SCRIPTURE: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7 NIV
QUOTE: “For the wise men of old, the cardinal problem of human life was how to conform the soul to objective reality, and the solution was wisdom, self-discipline, and virtue. For the modern, the cardinal problem is how to conform reality to the wishes of man, and the solution is a technique.” C.S. Lewis
THOUGHT: If there is a New Testament equivalent of Proverbs 1:7, it might be Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Both writers claimed, thousands of years ago, that there is a starting point, a beginning to knowledge, and that is faith. The awareness that there is a God, and he has a stake in the outcome of our lives.
If we never get to that place – the place of worship, really, the place where we finally let God be God rather than us – we fall, by default, into the camp of fools, or “arrogant fools” says the Amplified version. We begin the process of conforming reality to our own wishes, says C.S. Lewis. And I agree, not based on judgement of others, but on personal experience. I tried so many ways to conform reality to my wishes, rather than allowing the God of the Universe to conform my soul to his reality. I didn’t really like the solution of wisdom, self-discipline, and virtue, but once my arrogance toward God was broken, I could see that it was like a fulcrum – everything tipped toward the desire for wisdom and away from the arrogance of believing I could do this life on my own.
PRAYER: Fearing you, finding appropriate awe of you, has been the fulcrum of my life, oh God. I never want to go back to disbelief, to arrogance, to the camp of fools, but forward from this knowledge to wisdom and the rewards of those who earnestly seek you.
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Blogger Amy Clemens is the author of Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. In it she explores childhood sexual abuse and how it impacted her faith (or lack thereof) for four decades. You’ll find not only her story, but better yet, the Big Story of God.
Check out Walking When You’d Rather Fly, and learn more about the book and Amy’s other ministries. You will also find her devotional work at Words of Hope.
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