Topic: To Become Wise, Spend Time with Wise People [RICK WARREN Devotional 1 December 2021]

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To Become Wise, Spend Time with Wise People

“Spend time with the wise and you will become wise, but the friends of fools will suffer.”

Proverbs 13:20 (NCV)If you want to be wise, invite wise people into your life.

You don’t need a lot of friends. You don’t need to be popular. You just need a few good friends who build you up, not tear you down—who are wise, not fools.

If you hang around with fools, that’s what you become. But if you spend time with wise people, you’ll grow wiser. It’s like the old saying: “If you want to soar with the eagles, you can’t run with the turkeys.”

People grow best in community. You can’t grow to spiritual maturity by yourself.

Also Read: Open Heaven 1 December 2021 – Topic: CHRISTIAN SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 

You could become a monk and move to the top of a mountain and spend your life in silence and reading books. You would grow in knowledge, but you wouldn’t grow in wisdom.

Why? Because wisdom is all about love. Wisdom shows up primarily in relationships. That’s why a lot of people have academic degrees, but their marriages are falling apart. They’re educated, but they’re not wise.

The Bible says in Proverbs 13:20, “Spend time with the wise and you will become wise, but the friends of fools will suffer” (NCV).

If I stand on the edge of a stage, and I’m trying to pull you up while you’re trying to pull me down, which is easier to do? It’s always easier for somebody to pull you down than pull you up. People who pull you down are not your true friends. Real friends pull you up. They encourage you in your pursuit of godly wisdom by offering their own.

Do you have anybody in your life who is sharing their wisdom on a regular basis? You need that kind of encouragement in your life if you want to be a wise person.

• Who are the people closest to you? How are they encouraging you in spiritual growth and wisdom? How are they distracting you from learning to live wisely?
• What wise person would you like to cultivate a deeper relationship with? Or, if you’re an older, more mature Christian, what younger believer would you like to invest time with?
• Is it more important to you to have a lot of friends or a few deep relationships? Why do you think this is so?