Here’s a thought for you to consider as the new year begins. Ignorance puts us in prisons of misunderstanding and unreached potential. Knowledge and understanding frees us. Proverbs 4:7-9 (MSG) says, “Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom! Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding! Throw your arms around her – believe me, you won’t regret it; never let her go – she’ll make your life glorious. She’ll garland your life with grace, she’ll festoon your days with beauty.”
Let me encourage you with three extremely practical, fail-safe ways to gain wisdom and understanding. These will help you become all you can be, reaching your full potential and fruitfulness. I can do this best with a story.[1] There once was a man, living in the forest, who was hungry. He had an old rifle and just three bullets. So, he decided to go hunting and kill something for dinner. As he went down the road, he saw a rabbit. He shot his first bullet at the rabbit and missed. The rabbit ran away. Then he saw a squirrel. He shot his second bullet at the squirrel and missed it too. The squirrel disappeared into the bushes. As he went further, he saw a large wild turkey in the tree. He had one bullet remaining. A voice spoke to him and said, “Pray first, aim high and stay focused.” As he took aim, a deer ran across the road. He brought his gun down and aimed at the deer. Just then, he saw a rattlesnake between his legs, so he brought the gun down to shoot the rattlesnake. At that moment, he heard the voice again saying, “Didn’t I say, ‘Pray, Aim high and Stay focused?” He realized it was God speaking. So, he decided to obey. He prayed, then aimed the gun high up in the tree and shot the turkey. The bullet bounced off the turkey and killed the deer. The handle fell off the rifle, hit the snake in the head and killed it. As it went off, the recoil knocked the man into a pond. When he stood up to look around, the man had fish in all his pockets, a dead deer and a turkey to eat… and the snake was dead.
The story illustrates the three extremely practical, fail-safe ways to becoming all you can be and reaching your full potential and fruitfulness. These are: (1) to pray first before you do anything, (2) aim high, and (3) stay focused on God. Regardless of what life may offer you, good, bad or ugly, just pray, aim high and stay focused on God… and, “Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom! Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding!”