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Exchanged Glory III: Wise as Serpents
Treasure wisdom, cry out for her, and seek her. Rearrange your priorities and your schedule to make her a part of your life. Look for ways to reclaim your wasted time and money. Suffer when necessary. Nothing you desire compares with her!
My son, if you receive my words, and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding …
If I can teach someone how to overcome addiction, I have given them something valuable. If I can teach them how to hear wisdom, I have given them something priceless.
The goal of this book is to teach you how to hear wisdom. She shouts in the streets, but many of us don’t pick up her message. Why? A key reason is that we don’t treasure what she says. In order for us to escape from the deception that surrounds us, we have to receive her words, treasure her commands, incline our ear, and apply our heart. The following saying helps me to do this.
Knowledge through repetition …Understanding through reflection …Wisdom through practice
Though the book of Proverbs uses the words knowledge, understanding, and wisdom pretty much interchangeably, the above saying uses our modern distinctions to help us see different forms of treasuring. I will explain them using my memorization through the book of Proverbs as an example.
First, to get each proverb into my head, I wrote it on an index card and repeated it to myself several times a day. I was receiving God’s words and treasuring His commands through repetition. It was a practical expression of the fact that I considered knowledge valuable enough to do whatever was necessary to gain it.
Second, as I recited each proverb I reflected on what it meant. I applied my heart to understanding by asking how it related to other proverbs and where it fit into God’s grand scheme of life. Reflection helps us to recognize how an individual truth should affect everyday living.
No fact exists by itself; it is part of a big picture. As we seek the meaning of any insight, we need to try to see it in the light of everything else we know. We must slowly build an understanding of how God’s world works. Like repetition, reflection is a form of treasuring. We put in the time and effort to try to grasp God’s ways.
Third, as I grew to understand each proverb, I tried to find actions that would express what I was learning. I inclined my ear to wisdom by practicing to find out what it looked like in real life. Experience helps make wisdom a part of us. Practice moves truth from our heads into our hearts.
Practice also shows our weaknesses. I find it easy to believe that I am mature while I am studying; it is far harder when I am trying to live what I have learned. My struggle convinces me that I need the power of His Spirit. My pride crumbles under the weight of my weaknesses, and I am left with no good alternative but the throne of grace.
Like repetition and reflection, practice is a form of treasuring. We show that we value God’s word by going through the pain of translating it into works.
I try to apply treasuring to many areas of life. When I read a book, I often read it three times. The first time through, I see if I want to learn what it has to offer. If I do, I go back and read each chapter twice so I can imprint the ideas into my brain through repetition. I also reflect on how those ideas fit into God’s design and look for ways in which they will work out in practice.
I find that during the first time through the book, I miss many important points. I tend to only pick up what I already know. When I read it the second time, I start to get beyond my own understanding and into what the writer is actually saying. By the third time, I sometimes find myself saying, “This contradicts what I believe about life. Is the writer correct, am I, or are both of us wrong?” At that point I have done the repetition necessary to get the knowledge into my mind, and I am able to do serious reflection and practice to understand where it can take me.
Most of us don’t like to change our opinions. When we come across challenging ideas, we fall into all sorts of protection mechanisms that enable us to dismiss them. Truth doesn’t easily transform us.
Addicts especially are famous for these mechanisms. The official name for them is “denial,” and it is why addicts often need “interventions” – where friends get together and confront them with the consequences of their actions. The intervention is designed to break down the protection mechanisms that keep the addict from seeking help.
When we treasure wisdom, we put in place our own interventions. We recognize that our “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9) and take practical steps to deal with this inner reality. We break through the first line of defense, denial, by consciously holding our heart to the truth and seeking God’s help.
I saw an example of the benefit of this in 2003. I had devoted a great deal of time to repetition, reflection, and practice. My heart wanted to learn what God had to say about all of life. I had been a Christian for more than thirty years and had been pure in my sexual actions for over twenty-three years. I had also done my best to keep my thoughts pure.
Yet something within my emotional life had never been changed, and this came to the surface one day as I was wondering what I would do if I were suddenly single and had no family attachments. The answer that rose in my heart shook me. Something deep within my feelings told me that I should move to another part of the country and practice my sexuality in a way that I had been resisting for decades.
I was discouraged by the seeming normalness of it all. After the countless touches I had received from the Holy Spirit, how could I still have these kinds of desires? They seemed so matter of fact, as if this was just the way it should be for me. The old fears rose in my heart, “This is who you are. You can never escape.”
Those fears were tough to discount. After all, I had given Jesus more than three decades to do His work. Even worse, I had spent twenty-three of those years embracing the painful task of controlling myself by His grace. It seemed like I had a valid excuse for giving up.
But I couldn’t. I had been through countless “personal interventions” with the Holy Spirit. He had shown me the seriousness of sin and its consequences, and I had experienced powerful examples of God’s goodness as He helped me obey. How could I give myself over to actions that contradicted His living reality in my life?
I cried out to Him and asked what I should do to handle the temptation. I believe He led me to go on the internet to see what Christians were saying about sexual addiction. When I did, this set in motion a series of events that emotionally transformed me. I started sharing with others who had similar struggles, and within a couple of months Jesus was reaching deep into my inner being and healing the major root issues of my sexual brokenness. My life has never been the same.[27]
That is the sort of thing that happens when we treasure wisdom. She pours her spirit upon us and transforms our lives (Proverbs 1:23).
