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Daily Devotion: Proverbs 17:16

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Proverbs 17:16    "Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no heart to it?"

I believe it was President George W. Bush who said, "I have a library full of books and I've even read one or two of them."  I, personally, have paid gym memberships on more than one occasion, but that didn't help me unless I actually went to the gym and exercised.  Solomon is saying that we can spend all kinds of money on equipment, instructions, lessons, memberships, or anything else that we feel will help us, but there is no advantage to all that if we do not apply them. Why would I spend money, time, and effort on something if my heart is not set upon improvement.  I can read my Bible every single day, but there is no improvement for me if I do not apply my heart to using what I read. I remember one of the passages that we used when we were going through the Psalms that said, "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed..." (Psalm 57:7) One of the definitions that we used for the word, "fixed," means to set or establish our hearts for a particular purpose. We will see in a future Proverb that God says, "Give me thine heart, my son..." (Proverbs 23:26) The positive side of today's passage tells us that God will honor our endeavors if we will put our heart, our determination, into getting wisdom.  I will conclude today with the passage from the book of James: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." (James 1:5)  Let us set our affections on things above and God's wisdom will be given.

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