God warns us against sin all throughout Scripture. That’s why He’s laid out a path for us to avoid the suffering and inevitable consequences that come with disobedience. When we choose to do it His way, we should also be on the lookout to invite anyone who’s willing to jump in with us and follow Him.

The Bible talks enough about fools that we should pay attention – lest we become one ourselves. It instructs us not to live in foolishness, but in wisdom. If we know what Scripture says but don’t actually live it out, it has no genuine worth or meaning in our lives.

There’s an entire book of the Bible — the book of Proverbs — that’s devoted to gaining wisdom. That’s how important godly wisdom is! The Lord’s waiting for us to ask Him for wisdom in our daily decisions, from the big ones all the way down to the seemingly small ones. Sometimes it comes from Him in prayer, and sometimes it comes in the form of life choices, both good and bad.

True wisdom doesn’t come simply from age or life experience; true wisdom is given to us by God Himself. And being wise isn’t just knowing what the right thing to do is — it’s following through and doing it. The wisest, most important choice we can ever make is the choice to follow Jesus, and when we do that, He gifts us with the discernment of the Holy Spirit to make God-honoring decisions in every aspect of our lives.

God wants us to chase Him first — above and before anyone or anything else. When we do that, our relationships, our future, and our life as a whole might not always look the way we envisioned or planned, but they have a beautiful way of working out just the way He designed.

When we ask God to give us wisdom or clarity, what we’re often really saying is that we want Him to give us a “yes” to our request. But sometimes, the answer is “no” — and that’s a good thing. When we fail to seek His direction, or when we seek it and then do our own thing anyway, we often find ourselves facing a world of hurt and trouble that could have otherwise been avoided.

Everything we have has been given to us by God — which means it was never really ours, anyway. Before we buy anything, we should be praying and asking Him if it’s a wise purchase. Over time, as we start to view “our” money as God’s money, we begin to think twice about how we spend it.

Those rumble strips in the road that help us stay alert and stay in our lane are called “sleeper lines”. But did you know that God gives us sleeper lines in our spiritual lives, too? He never allows us to drift off-course without sending us warning signals. Sometimes those signals come from Scripture, and other times they come from wise people, but it’s up to us whether to heed the warnings we’re given or drive our lives into the ditch.

When you think of God, you probably don’t think of Him getting “in the ring” with His people! But Jacob’s story in Scripture shows us that sometimes, we need to wrestle with the Lord about certain things — and hold on for the count until He gives us His blessing to move forward.

We only have a short amount of time on this ball called Earth — and we need to make the most of it. The question we each should ask ourselves is, “Am I living my life with God-honoring purpose, or am I wasting my time with sin?” When we strive to do the former by seeking God through Scripture and through prayer, He’s gracious to give us His wisdom in response.

“Stare decisis” is the doctrine that says courts will adhere to precedents already set when making their decisions. That principle is what safeguards the rule of law and preserves wisdom in the court. In the same way, the wisest thing we as Christians can do is stand with what was decided as truth before Creation even began. When we look around us, everything points as evidence to the living God — and when we align our lives with that truth, we’re choosing to walk in the wisdom of the Lord.

Most of us operate according to a “live & learn” mentality. What would happen if we flipped those two principles to “learn & live”? The Bible teaches us that when we obtain godly wisdom, it can help us avoid having to learn from our mistakes the hard way. But the only way it will make a difference in our lives is if we take the wisdom God gives us and apply it to our choices on a daily basis.