At the beginning of August, the pastor at our church in Casper began a sermon series on the book of Proverbs.

As part of the series, he challenged us to read one chapter of Proverbs each day for the entire month.

Conveniently, Proverbs contains 31 chapters.

August contains 31 days.

You don’t need a theology or math degree to figure out the reading plan.

So for the past month, I’ve been making my way through Proverbs one chapter at a time, following the Proverbs commentary and insights provided by Through the Bible on the YouVersion app.

I’ve read Proverbs many times before. I’ve encountered its best-known verses countless times. But there’s something different about reading the entire book this way—slowly enough to absorb it, but quickly enough to begin noticing themes that run throughout it.

Wisdom.

Foolishness.

Humility.

Pride.

Words.

Work.

Money.

Marriage.

Friendship.

Anger.

Temptation.

Generosity.

Discipline.

Planning.

Listening.

And occasionally, dogs doing disgusting things.

We’ll get to that.

But as I’ve worked my way through the book this month, I’ve been reminded of something I should have realized a long time ago.

I’ve spent much of my Christian life asking God for guidance.

And all along, He’s already given me an awful lot of it.

Lord, What Should I Do?

One of the most consistent prayers of my Christian journey has been some variation of:

Lord, what do You want me to do?

I’ve prayed it before major decisions.

Career changes.

Moves.

Financial decisions.

Family decisions.

Retirement.

And countless smaller decisions that I’ve long since forgotten.

I want my life to be aligned with God’s will.

I want to go where He wants me to go.

I want to do what He wants me to do.

I want to become the person He wants me to become.

And sometimes I’ve wished He’d make His answer a little more obvious.

A booming voice from heaven would be helpful.

A burning bush would certainly get my attention.

I’d even settle for a clearly worded text message.

Instead, there have been plenty of times when I’ve prayed for direction and heard…

nothing.

At least nothing I could clearly identify as an answer.

And I’ve wondered:

God, why don’t You just tell me what You want me to do?

Reading Proverbs this month reminded me that sometimes His response could quite reasonably be:

I already have.

Wisdom Hiding in Plain Sight

Proverbs isn’t primarily a book of instructions for extraordinary moments.

It’s a book about how to live an ordinary life wisely.

And it turns out God has quite a bit to say about that through Solomon, King David’s son, whom God blessed with extraordinary wisdom and who is traditionally regarded as one of the wisest men who ever lived.

For example, when I’m tempted to make an important decision entirely on my own:

“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

—Proverbs 15:22 (NIV)

When I become too confident that I’ve got something figured out:

“The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.”

—Proverbs 12:15 (NIV)

When I’m tempted to say something in anger:

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

—Proverbs 15:1 (NIV)

When I need to be reminded that my words matter:

“The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

—Proverbs 12:18 (NIV)

When I’m making plans for the future:

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.”

—Proverbs 16:9 (NIV)

That’s a remarkable amount of practical guidance.

And that’s barely scratching the surface.

God has given us principles about choosing friends, handling money, controlling anger, resisting temptation, working diligently, accepting correction, raising children, treating the poor, avoiding pride, speaking carefully, seeking counsel, and making plans.

Apparently, He hasn’t been nearly as silent as I sometimes imagine.

Maybe I’ve just been listening for an answer He has already written down.

The Dog Has Entered the Conversation

Of course, not every proverb sounds like something you’d embroider on a pillow.

There are some…less delicate ones.

One morning this month, I encountered this gem:

“As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly.”

—Proverbs 26:11 (NIV)

There’s an image for your morning devotional.

My dog was nearby, so I naturally asked her why dogs do this.

She gave me a look suggesting that she didn’t appreciate being stereotyped.

Fair enough.

Dogs do a lot of disgusting things, but returning to their vomit has to rank somewhere in the top three.

Still, once you get past the imagery, Solomon’s point is painfully good.

How often do I do essentially the same thing?

I make a mistake.

I experience the consequences.

I learn my lesson.

I promise myself—and perhaps God—that I won’t do that again.

And then, given enough time…

I wander right back.

Same temptation.

Same attitude.

Same bad habit.

Same result.

Suddenly the dog isn’t looking quite so foolish.

That’s one of the things I appreciate about Proverbs.

Biblical wisdom isn’t abstract philosophy.

It’s relentlessly practical.

Sometimes uncomfortably so.

The Wisest Thing I Can Learn

But beneath all of these individual pieces of advice is something much more fundamental.

Proverbs begins with this:

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

—Proverbs 1:7 (NIV)

That may be the foundation underneath everything else in the book.

Wisdom begins by recognizing Who is wise.

And who isn’t.

