“If you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.” (Proverbs 2:4-5)
When I first got back into surfing, I started researching it like crazy. I read articles and watched YouTube videos to get some wisdom from the pros. And this wasn’t a hassle at all. In fact, I wanted to learn as much as I could, because I wanted to start having fun in the water like all the other surfers were having. The learning curve for surfing is huge, and you have to seek after it, to get to the point of having fun.
Gaining wisdom in this life is similar. You gotta seek hard after it. In a sense, God’s wisdom is conditional. In Proverbs 2:1-5, the writer provides three “if” statements. These three protases can be summed up— accept God’s word, meditate on God’s word, ask for understanding and how to apply God’s word in your life, and lastly seek God’s word as the most valuable thing. It’s “then” that the Proverbs writer says “you will understand the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God” (Prov. 2:5). When you humble yourself under the authority of God’s word, which is his wisdom, then you’ll find it.
God’s wisdom is not some information that mysteriously downloads from Heaven and into your brain. God has revealed a lot of his wisdom in the Scriptures. So we gain wisdom by being in his word continually. We gotta seek after it. The Bible is meditation literature. The more you’re in it, the more you get out of it. This is the promise for those who seek his word, “For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” (Prov. 2:6).