How many of you have ever picked up your bible, but you really just didn’t know where to go to, in it…as far as book or chapter…to obtain insight and wisdom from God?
Well, I’d like to share with you an interesting bible study that the Holy Spirit himself showed me to do, and I’m sure that I am in His Will to encourage you to do this study for yourself.
This is an especially great study for adolescents, and teens, and college students to do as they begin adult life, yet it is an awesome study for people of all ages. It is a fantastic study for Christians, yet beneficial for unbelievers too, for they will come to know God and his ways! If you are mentoring someone, this is an excellent study to go through.
You can take it just a chapter a day… or if you’re a thinker or memorizer, even a verse at a time! That way it could just be a lunch-break study for adults, and youth could do it anytime they had a few moments of what they refer to as boredom. For surely, they would no longer be bored! It’s an exciting, easy, and fun way to determine what the right path to take in life is! And this study will put you on a firm foundation as far as the principles of God… i.e., to know what pleases the Lord and brings you favor from Him. Who wouldn’t like to know that!
As I was reading the book of Proverbs, as I came to chapter 10, I couldn’t help but notice that Proverbs became a study of contrasts. At chapter 10 Solomon, the wisest man ever, began contrasting the righteous, good, and wise man who is obedient and hard-working…with the unrighteous, wicked, and foolish man who is disobedient and slothful.
Popular opinion would like to feed people “the LIE” that it is those who follow God who are just plain “foolish”. But The Word of God says just the opposite throughout Proverbs. A fool is someone who disregards God’s leading to go his own way. Therefore, a study of what God has to say about these two contrasting lifestyles is indeed the beginning of anyone’s wisdom.
Growing up, I was given the definition of wisdom as “knowing the end results of our present actions”. This is what this study reveals in no uncertain terms. When you are completed with Proverbs you will “know” God’s Will in many matters that may have been in confusion. You will develop your character in the process.
IT IS A VERY FUN STUDY TO DO WITH NO TEACHER BUT THE HOLY SPIRIT!
Psalm 119:130 says,
“The unfolding of your words GIVES LIGHT…It gives UNDERSTANDING to the simple.”
So, unfold the words of Proverbs for yourself… a chapter every day… or even just a verse a day! And you will gain wisdom for yourself! What you take away will help you for the rest of your life!
INSTRUCTIONS:
Take a piece of paper… or having a notebook or journal set aside for this purpose is even better….and draw two columns.
Write on the top of one column, the category:
“Wise, Obedient, Righteous and Good” and the other:
On the other column, write:
“Foolish, Disobedient, Unrighteous and Wicked”
(Go to the picture of my example, to help in understanding.)
Your column headings will look like this, with a line then drawn down the center of your page:
Wise, Obedient, Righteous, Good | Foolish, Disobedient, Unrighteous, Wicked
Then as you view each verse of Proverbs, you will input what The Word says with each verse. You can put the verse number next to each verse if you’d like or you can bullet them as you go down the columns. In my sample, I sometimes put arrows from the side the verse starts with, to the second part of the verse too, for my own clarity, but this is not a necessary step.
As you go through this study for yourself, you will see contrasts in lifestyle as clear as black and white, and at the end of your study through Proverbs you will begin to discern where your own life has fit into this charting, enabling you to then make course corrections or dispel lies you have believed and walked in.
You can literally read down each column, on each page you complete in your notebook, and “clearly see” the many blessings of a man that follows after God, and the many “consequences” of not following God.
Galatians 6:8 begins, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap.” This study will truly give you fresh insight into what you will “reap” as you “sow,” whether it be good or bad.
In fact, if your heart is open, you will be frightened enough by a read-through of that second column, by your study’s end, to change your will and ways over to doing things God’s way and according to His will. You would see yourself to be “foolish” to decide otherwise.
At the very least, everyone will gain wisdom from this study! And parents, this would make an amazing “family study” too! You could go through Proverbs together with your children, charting from Chapter 10, and discuss each verse’s contrast…taking as much time as you would need. It would open communications among your family members, and everyone would grow wiser together. So much more beneficial than watching tv together! I encourage it! This study would also be perfect for home schooling. What parent would not want their children to know these contrasts, so they can set their children up for success in life.
At the end of this article, there is a picture I took of the study, as I have it in my own journal.
In my example, I start at Proverbs 10. Note how I go verse by verse—across from each other… for a complete parallel comparison… and I did a chapter at a time. Just glance…until you “get the idea”!
I wanted to just give you enough to encourage you to go grab your own bible and do your own personal study. You’ll glean way more than looking at my page!
As you go along, at the end of each day… look at your paper… and go down the columns to see the blessings and descriptors of the righteous versus the curses and results of walking in the way of the wicked. Change your choices and lifestyles according to what you glean by doing this. You will begin to see things around you in a whole new light!
The Word instructs us to “be transformed by the renewing of your minds,” and this study makes it quite easy to do this.
God’s word will “not return void” but “will accomplish in you God’s purposes”! Once these truths are made known to us, and take root, we can then adapt our lives to God’s ways.
The Spirit is within every believer to enable him to live in God’s righteous ways. If you have not received Christ, then please do so. He gave himself, and shed His blood, so that you might belong to God and have sin removed from your life, with all its consequences.
It matters not which “version” you use in this study. This, I believe, was the English Standard Version in my example, but I have done this study in the Amplified Version and KJV over the years. Use whichever one you want. The contrasts remain the same…
And if you want to even consult several versions of a verse, on an app, to make each verse more understandable in its meaning …well, yes indeed, do that! You are after wisdom! … Right?! Think of everything God has for you as buried treasure to be dug up and found! Jesus says, Seek and you shall find! Amen?!
God bless each one of you who says “Yes” to God’s invitation to do This Study.
As any earthly father would want his own children to know his will and ways; so too, Father God would have us, his children, know His Will and Ways too! Amen?!
To close this chapter, I’d like to share a song I wrote called Wise Man Foolish Man. And yes, it is taken from the Word of God…Matthew 7:24-28 to be exact. I think it will inspire you in your quest of wisdom from Proverbs’ pages, knowing Jesus taught us the importance of Being Wise.
Here is the link:
Wise Man Foolish Man – Elizabeth Ann Smith – Receive From Me