Break the ice. What person from history would you add to Mount Rushmore, and why?

Read Proverbs 1:20-22 and Proverbs 6:6-11.

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20 Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; 21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: 22 “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?

6 Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. 7 Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, 8 she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. 9 How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, 11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.

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Discuss the text. Foolishness takes on many forms and comes out of us in different ways. There are four kinds of foolishness personified in these passages: the simple, the scoffer, the stubborn and the sluggard.

1. Wisdom is crying out in verse 22, but the people ignore her for their own foolish desires. The concern is not that we cannot know Wisdom, but that we don't want to know. Why do you think foolishness (pride, coarse joking, selfishness, anger, presumption) is so tempting to follow after?
2. How do your relationships help or hinder your pursuit to be a person of wisdom?
3. What kind of foolishness do you see in your own heart that needs more of the grace of Jesus Christ?
4. How can we help one another walk in the wisdom of God?

Prayer Walking as a group, with a friend or individually: read Luke 10 this week, and choose a place to prayer walk. (Go to a neighborhood, a school, a workplace, or an area where a certain group of people gathers.) Ask God how he is already working in that place and to guide your steps as you…

W - worship. Declare the Lordship of Jesus Christ in that place.

A - ask. Ask God to save the lost, to bring more laborers and to reap a harvest.

L - listen. Slow your pace and listen.

K - know your community. Find ways to spend time there.

Prayer walking is the practice of praying in a specific location where we ask God to move and work. We keep our eyes open and walk around a certain place, asking God to remind us of the people and needs around us, to please intervene and save the lost and to give us boldness to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

May we live (and walk prayerfully) in God’s world in God’s ways this week. Amen.