Wisdom: The Path to True Riches

By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures.
Proverbs 24:3-4 NIV

I read this story in Tony Evans’ book of illustrations, and I’d like to share it with you.

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise women opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise women. “I’ve been thinking,”  he said, “ I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.

Wisdom requires knowledge and understanding. You must know how to hear God’s voice through the Holy Spirit giving you daily guidance, and understand how to apply it. I remember a day when the Holy Spirit spoke to me gently when I was making a  purchase. I heard a voice whisper “pay with cash,” but I said, “I don’t want any change in my pocket,” so I paid with a card. Later on that day I received a fraud alert from my bank that my card was being used without my authorization.

I had to cancel my card and wait for another to be sent to me. This inconvenience could have been avoided if I only would have listened to that small voice. After everything was said and done, I knew that was the Holy Spirit speaking to me, the same way the Holy Spirit spoke to the woman with the stone.

What if she had been like me, and ignored the small voice? She would have missed the opportunity to share the wisdom God had given her, and the man would have missed the opportunity to receive it. So what made this woman so wise: Her being a giver or her having knowledge and understanding of life and knowing who the true Giver is?

So the next time you hear that small voice telling you to do something that seems crazy, like giving away a prized possession, or inconvenient, like paying with cash, just do what it says. Applied wisdom will lead you to “rare and beautiful treasures.”