I am so blessed and challenged by the Word of God. How thankful you and I ought to be that our absolutely awesome Creator communicated with us in a very special revelation called the Word of God.

My personal Bible reading right now has me in the Book of Proverbs. According to 1 Kings 4:32, Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs. One of the interesting ways that the king wrote was the characteristic of comparison. Think of the contrast in the verse I have for us today.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7).

Think of it. Genuine, life-changing knowledge starts with fearing God. This is a good old fashioned heavy dose of recognizing what I am (sinful and in need of a Savior) and Who He is as the absolutely holy, omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), omnipresent (everywhere present), gloriously awesome God. The response to this is a sense of awe, breathtaking awe in worship, reverence, respect, and obedience. It is the wholesome dread of displeasing Him. It is the shrinking away from anything that would offend Him or cause Him grief.

I am not against greater education, but that’s not where Godly knowledge and wisdom begins.
I am not against advancements in career, but that’s not the source of genuine knowledge and wisdom either.
I am not against success in business, but that as well is not the source of wisdom and knowledge.

Want to be wise? It starts with fearing the Lord. More about this tomorrow!

During your day today: If I were to be rated on my consistent fear of the Lord on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being little or no fear of the Lord and 5 being great fear of the Lord, what would my typical number be? I’ll be looking forward to continuing our conversation tomorrow.