"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction." Proverbs 1:7

I think I would be embarrassed, pleased, but undeserving if someone said: 'Katrina fears the LORD, and this is why she's so wise!' (Snort!) If I were foolish, this would seem very wise and wonderful to me! However, I am not very wise--and this I know! 

What is it that makes one wise?! The world would say: experience. Experience and cunning, shrewdness, astuteness, the ability to discern other's motives and to hide your own. Those things, when used for self, are selfish and self-centered. Any 'wisdom' we have that serves our own ends is not wisdom at all! 

But what if wisdom could be gained through these things? Experience certainly teaches us when the stove is hot, or whom to trust and when. And cunning and shrewdness and astuteness are not necessarily bad things--when used to catch a thief or sort out evil or escape from a snare set for yourself or others. But those things are still the wisdom of this world, and are limited in the sense that we can never know or see or understand everything--

This is where people get tangled. We love to acclaim worldly wisdom, but in Psalm 2 it says that God laughs at all our raging and scheming and attempts to deny him. It is the height of vanity to assume that God needs us!

Ah--God!

The FEAR of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. 

Isn't that a lovely thing?! The world refuses to fear God--and remains foolish in all its 'wisdom.'  

But the man (or woman!) who can get past their own fat ego to acknowledge that their own wisdom only goes so far, and that there MUST be a wisdom and a power and a glory forever--greater and higher than they--who can understand this?! What is that glory? What is it that fills us with awe and wonder at a rose unfurling, a tiny ant with the world on its back; the immensity of the universe, the depths of the sea? 

The foolish refuse to listen to wisdom and instruction: they despise it. And at the end, their knowledge will crumble into less than dust, for who can hold a memory in his hand?

The fear of the LORD is the BEGINNING of knowledge. Those who recognize the greatness and power, the glory, the immensity, the knowledge and wisdom and love and kindness and justice that is God--there is no breath within them! God knocks us to our knees--literally and figuratively. We are so helpless before God's magnificence that we fall to our knees involuntarily. Who can stand before God?! Not the righteous or the unrighteous. For there is only one who can stand before God--Jesus! 

As the Son of God, only Jesus was worthy to be the perfect living sacrifice to clean us up from the mess of our sins. The sins that lead to death. And by dying for us, the unrighteous, Christ made a way for us to stand before God--clean, pure, righteous and holy.

And then we fall to our knees in worship and awe and amazement, and fear is cast out, for there is no fear in love.

Wisdom is the ability to understand that you are nothing before God. Despite this, despite His wisdom and power and majesty, he cares for us--for us! He loves us deeply, passionately, recklessly. That is just the beginning! When our eyes are opened, we slowly, slowly begin to know him (although we will never completely know him!), and to comprehend the incredible power and love and sacrifice he made for us, and how HE ALONE is worthy of our honor and praise and glory!

Let's reach for wisdom today and leave those foolish thoughts behind! Don't be a fool! Do not despise the LORD'S wisdom and instruction! Praise Him for His wisdom and the tiny portion of wisdom He gives to us!