Day 6 | Knowledge Application

Read Proverbs 3:5–8

God’s knowledge is without limits. To contrast that with your limited knowledge, consider this brief exercise: On a blank sheet of paper, draw a large circle to represent everything that can be known. Then, fill in a part of the
circle to represent how much you know. If you are an honest person, you will be staring at a lot of empty space at the end of this exercise. It’s humbling to realize that within the entire story of the cosmos, you’ve only been around for a few years; you’ve only seen through two eyes; you’ve only heard through two ears; and you have limited faculties to understand the relationship between every point of knowledge and its infinite counterparts.

In Proverbs chapter 3:5–8, the wise king Solomon is teaching his son to live in the sobering reality of his own limitations. Solomon knows that the day his son thinks he “knows it all” will surely be the day he loses his way and meets his own destruction. Far better to trust the one who has the picture on the front of the puzzle box than to trust yourself with a few small pieces of a 5,000-piece puzzle. Solomon pleads with his son—God knows more than you know. He see what you cannot see. Lean into His knowledge, and don’t pretend you know more than you actually know.

To trust God more than your own understanding means learning to obey fully what you do not fully understand yet. Jesus once said to Peter, “What I’m doing you don’t realize now, but afterward you will understand” (John 13:7). God will someday make clear to you why His way was superior to the way you might have gone, that just might not be today. Good parents don’t let their toddlers eat all the sweets they want, whether the toddler fully understands tooth decay or not. Like a good parent, God’s instructions for your life are grounded in knowledge far greater than your own. He knows the way to a full, abundant life, and He is eager to lead you there.

Pray for 10 minutes