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Reading: Proverbs 8:4-12
Extended Reading: Proverbs 8

Across the past years I have both taught about and carried out counseling for people stuck at some point or other, and often within that context, I have treated people struggling with addiction. These addictions have been in multiple forms – substance use, alcohol, gambling, gaming, pornography, food – lots of different areas. Regardless of the subject of addiction, they all have something in common. For those of you fortunate enough not to know, addiction tends to run in a cycle. Let’s take pornography addiction for example.

On a typical day, an individual caught up in pornography addiction is likely going along minding his own business (yes, it can be “her”, but it’s usually “his”), when something comes along as a provocation – a trigger. Something that says, “Oh, remember that video you saw last week,” or it may be even more subtle. Just a feeling of being aroused, and he’s not even sure how it started. He just knows that now, it seems like all he can think about – preoccupation. Inevitably, in the addiction cycle, this preoccupation builds to the point that he is going to do something about it, in the way he usually does something about it. Generally, this involves some sort of ritualization, where behaviors start coming out that normally come out – maybe he makes sure he is alone, he pulls the shades, he opens incognito mode so his history isn’t stored…you get the idea. Soon after, this leads to acting out – the carrying out of the behaviors that lead to release. After acting out, there is generally despair. “Here I am again. I swore I’d stop! I knew better than to go online! I’m never going to get any better.” There is a hopelessness here.

It’s the “I knew better” that gets him. He does know that pattern. Most of the time, when I would ask someone to identify the ritualization pattern, he would be able to recall it with relative ease. He knew how the problem worked. He just didn’t act differently based on that knowledge.

To an extent, that is the difference between wisdom and prudence. Wisdom is the blessed interpretation of knowledge bestowed either directly from the Holy Spirit or indirectly through our experiences. We can ask for wisdom, and God tells us that He will give it to us. In this passage, we find that if we seek wisdom diligently, we will find it (Proverbs 7:17).  Prudence, on the other hands, is wisdom practically applied. It is taking what we know and actually living by it in our actions. It is the necessary co-requisite for a godly individual to live a godly life, and it’s absence is easily summed up in the statement, “I knew better!”

Now understand, the application of this lesson is not exclusive to addiction. How many times before have you done something and thought, “Well that was stupid. I knew better than that!” While it may not be the hallmark of your everyday, this disparity between what we know and what we do shows up on a regular basis. Ever cheat on a diet thinking, “It’s just this one time,” when you know full well that kind of sabotage has ruined your health plans before? Ever spent money on something you didn’t need just because you wanted it when you knew full well of an expense coming up that required monthly savings that you now don’t have? Ever set a resolution to change a behavior toward something you know you ought to be doing only to find yourself acting out old patterns within a few short weeks?

We often fall short when it comes to prudence, but we don’t have to.

“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion…. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver.”

Proverbs 7:12, 17-19

Wisdom is ours for the having. The trick is to start living by it once it has been obtained. It is the combination of received wisdom from above and our intentional acting upon it. But it starts with receiving it in the first place, and that comes from seeking it on purpose, and that seeking starts with seeking God, the author of all the wisdom worth having. Just by spending time in these devotions you are improving wisdom. Well, if you’re reading the actual books of the Bible that go along with what I’m saying. Those words, the one’s in Proverbs, that’s the real wisdom.

Maybe that’s why it’s called “Wisdom Literature.”

So, since the real wisdom comes far more from the book itself and far less from my (or anyone else’s) comments about it, perhaps I should just leave you with how Solomon ends this discussion in Proverbs 7.

“Blessed is the one who listens to me: blessed are those who keep my ways.
Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it.
Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.
For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord,
but he who fails to find me injures himself;
all who hate me love death.”

Proverbs 7:34-36 (ESV)