Choose JoySample

DAY 36 – FIND WISDOM, FIND JOY

Reflection: There’s a wisdom to joy and joy that comes with wisdom. This week, we’ll take a look at how living a joy-strengthened life is enabled by living in wisdom. In the introductory chapter to Proverbs (which we read from today), the Bible’s book of wisdom, the writer invokes blessing on those who ‘find’ wisdom. The word blessing, as we have seen earlier, is linked to the idea of joy and happiness.

To ‘find’ wisdom can mean ‘coming upon’ something, a bit like finding a $50 note in the back pocket of your jeans. But it also means to attain or to discover, to intentionally seek to acquire something. Both meanings are seen as a blessing.

If we stumble on joy in the circumstances of life, embrace it as the blessing of God, but reflect on how it has come to you. But it’s also likely that you may need to be more intentional about cultivating a joyful, hopeful, positive attitude to life. This is where growing in wisdom and ‘gaining understanding’ can help. Because joy is a companion to the wise, along with pleasantness and peace.

And what is wisdom? We’ll unpack more throughout the week, but Proverbs 9:10 provides a clear definition: The beginning of wisdom is the fear [reverence, awe, profound respect] of Yahweh. When we take God more seriously than ourselves, we’re on the road to wisdom and joy.

Choose joy: Take a moment to make sure you’re not missing the wisdom and joy God seeks to bless you with. Review what you fear most in making decisions in life. If it’s not God, then it’s not wisdom.