Are You Growing?

(Prov 19:8 NLT) To acquire wisdom is to love oneself; people who cherish understanding will prosper.

This morning we get back to Proverbs series. I started this series almost a year years ago now and it has taken us this long to get to chapter 19. The last verse we covered in this series, before taking "Warrior Spirit" detour was 19:7. So, let's pick up where we left off.

The Good News Bible translation of this verse reads: "Do yourself a favor and learn all you can; then remember what you learn and you will prosper."

Here Solomon emphasizes two things:

1. You love yourself when you do what it takes to acquire wisdom: Our God makes His wisdom available to all His children (see James 1:5). However, a great many believers never truly access and benefit from the wisdom of God because of laziness and lethargy. Don't make the mistake of thinking that God's wisdom will leap from the pages of His Word into your heart by osmosis or that His Holy Spirit will pour the precious and eternal truths He knows into your spirit without provocation. No, the pursuit of God's wisdom must be intentional and persistent. But while it will cost you something, the cost pales in comparison to the benefit. If you love yourself, Solomon says, you will pay the cost, you will make the investment in yourself, you will do what it takes to tap into God's invaluable wisdom. Once you develop in His wisdom - and His Word and ways become the foundation for your decision-make-process - you will be well on your way to experiencing God's best for your life. Pursue divine wisdom with all your might. Put in the work it takes to acquire it and you will never be the same. Oliver Wendell Holmes said, "Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions." Stretch your mind and spirit daily.

2. You put yourself in a position to prosper when you properly esteeming understanding: How many times have you heard an awesome sermon that was chock-full of divine wisdom, only to forget about it a week later? Or how many times has God spoken a powerful Word to you - whether it was in prayer, through someone else, through a situation, etc. - only for you to forget it a few days later? You properly esteem divine understanding when you do all you can to retain the wisdom, hold fast to the instruction, keep it before you day and night, commit to applying its lessons, abide by its doctrine, adhere to its standards, keep its ordinances, and use it as the ruler by which you judge your decisions. Learning a truth and then forgetting it is no better than never having learned the truth in the first place. As a believer you must be committed to lifelong learning and especially to retaining what you learn so that it can have the maximum effect on your life.

So what does this mean to you? It means that God has already done His part in providing you His wisdom. The rest is now up to you. You can either put in the time, energy, and effort required to grow in God and in His Wisdom or your can lazily meander your way through life, without truly growing, developing or doing anything of any significance with and for God.

President Abraham Lincoln said, "I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday." Would he think much of you? Are you growing daily? If not you are hurting yourself and all the people you could be influencing.

Father, I love You and myself enough to do what it takes to grow and develop in You and in Your Wisdom. You have made Your wisdom available for me and I refuse to allow laziness and lethargy to keep me from becoming all that You have destined, designed and desired for me to be. I acquire wisdom and I also do all that I can to retain what I learn. I keep it before me daily. I speak it from my lips repeatedly. I hide it down in my heart. And I apply all that I learn. I grow in grace in the knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ daily. In Jesus' name. Amen!