Listen to Wisdom

The wisdom of God speaks to us out of the Word.

“Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway. For whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the Lord. But whoever fails to find me harms himself; all who hate me love death.” (Proverbs 8:34–36, NIV)

Those words describe a certain attitude to wisdom, one that’s been vivid and real to me for many years. “Blessed is the man who listens to me.” You see, your life really depends on whom you listen to.

“Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching at my doors, waiting at my doorway.” I believe we need to put that first. I believe, particularly as we awake each day, we need to be at wisdom’s doorway. We need to have our ears opened. We need to be prepared to listen to what wisdom has to say.

I believe that wisdom – the wisdom of God in Scripture – offers us counsel for each day. It pays to cultivate an attitude and a relationship to wisdom that keeps us in continual contact with her. The one who finds wisdom finds life, but on the other side: those who hate wisdom love death. You see, there’s a real parting of the ways there. We cannot combine the two. Our attitude to wisdom must be positive or it will be negative, and the attitude that we have will determine whether it’s life or whether it’s death.