A Woman's Wisdom: How the Book of Proverbs Speaks to Everything Read Online Free PDF Page B

everything. As wisdom increases, anxiety decreases. What makes you worry? Is it finances, your kids, your spouse—or the lack of one? Wise women know that God is trustworthy and that he can and will handle all these matters for our good and his glory.
    Another result of wise living is guidance . Some time ago I heard someone say that wisdom isn’t so much something that God gives to us as something he does for us, a truth reinforced by this passage:
For the L ORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;
he stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,
guarding the paths of justice
and watching over the way of his saints. (Prov. 2:6–8)
    The link between wisdom and guidance is also made crystal clear in this proverb:
Trust in the L ORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths. (Prov. 3:5–6).
    This does not mean that God’s guidance is conditional upon our trusting; he is always actively directing the lives of human beings. Yet it is only as we actively trust God and submit to his ways that we experience his guidance as a straight path, one not filled with frustrating self-made detours, as we saw with Jonah.
    Another benefit of wisdom is the calm enjoyment of sanctified common sense . There is no issue in life that Scripture doesn’t somehow address. Situations arise in all of our lives that Scripture doesn’t directly speak to—those gray areas. But the Bible does address them somehow, even if indirectly, and wisdom is what enables us to use the Word to make black-and-white application into the gray places of our lives. Wisdom enables us to better discern not only what God’s Word says explicitly but also what the Word says implicitly, and we are increasingly equipped to apply its truths to all areas of life. Sanctified common sense is the result of wisdom.
    Still another result of wise living is generally good living :
My son, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments,
for length of days and years of life
and peace they will add to you. (Prov. 3:1–2)
    The book of Proverbs reveals to us how God has designed the world to work; so, in general, those who live according to God’s design prosper because of it. That being said, the proverbs aren’t a guarantee for the good life. We all experience times when things don’t go well, despite our efforts to follow God’s ways, and that’s because God has as much to teach us through suffering as he does through blessing us with the practical benefits of wisdom. That’s why it is best to view the proverbs as observations or principles rather than as promises. We must keep both things—the practical benefits of wise living and the spiritual benefits of suffering—in tension, and trust that God knows what he is doing in each case.
    That being said, we tend to be suspect of this whole idea of delighting in prosperous living. It just seems so, well, worldly. But God delights to bless his children, as any good father does. When God blesses us with a season of prosperity, we can grieve God’s father heart if we bar ourselves from rejoicing in it. After years of saving money for a house, a friend of mine was blessed to be able to purchase a lovely home. But she couldn’t fully enjoy it because, she said, “I keep waiting for the ax to drop. If God has given me this, what is he preparing to take away?” Such thinking robs both God and us of taking pleasure in his gifts. If he blesses us in some material way, we are free to enjoy it. As Solomon wrote, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God” (Eccles. 2:24).
    Another benefit of acquiring wisdom is happiness :
Blessed is the one who finds wisdom,
and the one who gets understanding,
for the gain from her is better than gain from silver
and