One of the wisest things I can ever learn is how little I know.

That isn’t an argument against learning.

Quite the opposite.

It’s what makes learning possible.

If I already believe I have all the answers, why would I seek God’s wisdom?

Why would I listen to Scripture?

Why would I pray?

Why would I seek advice from people who have walked farther down the road than I have?

Why would I allow anyone to correct me?

Proverbs says:

“Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.”

—Proverbs 13:10 (NIV)

There’s a connection there that I don’t particularly enjoy.

Pride tells me I should already know.

Wisdom tells me it’s okay that I don’t.

That’s one reason coming to the end of ourselves can actually be a very good place to be.

It isn’t pleasant to discover the limits of our own strength, intelligence or judgment.

But those limits can point us toward Someone who doesn’t have any.

I don’t know what to do.

That can feel like failure.

Perhaps sometimes it’s actually the beginning of wisdom.

Drowning in Information, Starving for Wisdom

It seems particularly relevant in the world we’re living in.

Human beings have access to more information than at any previous point in history.

Within seconds, I can pull a small device out of my pocket and access much of the accumulated knowledge of civilization.

And now artificial intelligence can analyze and synthesize enormous amounts of that information almost instantaneously.

We certainly aren’t suffering from a shortage of information.

But I’m not convinced we’re becoming correspondingly wiser.

Because knowledge and wisdom aren’t the same thing.

Knowledge can tell me what something is.

Wisdom helps me understand what it means.

Knowledge can tell me what happened before.

Wisdom helps me learn from it.

Knowledge can tell me what I’m capable of doing.

Wisdom helps me decide whether I should do it.

And sometimes wisdom tells me when to do it—or when not to.

Perhaps that’s one reason our culture sometimes seems so bewilderingly foolish despite being so extraordinarily knowledgeable.

We’ve become very good at accumulating information.
But information alone can’t tell us how to live.

The Wisdom of Other People

God also didn’t intend for me to figure everything out alone.

That’s another theme Proverbs keeps repeating.

“For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.”

—Proverbs 11:14 (NIV)

I’ve experienced the truth of that throughout my life.

Some of the wisdom God has given me has come directly from His Word.

Some has come through prayer and the quiet prompting of the Holy Spirit.

But a tremendous amount has come through other people.

Parents.

Pastors.

Friends.

Mentors.

Coworkers.

People who had already made the mistake I was about to make.

People who could see something I couldn’t.

People with enough knowledge and experience to understand not merely what could be done, but what should be done.

There’s humility involved in seeking that kind of wisdom.

I have to admit that someone else may know something I don’t.

Someone else may see something I’ve missed.

Someone else may even be right when I desperately want them to be wrong.

Proverbs would say that’s not weakness.

That’s wisdom.

Keep Asking

None of this means I’m going to stop asking God for guidance.

Quite the opposite.

Scripture specifically tells us:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”

—James 1:5 (NIV)

I love that promise.

God doesn’t rebuke me for needing wisdom.

He invites me to ask for more.

And I hope that as long as I’m alive, I’ll keep growing in wisdom.

There are things God will teach me tomorrow that I don’t understand today.

There are experiences ahead of me that will change how I see things.

There are people I haven’t met yet who will teach me things I need to know.

There are passages of Scripture I’ve read dozens of times that the Holy Spirit may suddenly illuminate in a completely new way.

Growing older doesn’t automatically make me wiser.

But growing older with God certainly ought to.

So I’ll keep praying for wisdom.

I’ll keep asking for direction.

I’ll keep seeking His will.

But perhaps my prayer has become a little more complete:

Trusting the One Who Knows

There is one passage in Proverbs that probably summarizes this entire month better than any other.

It’s familiar.

Maybe too familiar.

Sometimes I’ve read familiar verses so many times that I stop hearing how radical they actually are.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.”

—Proverbs 3:5–6 (NIV)

Lean not on your own understanding.

That’s difficult for someone who likes to understand things.

I want the plan.

I want the reasoning.

I want to know where the path is going before I start walking down it.

But wisdom begins somewhere else.

It begins with trust.

Not trust in my ability to figure everything out.

Trust in God’s ability to guide me.

Sometimes He’ll guide me through an unmistakable answer to prayer.

Sometimes through another person.

Sometimes through experience.

Sometimes through that quiet prompting I’ve learned to recognize over years of walking with Him.

And sometimes I’ll ask Him what I should do…
open the Bible…
and discover that He answered the question thousands of years before I thought to ask it.

A Question to Sit With

Am I waiting for God to give me an answer He has already given me—or am I learning to recognize, trust, and live by the wisdom He has placed right in front of me?