Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Life is full of ups and downs. There are going to be some great days and some really hard days. I just want to take a moment together right now to really think through what's bringing us down in life. Are there any dark clouds over our heads? Any anxieties we're holding on to, anything that robs us of our joy? It's easy to cover those things up, but it's a whole other thing to actually address them and start to work through them.
I want you to think about all of the places you run to when it feels like you're just being drained of your joy. When sadness looms overhead, where do you turn? That's not an accusation—I'll be the first to admit that a lot of times I'll instinctively run to the wrong places. Places I'm just so used to going to that never actually satisfy, never actually fulfill. We know spiritually where we're told to run. But there's another place I want to encourage us to look, and it comes from our Verse of the Day.
It comes from Proverbs chapter 3, verse 13. "Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding."
Why Wisdom Brings Joy
No matter where I'm at in life, I could always use more joy. When I was growing up, I actually struggled with some really heavy depression, and it got really bad. I was thankful to grow up in a believing household, and I was always encouraged to read my Bible and to pray. Here's the problem—I was never actually told why that would help me in my depression. I would grab my Bible, flip to a random page, start reading, maybe understand some of it, and then close the book and put it back on the shelf. I would pray and talk to God pretty much like I would talk to anybody else—no real direction, just kind of word vomiting.
When we're told to do these things as spiritual disciplines, what we really need to understand is that the Word of God and our time in prayer are both meant to lead us into wisdom. It's that wisdom that brings us joy. You might be thinking, why does wisdom bring joy? Because when I think of somebody who's wise, the first thing that pops into my head is some old guy with a long gray beard sitting in a room full of books, with years of life experience. I don't think of him as somebody joyful. Biblical wisdom is not just intellectual. It's seeing what is good and what is bad, what is of God and what is evil and sinful.
Time With God, Not Just Words About God
As we open up the Word, we're not just looking for phrases to repeat over and over. When we come in prayer, these aren't incantations that magically change our situations. There are times to sit down with God and actually be in His presence. That is so amazing to me. When I sit down with the Bible, I'm not reading a book about God. I'm actually spending time with Him. When I'm praying, these aren't words that I hope reach His ear eventually—He's listening in the moment. In all of that, He's leading me into wisdom and the paths of righteousness that ultimately allow me to live my life the way God intended, to avoid the obstacles that cause me to stumble, to avoid unnecessary hurt. It doesn't mean life is going to be perfect, but as we draw near to the heart of God, we'll find that joy grows.
The Wisdom of Solomon
This is why I love the story of Solomon. In 1 Kings we read that after his father David dies and it's Solomon's turn to take the throne, we learn that Solomon, like David, loved God and walked righteously. As Solomon was going to make sacrifices, the Lord came to him in a dream and said, "Ask, and you shall have it—whatever you think you need most right now, it's yours." Here's a young man who's anxious, stressed, with plenty of reasons to be robbed of joy. He's watched nations try to conquer Israel, and now it's his turn to lead a nation that has been led by an amazing man. What does he ask for? He doesn't ask for more strength or more resilience. He doesn't ask that people would be more afraid of him. He asks for wisdom and understanding so that he could lead the people closer to the heart of God—a nation rooted in the joy of the Lord.
If you're facing a time like that right now, I promise you—the Word of God, time in prayer, all these things that lead us into wisdom aren't just to change our minds. They're to change our hearts as we grow closer in our relationship with God, and as He pours out His joy into our lives.
