Dave's Diary

Prayer

God of Eternal Wisdom, You wrote Your Wisdom into the very fabric of the Universe – how glorious and awesome You are! Please use Your Word to write Your Wisdom into the fabric of my life today. Amen.

Reading

Read Proverbs 8 slowly and prayerfully. Notice which verse particularly jumps out at you. Re-read that verse a few times slowly. Write it down in your journal. Try to memorise it so that you can reflect on it without having to read from the page.

Prayerful Reflection

Now take that Proverb and think about your life at the moment. Is there a situation in your life to which that Proverb applies. Ask the Lord how this verse from His Word is telling you to live out His wisdom in that situation. Make notes in your journal.

A Devotional Thought

Proverbs 8: 
¹⁴ I make plans and carry them out.
    I have understanding, and I am strong.

Proverbs 8 is filled with wonderful poetry in praise of Wisdom and how God has written it into the fabric of His created order. But, as I read the chapter in my Good News Bible, the very straightforward and practical verse 14 jumped off the pages at me.

Productivity gurus may claim these thoughts as their own, but here they are in God’s Word from thousands of years before Christ. Wisdom “plans the work and then works the plan”.

When we are operating in Wisdom, we will look at our daily challenges and conundrums prayerfully, then come to a rational decision about the best way to approach and tackle them. That will be the exercise of Wisdom’s gift of “understanding”.

Then, step-by-step, we will steadily work our way to the solution. The clarity of Wisdom’s strategy will make us “strong” to follow it through.

Prayer

Lord grant me the wisdom I need today, so that, in each situation, I will know what to do and how to do it. And Lord, grant me the courage to follow Wisdom’s path, and the strength to follow it through to the end. Help me to plan my work in Wisdom’s ‘understanding’ and to work the plan in Wisdom’s ‘strength’. Amen.