Understanding

DEVOTION
PROVERBS
UNDERSTANDING
Prov 1:5-6
5 let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance —
6 for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.
NIV
It is always a good thing to be open to the teaching of the Holy Spirit especially when it comes to God and his word. Sometimes I wonder if I am not open, due to the rigid mindset I have regarding what I feel God has revealed to me already. Yet I do desire to add to my learning so I suppose I actually am not as closed mind as I think I am. I do seek to know more about God and how what he desires for me and from me. I certainly cannot say I am not in need of additional learning or of guidance, for I am surely in need of both. How could I live my life if I were not guided by his word? I could I live if I was stuck with the limited learning I have now? I am in constant need of adding to my knowledge and understanding of how God is and deals with me. I am in continual need of his guidance for my footsteps. I dare not even think of what I would be like, or what I would be doing, if it were not for him. If I was left on my own, I can only imagine the condition I would be in. But I am not alone, I have the Holy Spirit guiding me along my life, helping me to learn more, giving me insight into God and his ways. These proverbs I am taking a journey through will do both of those things. I will be able to learn more, I will be about to get additional guidance for my lifestyle of serving God and being useful within the Kingdom of God. I have to remain open to whatever the Holy Spirit reveals to me. If change is needed, I must not only be willing to change, but actually change. If correction is handed to me, I must accept it, repent and get on track. Sometimes I wonder if I can remember all that I learn, and if I can actually apply it all, all of the time. I think the struggle is still the old self, yelling for attention, demanding its own way, and trying to drown out what I have learned in order to apply it and thus do what is counter to that old self. Why the struggle? If I have considered myself dead to sin, why is that self still here? That is a mystery I may not yet understand. But I know my desire is to learn more, and to live in order to please him. I know my desire is to have God guide my life. I do not want to live as I did before, but I desire to live for him. So even with the screaming and yelling going on deep down inside someway, I need not pay attention, for I only want to hear that still small voice of God teaching and guiding my way. I want more understanding.