“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly, and she will exalt you. She will honor you if you embrace her.”
– Proverbs 4:7–8
I love the way Proverbs 4:7–8. Here’s the beginning of wisdom. You think, okay, all right, what’s the beginning of wisdom? And then the answer is get wisdom. In other words, it’s wise to seek wisdom. Like, that’s the beginning. Asking for wisdom. Whatever you get, the proverb says get insight. Think about when you use that kind of language, like whatever you do do this, that’s saying, “Everything else aside, this is most important.”
It is wise to seek wisdom. In whatever we do today, we need wisdom. We are driven to pray to this end.
There’s all kinds of good things you could do, but whatever you do, make sure to do this. If you’re sending somebody to a place and you know they really need to see this, you’re like, “Whatever you do, don’t miss this.” And this is what God, through His word, is saying. Whatever you get … In this world, there’s so many things you could get. Just think of all the things you could get in this world. Whatever you do, get this. Get wisdom. Get insight. Prize wisdom highly. Embrace her.
The verses right before this say the same thing. Get wisdom. Get insight. Do not forget. Do not forsake wisdom. Love her, verse six says, and she will guard you. So the Bible could not be any clearer to you and me right now. Whatever we do today, we need wisdom. We need it. Whatever else we could get today, start here. This is the wise place to start, asking for wisdom.
This Verse Prays For Wisdom
So we are just driven to pray. And we’re driven to pray, not just today, but continually. Oh God, give us wisdom, we pray. We’re asking for wisdom right now according to your word. You tell us, oh God, to get wisdom, and we’re saying we wanna get it. We wanna get it. We need wisdom in our lives, we need wisdom in our families, we need wisdom in our work. Need wisdom in our finances, we need wisdom as we think about our future, we need wisdom when it comes to decisions we are making. We need wisdom to guard us, to guide us. This is what your word says it will do, to keep us close to you. To keep us walking in your ways. God, please guard us from foolishness, please give us wisdom today. We ask this with total confidence.
Proverbs 4:7–8 Wants Us To Ask For God Nonstop
John 15:7, when your words abide in us, we ask according to your word it will be given to us. James 1, you tell us that when we asked for wisdom, you give it generously. So we pray for it. God, we pray that you would make us wise in such a way that we ask for wisdom nonstop. That we’re continually looking for wisdom, asking for wisdom, seeking wisdom from your hand. And in this, we realize, that in and of itself is wise. Oh God, make us wise we pray. In Jesus name, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
