Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 (NRSV)
Read Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 on biblegateway.com
Verse 22The Lord created me at the beginning
Verse 2On the heights, beside the way,
Verse 3beside the gates in front of the town,
Verse 4"To you, O people, I call,
Verse 23Ages ago I was set up,
Verse 24When there were no depths I was brought forth,
Verse 25Before the mountains had been shaped,
Verse 26when he had not yet made earth and fields,
Verse 27When he established the heavens, I was there,
Verse 28when he made firm the skies above,
Verse 29when he assigned to the sea its limit,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
Verse 30then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his
Verse 31rejoicing in his inhabited world
Devotion
My mother attended school through eighth grade, then she was needed at home. I remember how she delighted in her children. But then, as I think back, I realize that she delighted in everyone she met. She delighted in the human race. Educated? No. Wise? Never a doubt.
Wisdom is not learned from books. Wisdom is from God. In Proverbs, Wisdom proclaims that she was "the beginning of God's work, the first of God's acts"—even bragging, "I was daily God's delight." It would seem then that wisdom is not the accumulation of facts nor the recitation of those facts. Wisdom has an agenda. Wisdom rejoices in God's inhabited world and delights in the human race. Just watch a grandmother holding her grandchild. You will see the delight.
The book of James encourages us to pray for wisdom. I would suggest this is encouragement to pray for delight—not just for delight in our own, but more, for delight in the human race—delight in everyone we meet along the way.
Prayer
God of grace and God of glory, grant me wisdom, grant me courage in my living in these days. Amen.