In the year 2010, I unwittingly stepped into the house of destruction.
Fresh out of the university, I was serving with an NGO in Lagos as an NYSC member. I had recently broken off a two-year relationship with a man I had been deeply in love with. We were certain we would get married until we made a discovery that shattered our hopes and dreams of being together forever.
You can find out more on this story in my book, Unchained.
I was mad at God for a long time. I didn’t think He had done me well. I had been faithful to God. I had been seeking Him my whole life. I had been careful to keep His instruction of not awakening love early – I hadn’t dated anyone until I was in my final year in the university. This guy was a godly man – a really wonderful person. That relationship was supposed to be my first and last.
I felt like God scammed me. For all the effort I put into being a godly girl, I should have been better rewarded by Him.
In my foolishness, I believed that everything God would ever do for me would be in response to how good and well-behaved I had been. So if I was living holy, praying, studying my Bible, and serving in church, God owed me a truckload of blessings. My relationship with God was underscored by an entitlement mentality that conditioned me to believe I could earn His goodness by my works.
You see, in that season of my life, when it came to understanding God’s grace and how it works, I was what the book of Proverbs refers to as a simpleton. It’s not that I was hardened against God. I simply didn’t know better. I lacked kingdom revelation and spiritual understanding.
My anger with God which occurred as a result of my #simpletonproblems, eventually led me to make the poor choice of getting engaged to someone who should have never made it past “hello.” From the moment I stepped into that relationship, I stepped into the den of the wicked one – the very house of destruction.
I made so many poor decisions. I was utterly lost and hopelessly bound – but for the redeeming love of God.
Verse 11 of Proverbs 2 lets us know that wisdom protects us from making poor choices. It rescues us from evil in disguise and from those whose words are twisted.
Dear one, the first thing I want to assert today is this:
Wisdom is a preserver of life and destiny. A lack of it is fatal!
King Solomon knew this too well so he admonished us to “cry out for comprehension and intercede for insight.” (Verse 3, TPT). He said to seek it as a man would seek for sterling silver, searching in hidden places for cherished treasure.
The god of this world is restless. He is tirelessly roaming around, seeking whose destiny he can destroy. This is not the time to live as a simpleton. We simply cannot afford to! We must be steeped in wisdom and armed with it. We must grow daily in it so that we can precisely discern between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and lies – that we may be preserved.
The second thing is, wisdom is a revealer of God.
As you seek wisdom with all your heart, you will find the very One who Himself is wisdom.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 1:30 that Jesus has been made unto us wisdom from God.
Wisdom is Jesus. Jesus is the Word. The Word is Wisdom.
You cannot seek true wisdom without truly seeking the Word. When you find true wisdom, you will find God, His ways, His modus-operandi, His instructions at the very centre of it.
If you find yourself scorning some of God’s instructions and thinking they’re not applicable to certain areas of your life; if you think people who follow God’s ways radically are too “spirikoko” (overly spiritual), you haven’t found wisdom.
There is no true wisdom apart from God.
The level of wisdom you daily operate in is directly connected to the depth of your relationship with God and His word.
My relationship with God had sunk to its lowest just before I stepped into the relationship that would see me spiral into a dark pit. It was inevitable that folly would become my close companion. Once your relationship with God starts to suffer, folly will come knocking at your door.
If you truly search for wisdom as one would silver, what you will stumble upon is the fear of the Lord and what you will find is the true knowledge of God. (Verses 4 & 5).
If your wisdom search isn’t leading you into God-discovery and unraveling of Kingdom-mysteries, your search is faulty.
Wisdom is kingdom revelation.
Wisdom is a revealer of God.
To search for it is to search for Him.
Seek Him with all your heart!
Question of the day: What really struck you personally as you studied Proverbs 2?
Please share your insights with us!