Day 1 - Issue 22
Proverbs 1:7a NLT
'Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge.'
Discernment has never been within my natural talents. For me the moment is the thing. With the benefit of hindsight, I’ve often let myself down by acting in the moment. This has been for the immediate pleasure I anticipate, or, as when caring for Katey, the release that emotional overreaction seemed to give me. Reading situations well or acting politically has never been a strength. It’s one clear reason my career took off but very quickly plummeted back to earth. I self-evidently lacked the talents for navigating my way through the world of work that expects more planned and predictable behaviour. Not that my ability to ‘rock the boat’ wasn’t taken and used effectively by those more politically astute than me.
Late in life, and only through experiencing personal disappointment, have I discovered what the fear of the Lord is. I am not quaking in a quiet place hoping to have hidden myself from the gaze of God, a modern-day Adam in the garden. No. The fear of the Lord is respect and love for God and his ways, and these are not limited to some moral code. For years I believed following Jesus was about living a morally improved life. How wrong I was. Fear is indeed about discovering how to discern God’s will and way for my life. After all, my life is all I will have to give an account for on judgement day.
For one who enjoyed breaking rules, pushing boundaries, creating social disruption, I have discovered what an idiot I was for all those years. Now it is the work of discovering God and the reality of the eternal that runs as a continuous border with the material world within which I live.
No more is it a case of devising my career plan or furthering my own interests. It’s far more exciting; discerning the presence of God, deepening my understanding or friendship with him, and living his life in this material world. This is indeed the beginning of all true knowledge.
QUESTION: How does your way of life show love for God and his ways?
PRAYER: Lord, teach me how to discern your ways and your will in my life.
