors God and goes against their own sinful predispositions. As a result of the fall and the presence of our sin natures, all men lack wisdom within. They may have intelligence, but they are devoid of godly wisdom and lack the capacity to make wise decisions. But God offers to change all that. He has provided a way in which men can exchange their foolishness for wisdom. As a result of Jesus Christ's death on the cross, men can now receive the Spirit of God and the capacity to live lives that are pleasing to God. Not based on human effort, but on the very power of God living within the human heart. This is an inside job. God renews us from the inside out. He places within us the power to live wisely and righteously. He changes our desires. He alters our motivations. He refocuses our values and provides us with new incentives. He plants within us a desire for His will in place of our own. His Spirit opens up the Scriptures to us in ways we never understood before and gives us the capacity to live out the tenets of the faith in a strength we never had before. We find ourselves becoming wiser and wiser, capable of understanding what is right, just and fair. We instinctively know the right way to go, the right path to take. God's wisdom is resident within us, guiding and protecting us along the way. And the result is a joy and confidence we never had before. Our hearts have been changed and our lives will never be the same.
Father, thank You that You are out to change my heart, not just require me to alter my behavior. Help me to understand that it has to start from the inside and work its way out. I need Your wisdom to know how to act, what to say, how to behave. I need Your power to live the life You've called me to live. But I need my heart continually transformed so that I can love what You love and see life the way You see life. Amen.