Starved for Wisdom in the Age of Infinite Information
Three passages from Proverbs on how to actually make a decision
When I was packing to go camping with my sons, I had a list: food, water, a way to cook without a fire, warm enough gear, sleep setup. I may have gone overboard, after all, my main camping gear consists of an 18 year old tent and backpacking gear me and my wife got when we got married. But we all do this.
At work you keep track of details you can’t afford to forget. Kids do it for school and chores. In college you learn the course catalog, your degree program, your plan. The course catalogue was a particularly sore discovery in college as my degree program plan didn’t allow me to take electives like Enology and Equine Studies. But planning well is a key aspect of life. It takes skill. And it takes wisdom.
Planning a trip or finishing a project is one thing. What about who to marry? Where to go to college? Where to send your kids to school? What job to take? Those decisions need even more wisdom.
And we live in a day where information has never been more readily available and yet people are starved for wisdom. Paralyzed by decisions. Overwhelmed and anxious. Some have parents they can ask. Some have good friends. Some might even call their pastor. And a growing number are turning to AI for wisdom on all sorts of things.
Remember your high school guidance counselor? Someone whose job it was to help you decide where to go to college based on your grades and interests. To help you navigate applications and decisions or let you know if that service project you did was any good. Many of us would love to have a guidance counselor or a coach through every big call. Where do we find people like that? Three passages, in particular, can help us plan well and decide well.
Find Your Counsel in Christ
Proverbs 11:14 — “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.”
The word “guidance” here is referring to wise counsel. John Gill said that without wise counsel, “a people, a kingdom, a commonwealth, nation, or city, fall into ruin and destruction…they are like a ship without a pilot, or without a helm, or one to steer it.”
It is crucial to have wise counsel in your life. And as your responsibilities and opportunities increase, you need more of it not less. You need more wise counsel as a husband and father than you did when you were a single man. Why? Because more is at stake.
What happens when there is no guidance? A people falls. Two things go wrong:
Rash decisions. Without wise counsel, you make calls that are quick and poorly informed, taking on risk that could have been avoided.
No prudent consultation for the common good. You don’t think through the implications of your decisions for the people around you.
And the opposite: an abundance of counselors means safety. Why? Because if you consult several people and they agree, a clear path is laid out. Isn’t it nice when that happens? You have a big decision, you consult three people, and they all say the same thing. That’s how I finally decided to drop my PhD. I called trusted counsellors and they pretty much agreed that a “firebrand” like myself was unlikely to be hired as a college or seminary professor.
What about when the wise counsel we once had is gone? I lost nearly all of my counselors in 2020. Nearly all the men, the pastors, scholars, and theologians who I trusted, turned out to be laundering woke ideology. I didn’t have many I could trust at all. That happens. Whether through a breach of trust or a falling out. Or you lose a parent, or a trusted friend you used to turn to. If you need men of good counsel and don’t have them, go to the Lord.
This is why we must go to Jesus. He is our Wonderful Counselor. We hear “counselor” and think therapist. But Christ is wisdom incarnate. He doesn’t merely comfort and console you in your troubles. He guides you. He gives you wisdom. He is our chief counsel.
Find Your Cleansing in Christ
Proverbs 16:1–6 — “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord…”
The plans of the heart, those desires and visions we have, belong to us. We are to submit them to God’s will and prepare our hearts to glorify and worship the Lord in all things. The Bible does not teach that we should not plan or think through decisions. It nowhere teaches that it is more spiritual to have no plans.
But how those plans unfold belongs to the Lord. That’s the key. We must have faith in God for how the plans actually play out.
You may have a great plan and no idea how it will actually go. This causes most of your frustration in life, doesn’t it? You had a great idea for how your day would go and it got derailed by something you couldn’t have predicted. We must trust the Lord. We must trust his providence.
Two errors get made here, often:
Having no plans, visions, or desires. This is often a way to stave off disappointment, and it sometimes masks itself as spiritual maturity. It isn’t. In our liberal age, the one who is “carefree” or a free spirit, who has no plans, and just “goes with the flow,” is perceived to somehow be more mature when in fact they are often incredibly immature. In evangelicals circles, this character masks their immaturity by talking about “following the Spirit” when in fact they are often blaming the Spirit for their lack of performance and follow through.
Assuming your plan will unfold according to your design. This is very common. We have a great plan and wonderful hopes for our day. But our days rarely go how we want. We think we are in control of establishing steps when the opposite is true. Verse 9 says it plainly: “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”
Matthew Henry: “If men devise their way, so as to make God’s glory their end and his will their rule, they may expect that he will direct their steps by his Spirit and grace, so that they shall not miss their way nor come short of their end.”
