How to Get Smart

How would you counsel someone if they wanted to get smarter? You might tell them to go back to school. You might say to visit the library. You might tell them to take an online class. Or you might even tell them to get out in the world and learn by experience-through the school of hard knocks.

We have thousands of universities with PhD level professors who think the way to get smart is to study science and literature and philosophy. We have gurus of finance who will (for a fee - call now, operators are standing by) tell you the smartest way to invest your money. Even your friends and buds are quick to tell you how to become more intelligent.

Now - I'm not knocking education, or experience, or friendship. But I think that sometimes in this world we have it backwards when it comes to how to get smart.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. ESV

Fear can be a healthy thing. It can keep you from getting a speeding ticket (for most of us anyway), it can keep you from putting your hand on a hot stove or of going into that cave with the snoring sounds coming out of it.

The kind of fear here in the Hebrew has two components: 1. Be afraid, be very afraid and 2. Be in awe. God is not someone to be triffled with or taken for granted. You will die if you come into His presence on your own. He is also something to be in awe of - imagine a being that holds the entire universe together, knows every thought of every person who has ever lived and manages the entire thing so it works together perfectly in ways we can't even imagine.

So step one in how to get smart is to fear God. Step two is to seek His knowledge diligently.

Proverbs 2:4-5 If you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, 5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. ESV

If we start with knowing who we are in relationship to God, and that real wisdom only comes from Him, then we are in better shape to learn the things that will really benefit us - those things that draw us close to Him. Words to get smart by.

Pastor Tom