How Do I Get Wisdom? - Proverbs Youth Sunday School Lesson

Brief: We get wisdom by humbling ourselves and asking God to teach us.

(Printable Student Sheet)

 

Recap

We learned last time that wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord. If we respect God’s sovereignty and understand the fact that He has the authority to tell us how life should be, and if we obey God, then that will be the first step toward becoming wise.

And we learned that when we pursue wisdom, we get a lot of benefits out of it. We don’t sin as much or make as many mistakes, so we don’t have to suffer through as many consequences. We make better decisions on how to spend our time and our money, and we reap the benefit of that by having more time for what really matters and being a little better off financially. We make better decisions on how to treat our bodies and so, we usually live longer.

But how are supposed to get wisdom? We know it starts with respecting God, but what is the next step?

 

Scripture: 1 Kings 3:4-28; Proverbs 11:2; 2:1-6; 22:15; 3:11-12

 

Read 1 Kings 3:4-28

How did Solomon get his wisdom? 

He asked God for it, and God gave it to him.

 

And after he prayed, how long did it take for Solomon to become wise?

It seems pretty immediate. After he prayed, the very next thing we hear about is his ruling concerning the two women and the baby.

God begins to give us wisdom as soon as we ask Him for it. Obeying God and asking Him to give us wisdom are the first steps.

 

Read Proverbs 11:2

Why is it necessary for us to be humble, rather than prideful, in order to become wise? 

When we are prideful, we think that we know everything already.  We don’t think we need anybody to teach us anything, not even God. So, if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and we don’t think God can teach us anything, we can’t become truly wise because we lack the fear of the Lord. The person who is humble knows that they have a lot to learn, and they are willing to let God and other people teach them.

 

Why does disgrace come with pride? 

Because when we think we already know everything, that just shows how we little we do know.  When we rely on our own knowledge and reasoning rather than on God’s wisdom, we’re bound to get some things wrong. We’re bound to be disgraced because we didn’t start our thinking process properly with the fear of the Lord and letting God teach us.

 

Read Proverbs 2:1-6

How do we get wisdom? 

By listening to our parents (and those wiser than us) and searching for it.

Wisdom is something we have to work for. We have to pursue it and be humble enough to pay attention to people who have it. It usually doesn’t happen miraculously, and it’s not going to happen automatically. We have to pursue it and pay attention when it’s being given to us.

 

What are some things we can do to pursue wisdom? 

Go to church and Sunday School or Bible studies. Listen to Christian teachers and spend time in God’s Word. Read books by Christian authors and find out what they’ve learned about God and about life. Pursue it. Search for it. Pay attention to it.

 

Read Proverbs 22:15

How does discipline help us?

Discipline helps us learn our lessons. Our parents discipline us because they love us. Some parents discipline us because they’re annoyed at us and our behavior is bothering them, but discipline should be done out of love. They wanted us to learn our lessons and be good people and wanted to keep us from suffering bad consequences of getting in trouble or doing something destructive to ourselves.

 

Read Proverbs 3:11-12

Why does God discipline us?

God punishes us because He loves us, and He wants us to learn from our mistakes.

 

How can we know when God is punishing us for something we did wrong? How do we know that something bad happening to us isn’t just a coincidence that doesn’t have anything to do with what we did?

We can’t know one hundred percent when God is punishing us. But when something negative is happening to us, we can learn to ask ourselves some questions. We can ask ourselves what brought this on. “Was there anything I did to make this happen? Was there something I could have done differently, or was there a better decision I could have made to avoid this negative thing happening to me right now?” We should always look at those that are happening in our lives and ask ourselves what God might be trying to tell us through them and remember those things for next time.

 

So, we get wisdom by:

Asking for it

Being humble enough to learn from God and others

Pursuing it by spending time in God’s Word, listening to Christian teachers, and reading Christian books

Paying attention to our circumstances and learning from our mistakes