A Big Return on Investment

I’m a guy that likes a big return on investment.  Recently I shared that I’ve been reading through the bible in a year.  This morning I started Proverbs, and was quite taken aback by the very first sentence:

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

for attaining wisdom and discipline;
for understanding words of insight;

for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life,
doing what is right and just and fair;

for giving prudence to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young—

let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance—

for understanding proverbs and parables,
the sayings and riddles of the wise.

I’ve read this verse a bazillion times, but have never really seen the return that God is promising as a result of our investment in studying the Proverbs.  Ok, so check this out.  The book of Proverbs was written so that we could experience the following:

• Wisdom – I don’t know about you, but I could use more.  Not just a little more, but a whole lot more.
  
• Discipline – I hate being disciplined by God, but I do desire to have a more disciplined life, where I’m not controlled merely by impulses.
• Insight – I think greater insight into the lives of the people around me would make me more compassionate, available and approachable – all traits that were important to Jesus.
• Prudence – Couldn’t each one of us benefit from God growing us up in our ability to care about the future?
• Knowledge – The more I walk with God, the more I realize how little about Him and His kingdom I really know or understand.  But that realization doesn’t make me want to give up.  Instead, it reminds me that I will spend all eternity trying to fully know my God.
• Discretion – I want to behave in ways that avoid offending people, but I’ve got a long way to go in that.
• Guidance - It seems like every one of us has enough problems and difficulties to fill up a lifetime.  And in the midst of those times of hardship is when we most often need someone to show us the way.

I’m not sure where you find yourself in each of these areas, but there isn’t a single one that I couldn’t use a super-sized order of right about now.  I’ve always enjoyed Proverbs, but I’ve never before read it with the expectation of being transformed with all these things at God’s hand. But these words have built in me a radical new expectation – that when I meet with God to study the Proverbs and apply them to my life – that God is going to pour out His great blessings upon me in ways that I can’t even imagine.

Every once in a while, I realize that I’ve been failing to approach my time in His word with the red-hot expectation that I’m going to encounter God in the midst of His living word.  Then God ignites my passion once again, so that I can hardly wait to meet with him again, bible in hand.