Keep it

"Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding" (Proverbs 23:23)

I read this verse in my time with the Lord this morning and decided to look up what each of those key words meant. The result was interesting...and challenging.

TRUTH - Actuality, a verified indisputable fact.

WISDOM- Knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action.

INSTRUCTION- A direction calling for compliance, an outline or manual of technical procedure.

UNDERSTANDING- The power to make experience intelligible by applying concepts and categories. An agreement of opinion or feeling; an adjustment of differences.

So to put it all together...

God wants us to know the TRUTH, what is actual and indisputable, about Him, about life, about relationships, about decisions, about everything!

And not only to know the truth, but to have WISDOM in order to know what we should do with what we know about the truth and to know how our knowledge of Him, etc., should change and affect our lives.

Which is where INSTRUCTION comes in. We are to have direction calling for compliance, an outline or manual of technical procedure. Certainly, we have God's Word which is a manual for our lives, but also, do we as christians make intentional, purposeful plans for which we can help to accomplish spiritual goals? (Side note- It is the Holy Spirit who ultimately brings us along and determines the speed with which we grow spiritually, but unless we are intentionally carving time out in our day for God, etc., our growth will indeed be hindered.)

And finally we are to have UNDERSTANDING- The power to make experience intelligible by applying concepts and categories. Learn the truth, have the wisdom to know what you should do with what you know and even come up with a battle plan for how to make it happen, but now go and apply it! It's an agreement of opinion or feeling; an adjustment of differences. Be willing to put into practice the changes that truth, wisdom and instruction have told you you need to make. Make it happen! God's Word says to buy these things and "sell it not."

Keep Truth, Wisdom, Instruction and Understanding. Keep it! Keep them! (And ask God for the strength to do so, because if you're like me, you're certainly going to need it!)