October 30 – Wisdom Through Practice (Psalm 119: 49-56)

“This has been my practice: I obey your precepts.”
(Psalms 119:56)

IN WORD:
An old training program book shows novice swimmers how to swim. It shows pictures of the position of the body in the water, the proper technique for various strokes, the most efficient ways to breathe while maintaining speed, and everything else one would need to know to get in a pool and not drown. But no one ever learned how to swim by simply reading that book. Perhaps its readers obtained the necessary knowledge, but they did not really learn. Some things can only be grasped by experience.
God’s wisdom is one of those things. If speech reinforces the truths He’s given us, practice reinforces them even more. The best way to learn how to do something — really learn it — is to actually do it! Reading or hearing a lesson only involves one of our senses. Putting a lesson into practice involves them all. Obviously, the mind is better trained when it is fed by multiple senses.
James comes down hard on those who are hearers of the Word and not doers of the Word (James 1:22-25). It isn’t just a matter of hypocrisy; it’s a matter of training. It is easy to forget the things our minds have entertained. It is much more difficult to forget the things that our minds have entertained, and our mouths have spoken, and our hands have done. And we want to make forgetfulness difficult. When it comes to the wisdom of God in our hearts, retention is everything.

IN DEED:
The wisdom of God is not theoretical, it is intensely practical. It is not a matter of speculation for religious intellects, it’s a matter of instruction and training for real life situations. If we want God’s wisdom, we must be honest with ourselves and determine that we want it for a purpose. Living it must be our priority.
Do you find a gap between the knowledge you’ve learned from God’s Word and your lifestyle? Are His truths a matter of your mind and not a matter of your heart? Then put them into practice. They will be learned in ways that nothing else can teach us.

“Do good with what you have, or it will do you no good.”
-William Penn-