Perceiving the Words of Understanding – Why Some Do and Why Some Do Not

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Proverbs_1:2  To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;

        In the first seven verses of the book of Proverbs, the writer Solomon gives his reasons for penning these great nuggets of wisdom. While there are so many directions we could go in just the first seven verses, we want to draw your attention to the verse stated above.

        Reading and learning the proverbs will give God’s Spirit an avenue through which to sharpen our minds to be able, as Solomon says, “to perceive the words of understanding”; in other words, to be able to know when you hear something of value; to look and listen beyond the obvious and hear something that can help bring understanding to your mind and therefore to your entire life.

        Many people hear a lot of things, even things of great worth and value, and yet those words fly right past them. I mean, like a sparrow flying over their heads, they do not even perceive those valuable words were even spoken, much less do they perceive them as being potentially valuable to them in some way. Parents, Pastors, and teachers will understand what I mean. This being the case, it is also likely they will not grasp those words and therefore they will not apply those words to their lives, and will probably go about life as they always have with no positive changes taking place. Then many of them will wonder “Why isn’t God blessing me?” or “Why aren’t things changing for me?”. Maybe He actually is blessing them. Maybe He just blessed them through an encounter with someone, something they heard, or something they read and they just haven’t been open to perceiving the blessing because it took on some form they didn’t think could be a blessing to them.

        When we take on the mindset of being open to perceiving the words of understanding, we will come to realize that whether someone is 12 years old, 92 years old, or certainly anywhere in between, we can learn something valuable from them. If we cut off this way of thinking, we cut off the very avenues that God can use to help us, maybe even answer certain prayers we’ve been praying.

        Many people search high and low for deeper levels of knowledge when we really could find diamonds of understanding, instruction, and wisdom right where we are, in our everyday lives, if we would just be open to perceiving them; and that’s the problem many people face. Many times we are not as open to receiving new information as we would like to think that we are.

        This may stem from a place of self-preservation to the extent that some may feel violated when they have to admit they have been wrong or underinformed on something which has caused them to falsely believe things to be a certain way.

             This could be because of the way they grew up, the things they’ve participated in that have planted certain beliefs into their subconscious mind and therefore they just go through life assuming those things are true, it could be certain accomplishments that have made them feel they have no need of anyone teaching them anything because “Hey, I have a degree and that person doesn’t”, or any myriad of other things that could keep them from being able to perceive the words of understanding that are right at this moment all around them.

             Closing prayer: “Lord, I understand and admit there are things I do not currently, right this moment, understand. I open my mind and my heart to allowing You to bring new information into my life that will bless me and bring the glory to You. I ask You to give me a perceptive mind that I may hear things of value when they are spoken, or see them when they are written, and count them as valuable! In the name of Jesus, Amen!”