• Wisdom with your finances?
• Wisdom with your relationships—neighbors, boss, spouse, or kids?
• Wisdom for life in general, and how to actually live it well?

Here's a fun fact: The Old Testament book of Proverbs contains 31 chapters.

Most months have 30 or 31 days. I am presenting a simple challenge: Read one chapter of Proverbs every day of the month for the rest of your life.  The day of the month corresponds to the chapter of Proverbs you will read that day. 

This might take you all of two or three minutes daily, yet you will be flooding your mind and heart with God's wisdom in a way you never have before.

Proverbs is not a collection of fortune cookie platitudes. It is a divine guide to life, covering everything from wealth, friendship, laziness, our words, husbands, wives, and children. Proverbs contains phrases and sayings that can literally change the direction of your life because they are God's words given to us to live a life of wisdom instead of foolishness.

None of us can claim to have all the "ins and outs" of life figured out, so why not let God's wisdom guide us?

The Wisdom Imperative

The entire book starts with the goal: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Proverbs 1:7).

Another verse makes the goal clear: "The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight" (Proverbs 4:7).

It is simply saying that getting wisdom must be at the top of your priority list.

Perhaps you've been asking God for wisdom for a long time about a specific situation, and the answer just doesn't seem to come. What if the answer to your prayer has been sitting in the book of Proverbs, just waiting for you to read it? James promises that whoever asks God for wisdom will get it from Him (James 1:5). This daily reading could be the answer.

What would happen to the course of your life if you set an alarm for the same time every day, and God's wisdom was infused into your ordinary routine?

Start Today

Today is the 30th of October, so I encourage you to begin right now by reading Proverbs Chapter 30 (below).

As you read, pay attention. Maybe one or two verses apply to a specific situation in your life right now. Circle them. Then, tomorrow, read Chapter 31, and then start at the beginning of the book November 1st!

Will you take the 3-minute challenge?

Verse 1 The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle.

The man declares, I am weary, O God;
    I am weary, O God, and worn out.
2 Surely I am too stupid to be a man.
    I have not the understanding of a man.
3 I have not learned wisdom,
    nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.
4 Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
    Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
    Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son's name?
    Surely you know!
5 Every word of God proves true;
    he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
6 Do not add to his words,
    lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
7 Two things I ask of you;
    deny them not to me before I die:
8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
    give me neither poverty nor riches;
    feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9 lest I be full and deny you
    and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
    and profane the name of my God.
10 Do not slander a servant to his master,
    lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.
11 There are those who curse their fathers
    and do not bless their mothers.
12 There are those who are clean in their own eyes
    but are not washed of their filth.
13 There are those—how lofty are their eyes,
    how high their eyelids lift!
14 There are those whose teeth are swords,
    whose fangs are knives,
to devour the poor from off the earth,
    the needy from among mankind.
15 The leech has two daughters:
    Give and Give.
Three things are never satisfied;
    four never say, “Enough”:
16 Sheol, the barren womb,
    the land never satisfied with water,
    and the fire that never says, “Enough.”
17 The eye that mocks a father
    and scorns to obey a mother
will be picked out by the ravens of the valley
    and eaten by the vultures.
18 Three things are too wonderful for me;
    four I do not understand:
19 the way of an eagle in the sky,
    the way of a serpent on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
    and the way of a man with a virgin.
20 This is the way of an adulteress:
    she eats and wipes her mouth
    and says, “I have done no wrong.”
21 Under three things the earth trembles;
    under four it cannot bear up:
22 a slave when he becomes king,
    and a fool when he is filled with food;
23 an unloved woman when she gets a husband,
    and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.
24 Four things on earth are small,
    but they are exceedingly wise:
25 the ants are a people not strong,
    yet they provide their food in the summer;
26 the rock badgers are a people not mighty,
    yet they make their homes in the cliffs;
27 the locusts have no king,
    yet all of them march in rank;
28 the lizard you can take in your hands,
    yet it is in kings' palaces.
29 Three things are stately in their tread;
    four are stately in their stride:
30 the lion, which is mightiest among beasts
    and does not turn back before any;
31 the strutting rooster, the he-goat,
    and a king whose army is with him.
32 If you have been foolish, exalting yourself,
    or if you have been devising evil,
    put your hand on your mouth.
33 For pressing milk produces curds,
    pressing the nose produces blood,
    and pressing anger produces strife.