If this series of books contains ideas that you think are valuable, I recommend you read it several times. The lessons I am writing won’t become a part of your life unless you treasure them. I hope you will repeat them to yourself, reflect on them, and practice them. Turn them over in your mind and talk to God, yourself, and others about them. If I have written valuable ideas, prize them.
Prize her, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her.
(Proverbs 4:8, NAS)
I treat the input I receive from others in this way. When I find an audio series that I think is valuable, I listen to it three times, using a method similar to what I have described for books. On the first time through, I learn a few ideas but quickly forget them. On the second, they sound familiar and are starting to sink in. By the third, I find that they are working their way into my heart.
That is what we want to happen, for the truth to break through our shell and penetrate into our inner being. We want to let it into the place where it can rearrange us. As we consider it, God’s power starts to be released. Our excitement grows, and we catch a vision for what He can bring to our lives through it. The Holy Spirit makes it alive and active, separating truth from error and helping us to discern clearly.
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding …
A second key to hearing wisdom is to cry out (pray) for it. As the Holy Spirit works in our hearts, we will do this out of more than duty; we will see how desperately we need Him, and this will make us willing to pursue His instruction and power at the throne of grace.
We might be tempted to think that we can get discernment and understanding without God’s help. After all, people who don’t even believe get an education all of the time. Can’t we treasure wisdom without developing a relationship with Jesus?
Though God is gracious enough to give wisdom even to those who don’t acknowledge Him, what good does it do them?
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?
Wisdom is only truly meaningful if God is empowering us to see the world from His perspective. Since He is the Creator and Sustainer of everything, anything we learn apart from Him misses the most important part of reality.
… so that He (Jesus Christ) Himself might come to have first place in everything.
(Colossians 1:18, NAS)
… focused on Christ, God's great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. …
(Colossians 2:2-3, The Message)
Wisdom apart from Jesus misses the whole point of life. If we understand what is truly valuable, we will seek far more than a dry skill with practical facts. We will cry out for an impartation of spiritual life, an expression of Him living in us that produces a relationship with Him. Everything else is worthless by comparison.
Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant — dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ
(Philippians 3:8, The Message)
With Jesus in first place, we are doubly blessed. First, we find the joy of knowing Him as His Spirit reveals Him to us. Then, we have the added earthly and heavenly benefits of living wisely. We cry out and lift our voice because we want the real thing, not a weak substitute.
There is another reason to pray for wisdom: We need God to arrange our circumstances to teach us. Wisdom comes through more than studying alone.
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Prayer sets the stage for our trials to lead to the wisdom God gives liberally and without reproach. It prepares the way for the works of God to give us insights we could never gain through studying alone. We often need to see or hear the right thing at the right time, and only He can arrange these planned coincidences. We have no choice but to fall on our knees and lift our voice. God is the only one who can make our lives into the classroom in which we will hear His heart.
One of the biggest hindrances to hearing wisdom is our lack of faith. We don’t receive because we don’t believe God will speak.
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
Our lack of faith and our weaknesses provide us with an even greater reason to cry out to the One who can open our ears. We have no hope of learning what we need by ourselves, so we go to the One who can do what is impossible for us.
In the example I shared earlier in this chapter, I had made the decision to try to walk in faith for decades, asking God to do a work in my sexual emotions. He had met me in many ways during that time, but there were parts of my inner life that had never been transformed. Yet He knew exactly the experiences that would reach me. In His time, He brought everything together into a message that opened my heart and healed me in my brokenness.
Our choice to believe that He loves us enough to touch us in this way will help us to hang on when we struggle with limited progress. His Spirit will sustain us as we press on, trusting that the day will come when we will receive the wisdom we cry out for.
If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures …
A third key to gaining wisdom is to seek and search for it. If I knew that treasure was buried in my yard, the moles wouldn’t be the only ones ruining my lawn! I would dig until I found it. Wisdom is more valuable than silver or gold. It makes sense to seek for it more than we do for great wealth.
How blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding. For its profit is better than the profit of silver, and its gain than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her.
(Proverbs 3:13-16, NAS)
I remember when I first memorized verses like Proverbs 3:13-15. I was skeptical. They sounded like trite exaggerations that people tell little children to get them to do the right thing. Could it really be that nothing you desire compares with wisdom?
I don’t doubt these verses any more. I have found wisdom and have seen that it is rooted in knowing Jesus and the power of His resurrection.[28] Nothing can compare with her. She gives rewards that are beyond anything this world can offer, and she is worth the effort we put into her.
I try to set aside time and money for learning wisdom. When I find recorded messages and books that I think will help, I devote my funds and attention to them. How can I claim to treasure wisdom if I am not willing to do this? Am I acting on my faith that she is better than fine gold if I don’t devote my “gold” to her? There are few, if any, investments we can make that will give a better return.
Many of the time slots I set aside are while I am doing other activities. I memorize scriptures when I take showers; I listen to recorded messages while I lift weights. I try to keep my mind busy while my body is engaged in activities that don’t require my full attention. The world is full of people looking for ways to get rich. It would be silly for me to miss chances to turn some of my mindless moments into an opportunity to acquire something more precious than jewels.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of what I have written in this chapter. Treasure wisdom, cry out for her, and seek her. Rearrange your priorities and your schedule to make her a part of your life. Look for ways to reclaim your wasted time and money. Suffer when necessary. Nothing you desire compares with her!
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