A friend of ours recently admitted that he struggles with doubting God, even the very existence of God, even though he has been a serious follower of Christ for several years, is enthusiastically studying and memorizing Scripture, is intently pursuing a daily walk with Christ, seeks to influence others, and acknowledges that God has done things in his life personally that confirms to him God’s direct involvement in his life.  I also attended a conference earlier this month at which the main speaker candidly admitted that he wonders at times if the atheists are right, even though he has been a believer for 40 years and has had significant ministry on several military bases, college campuses, and on three continents.

Thought:  The start, or foundation, of a walk of faith is simple:  the fear of God as a reverential respect, a sense of awe at who He is and of His greatness, magnificence, and incomprehensibility.  We tend to be afraid of that which we do not know - fear of the unknown; that is not what is being referred to here.  The basis for our walk of faith is an acknowledgement that God is who He says He is.  We deeply respect that which we do know, and the more we know who God is, both intellectually and personally, the more we fear Him with a clear understanding of His greatness and power! I fear God because of what I do know of Him! But this is only the start, the beginning, the foundation of my faith journey.

Thought: We are exhorted to seek wisdom, to diligently pursue learning and discovery of all that is around us.  This is how we build on that foundation of the fear of God.  A ‘disciple’ is a learner.  A lifelong pursuit of God for me includes a fascination with all of life, and that fascination propels me to continue to want to learn.  (One of my problems is that I am interested in just about everything!)

Psalm 85:11 - “Truth springs from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.”  - *NASB

*[Note: the word 'truth' is translated 'faithfulness' in other versions]

Thought:  As I study and learn about the earth - life, music, math, sciences, human nature, etc., I will be growing in my understanding of who God is, for all of creation is embedded with His nature.  When I study the earth, I learn more about God Himself.  Yet I must remember that what I am learning is an incomplete picture in two ways.  I will never grasp all there is to learn about a particular subject or idea.  Also, what I learn from the earth lacks righteousness.  Creation itself “groans” because of sin (Romans 8:19-23).  A more complete understanding of life can only come from heaven, and will be more clearly understood only with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Thought:  The world through its wisdom will not be able to know God (see v21).  Man, in his cleverness, has devised logic and arguments that discredit the validity of the Bible and the very existence of God.  Their points of view can seem logical and quite convincing.  But our faith must not rest on “the wisdom of man”, including our clever attempts to counter the arguments that oppose faith.  It is not a debate that we can win.  We are not to debate our faith, but defend and confess it by living it.  There is a time and place to reason with and persuade men (Acts 19:8), but there also comes a time to realize that debate will accomplish nothing (II Timothy 2:15; Titus 3:9).

Thought:  We must be careful as we analyze and evaluate what we study and what we read and hear.  Our enemy will do whatever works to get us off track and mislead us (see Matt 24:24).  As we continue our pursuit of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, it must be with a trust in God as the foundation.  As I once heard quoted, “When I am faced with something about God that I do not understand, my response should not be to question or challenge Him, my response should be to worship Him.”.

“When you listen and read one thinker, you become a clone.  If you really spend a lot of time listening and reading two thinkers,  you become confused.  If you really spend a lot of time reading and listening to about ten thinkers, you’ll start to develop your own voice.  If you listen and read about two or three hundred, you’ll actually become wise, as well as develop your own voice.  However, the first couple that confused you…always stay with you…”  [thus the imperative to start with "the fear of God"]