Proverbs 5:1-2

My son, pay attention to my wisdom; Lend your ear to my understanding, that you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge.

I believe Charles Spurgeon said it best when he explained what wisdom is. “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.” Wisdom is not gained simply by knowing. But the application of that knowledge makes a man wise. And in a world like today, everyone thinks he is wise, but many are fools because they don’t know how to apply or walk out knowledge. Note how King Solomon is not telling us to just “pay attention to wisdom” but He follows it up with Lending our ear to understanding so as a result discretion will be preserved and the words that flow out of our mouths will be filled with knowledge.

Why must we “lend our ears to understanding?” Our ears are what help us hear the truth and walk in obedience. Without our ears, how else would we understand? Matthew 11:15 says “He that has an ear to hear, let him hear..” Hear what is good. Hear what is the truth. Hear what brings you life. We hear, so that we may understand. I'm reminded of a verse in Romans. That wraps all of this up, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” It comes no other way.

And what of that, and discretion? And is it really worth preserving? Frederick Buechner says it this way, “You can't be too careful what you tell a child because you never know what he'll take hold of and spend the rest of his life remembering you by." If we were to treat every single word that flows from our mouth, and every person we interact with, like this, then I'm sure our speech would be much different. Men and women today, don't know how to “preserve discretion” simply because they do not understand. And they do not understand because they have not heard. Discretion ought to preserved so that when we speak, our words aren’t made to His words, but His words made to our words.

Our Lord and Savior meets the needs of His people. We lack in His wisdom, His knowledge, and His understanding. We are a generation that only sees “I.” But to understand this, we must realize none of what the Father wants to give us or accomplish through us, is fulfilled through a deaf ear, pride or disobedience. It does not come simply by asking. But, by paying attention, lending an ear, and walking in it. Here are King Solomons thoughts in chapter 2 of Proverbs “ When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul, Discretion will preserve you, Understanding will keep you.”