Proverbs 7:1–4 (NIV)
My son, keep my words
and store up my commands within you.
Keep my commands and you will live;
guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.
Bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and to insight, “You are my relative.”
The Trappist monk Thomas Merton once remarked about reading Scripture, "Cover less ground more slowly." That’s a wise word.
To "keep words," and to "store them up" and to guard them "as the apple of your eye," calls for a long, slow, and steady pace. It's far more like a close familial relationship than a crash course. These verses in Proverbs 7 tell us to say to wisdom, "You are my sister."
Somewhere along the way, we began reading Scripture with the goals of speed, mastery, and personal relevance. We want to read the whole Bible in a year or less, and we want to gain immediately applicable, relevant biblical knowledge to solve our problems and make us better people.
This isn't how biblical wisdom works. Thomas Merton is right,
"Cover less ground more slowly."
- Dwell on these words.
- Ponder and pray through them.
- The goal isn't to quickly delve into the text in order to extract something out.
- Rather than extraction, we need an immersion approach.
We immerse ourselves in the Scriptures so that the worldview of wisdom slowly begins to shape our vision of God and our view of the world. It's not about leaving our world to go into the Bible to get something to take back to our world. It's about a fusion of the horizon of Scripture with the horizon of our own lives and communities. As we read our way into the Word, the Spirit will lead our path into the world.
Sometimes we find that our prayers wear us out. We get stuck in the ruts of our own words and grow weary of seemingly going nowhere with them. When we "keep" and "store up" the wisdom of God in our hearts, it has a way of getting us unstuck. These words are substantial and dense with meaning. They are going somewhere, and we are relieved of the burden of finding the way. Our work is to follow after them.
I often find the simple practice of slowly storing up the wisdom of God in my heart doesn't feel all that spiritual at the time, but it always leads to a more authentic life in the power of the Holy Spirit. I find my own well-intentioned intensity and earnestness get in the way more often than not. Wisdom is not simplistic, but it is a simple way.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, you are the wisdom of heaven on earth – pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. You are my wisdom, and I am your witness. I want to know you better today. Praying in your name, amen.
PROMPTS
- How are you keeping and storing up the words of God in your heart?
- If you are not actively about this work of storing up the wisdom of the Word of God in your heart, where is your wisdom coming from?
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