The Lord is the one who knows the spirit, the heart. We think ourselves right and just, but we must entrust ourselves to him. We are often either our own worst accuser, thinking ourselves as only to blame, or our own best justifier, thinking ourselves blameless before him. Either way, we’re looking to ourselves instead of God. That’s self-esteem in the worst sense. You become the end-all-be-all determiner of matters. Both are prideful dispositions.
What does it mean to commit your work to the Lord? You leave the success of all things with God. Cast all your care, support, and supply upon him. Pray to him about your plans and about your heart. Leave it with him, and then work. Resign yourself to his providence. Pray that his will be done, and then act.
The man who knows this peace of God says, the will of the Lord be done. He knows God causes all things to work together for good, and whatever is for his good and God’s glory shall be brought to pass.
There is a strong word in this text for those who don’t trust providence, who expect everything to go their way without committing anything to God: arrogance. It is called an abomination. And here we have to distinguish between arrogance and confidence.
Arrogance is assuming the place of the Lord. It is his rule, his power, his authority to see the heart and establish paths. Arrogance is assuming a level of control and authority that is not afforded to you.
How do you know if you’re being prideful? Pride is most often discernible in your conduct toward God and others not through constant self-examination. Some of the most prideful people I’ve met have been the most introspective. Instead, you will see pride more clearly in how you treat people than in how you audit your own thoughts.
Confidence, by contrast, is a steadiness in the Lord and in the duties he has assigned to you, along with your ability to complete them. You don’t think of yourself too highly, but you know what you’re good at, and you trust the results to God. That’s confidence. In our day, confidence is often mistaken for arrogance. We think the man who jokes about how stupid he is or downplays his competencies is being humble. Often that is pride wearing a costume.
How do you know if you’re actually trusting in God’s providence? If you find yourself regularly angry that things aren’t going according to your plans. If you find yourself losing sleep over things you cannot control. That’s an area to bring to the Lord in humility, giving him your desires and trusting him completely.
All of us have had these moments. They do not please God. What do we do with them? Notice what the text says: iniquity is atoned for by steadfast love and faithfulness. Who can accomplish that but Jesus Christ? He is the one whose steadfast love drove him to the cross for our iniquities.
Find atonement in him.
Find Your Confidence in Christ
Proverbs 3:5–7 — “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding…”
Do not give the total trust of your heart to education, pedigree, money, work, politics, religion, piety, another man or woman, or your own wisdom and insight. Give your total heart trust to the only one worthy of it: the Lord. He has all power and authority. In him is love, grace, mercy, justice, and beauty. Trust in Christ for salvation. He is the only place where salvation is found. God does not ask you to muster a faith that feels strong only to come to him with a faith that is sincere.
As John Gill put it: “Trust in him at all times; in times of affliction, temptation, and darkness.”
This is a habit to cultivate now, before hardship comes. Matthew Poole: “wholly and securely rely upon God’s promises and providence for help and relief in all thine affairs and dangers.”
To place your trust in salvation in Christ does not mean we do not seek to have trusting relationships or even a high-trust society. Instead, it orders those other relationships rightly so that when others disappoint us or let us down, we have a bedrock trust in Christ because only Christ can save sinners.
The question we must ask ourselves is simple: Am I trusting in the Lord with all of my heart?
“Do not lean on your own understanding” does not mean you shouldn’t have competencies and skills you use. It’s the opposite of the first phrase. Don’t put your trust in them, because they can and do fail. Apart from Christ, the mind of man is darkened and blinded by sin. But Christ saves. And God gives his Word to feed and sustain us, so we can perceive rightly.
As the Proverbs say, you will have ways. In all of them, acknowledge him. This is why we say grace before we eat. Even in our eating, we acknowledge him.
To be wise in your own eyes means to not trust in God and not give him the glory. To be conceited and self-sufficient in a way that denies His sovereignty.
What is the opposite of being wise in your own eyes? Fearing the Lord. That is the beginning of wisdom. It is opposed to pride.
And what is required to turn away from evil? Turning toward God. It is not enough to say, “I will not do evil.” You must turn toward him. You will be aimed at something. You must be aimed at God.
The Three Together
There are many decisions you have to make in life. You will need counselors as you make them. But remember to find your chief counsel in Christ.
When you make plans and trust his providence, you can rest easy in his provision, whether the day brings a business deal gone bad or a baby throwing up in the middle of the night. Sometimes you’ll turn away from providence and into pride. For that, you must find your cleansing in Christ.
And your ultimate hope, where your trust actually lives, has to be in God. You have to give him your heart. Putting your confidence in anything else will let you down eventually. Whether it’s your strength, your wisdom, or another person. You must find your confidence in Christ.
You may have big visions and big desires. Good! You may have wonderful plans. Great! But do not yourself in the place of the arrogant who deny the Lord and only look to themselves. Find your counsel in Christ. Find your cleansing in Christ. Find your confidence in Christ.
This sermon was preached at The Well Church in Boulder, CO on July 12, 2026. To listen to this sermon go here. To watch this sermon go here.