Active, not Passive

1 My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, 2 Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; 3 For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; 4 If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; 5 Then you will discern the fear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God. Prov 2:1-5 (NASB) I love James 1:5. There are so many times, especially in the journey of parenthood it seems, that I long for just a morsel of wisdom. God promises that all I have to do is ask, and it will be given to me. What a comfort! As with so many things in Scripture, though, we take that so passively. "If I'll just ask, then all I have to do is sit back and wait and He'll give it to me!" We even take James 2:6-8 passively, thinking that we can just avoid doubt and we'll be fine. But, if we combine the verses in James with these verses in Proverbs, we see anything but passive requesting. We see words like receive, treasure, make, incline, cry, lift, seek, and search. Those are action words! They are outlined in this Proverbs passage to show that work must follow the request. Even once the wisdom is given, we are told to use it to be active in our use of it - to discern and discover. I'm asking for wisdom today. As I ask, I must dig into God's Word, actively open my eyes and ears to take note of wisdom showing herself all around me, and then put that wisdom into practice when it is revealed to me. I must act on my request. And, I'm just feeling the excitement right now as I realize that this activity is energized by the Spirit Himself. Wow!