The Fear of the Lord is the Beginning of Wisdom
Job 28:27-28 Then He saw wisdom and declared it; He prepared it, indeed, He searched it out. And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”
Every heart longs for greatness and to be known. We can suppress it, call it prideful, attempt to defeat it by an intentional act of our will, or pretend it isn't there, but the truth is, every heart was made longing for greatness and recognition. To be seen, appreciated, and valued. This was built into every heart. This desire is not bad, it is what we do with this desire that can free us, or enslave us. As we express desire, we get that thing bit by bit. Everyone gets what they want in the end, and worship is the highest expression of desire. Whatever we worship we will eventually become like. We are made to "behold and become."
The problem with the human experience is not the things our heart hungers and thirsts for. No! God is the one who takes credit for the hidden desire formed in the heart. The heart...our mind, will, and emotion... is the warehouse, shipping and receiving, and main office for processing desire, and the heart was created for good works by God:
Psalms 33:13-15 The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
So, why does my hungry heart so often mislead me?! Why does it desire...worship...lesser things that can never satisfy? Because my heart is "wired," in the mercy of God, to worship what I see. When God laid the basic blueprint for the heart of mankind, HE was the most glorious One in the room. Adam was made to gaze on God. God made man to lock eyes on the Father so that He might continually guide us, lead us...Father us...to encourage us, and tell us of our worth.
Like any good Father, God always desired to impart identity and value into His sons and daughters. God, the eternal well of perfect love and beauty, would have never gotten boring for Adam, had Adam not let His gaze fall to the lesser things. This is what the evil fruit of the one tree of rebellion was: knowledge of what was "less than" good...less than God.
Mark 10:18 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
God is the flowing well of goodness...the Tree of the Knowledge of Good AND Evil offered another option...to know life in the absence of God. Adam chose, at the prompting of the snake, to try life without God for a minute...his gaze fell...and so did his capacity to encounter infinite holiness. Adam gazed on darkness and became something less than perfectly bright.
When mankind took on darkness, for love, God erected a veil between His perfect blazing holiness, and the darkness now in man. Light destroys any darkness, and God was unwilling that His beloved man be destroyed. Until the process of rescue could be carried out, God withdrew from the garden He had created for His own delight. Nature itself fell as the Holy Presence of the Father withdrew...thorns grew and up and even the ground hardened.
Suddenly, Adam's eyes lit on everything "less than" God. Oh, the dilemma of what to worship now! His neighbors wife? His brothers horse? The recognition of men?...to be known and elevated by his family, or city?...fame, wealth, status, the quick filling of appetites...all these began vying for man's desire, yet none of them could ever satisfy him. So many options now for what to make his life about, where before the obvious choice overwhelmed every other, simply by beholding God's glory.
Worship is the highest expression of desire, and we become whatever it is we worship. This is because of God's commitment to free will. God refuses to make us worship the only thing that could satisfy our desire...which is Him. But He HAS made it possible to worship Him, if we choose:
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Love REQUIRES a choice to love back. If we worship God...turn our gaze to rest on His infinite beauty, let our desire be focused at him and His perfect qualities of goodness...make Him our very source of satisfaction, and our reward...let His opinion outweigh any other...living for His recognition...then we become more like Him! This is what frees us from the lesser opinions of our identity the world may impose on us, if we let it.
This is the default mode of man: to let the world shape our identity. The world trades power...elevation...for loyalty. This enslaves us to the fear of man's opinion. The divine option is to, by an act of choice...to cry out for it...fear the Lord's opinion, which brings liberty. The Lord's opinion is rooted in perfect goodness!
II Corinthians 3:16-18 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is , there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The truth is, my heart was made for eternity. It was designed to be satisfied forever....unending... Noting less than an infinite source of satisfaction could ever have a chance of meeting the needs of my heart. Everything less than infinite falls short of what my heart really needs. No person can notice me enough to really satsify my heart. No one could ever say enough nice things to be enough to quiet the longing of my heart. No group of people could think I am smart enough, or anointed enough, or beautiful enough to satisfy my longing for greatness. But this is the dilemma...all those people are easier to see than God. They are an easier to obtain source of feedback. Those lesser sources of recognition offer me a more instant gratification, but a much lower view. It is easier to seek out my neighbor's opinion, as inaccurate as it may be, than do the hard work of locking my gaze on God, the glorious well of infinite beauty on the other side of the veil who hast the perfectly true opinion of my value. All the loud and clamoring voices are much easier to tune into than the still soft voice of infinite knowledge and power...
Yet, none of those louder voices could ever satisfy my heart. There is nothing they could say that could hold my heart forever. Even if they made me king of all creation....this form of creation is passing away...it is going to be renewed by the One who longs to satisfy my heart forever...starting now!
No one is born with the fear of the Lord. Fear is connected to what we see, by nature. It takes intention to dwell in the constant desire to elevate God's opinion over every other. It takes intention to isolate that One conversation and draw from it who I am. But, He is worthy of it, and I am worth it. Worship is what strengthens my heart, establishes it in truth, and feeds me on whatever it is I am directing my desire to. I want to drink from the well that will never run dry...the living water that will forever refresh my soul!
Psalms 37:3-11 Trust in the Lord , and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord , And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret— it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the Lord , They shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, But it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Isaiah 57:13 When you cry out, Let your collection of idols deliver you. But the wind will carry them all away, A breath will take them. But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land, And shall inherit My holy mountain.”
Every heart longs for greatness and to be known. We can suppress it, call it prideful, attempt to defeat it by an intentional act of our will, or pretend it isn't there, but the truth is, every heart was made longing for greatness and recognition. To be seen, appreciated, and valued. This was built into every heart. This desire is not bad, it is what we do with this desire that can free us, or enslave us. As we express desire, we get that thing bit by bit. Everyone gets what they want in the end, and worship is the highest expression of desire. Whatever we worship we will eventually become like. We are made to "behold and become."
The problem with the human experience is not the things our heart hungers and thirsts for. No! God is the one who takes credit for the hidden desire formed in the heart. The heart...our mind, will, and emotion... is the warehouse, shipping and receiving, and main office for processing desire, and the heart was created for good works by God:
Psalms 33:13-15 The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks On all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
So, why does my hungry heart so often mislead me?! Why does it desire...worship...lesser things that can never satisfy? Because my heart is "wired," in the mercy of God, to worship what I see. When God laid the basic blueprint for the heart of mankind, HE was the most glorious One in the room. Adam was made to gaze on God. God made man to lock eyes on the Father so that He might continually guide us, lead us...Father us...to encourage us, and tell us of our worth.
Like any good Father, God always desired to impart identity and value into His sons and daughters. God, the eternal well of perfect love and beauty, would have never gotten boring for Adam, had Adam not let His gaze fall to the lesser things. This is what the evil fruit of the one tree of rebellion was: knowledge of what was "less than" good...less than God.
Mark 10:18 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
God is the flowing well of goodness...the Tree of the Knowledge of Good AND Evil offered another option...to know life in the absence of God. Adam chose, at the prompting of the snake, to try life without God for a minute...his gaze fell...and so did his capacity to encounter infinite holiness. Adam gazed on darkness and became something less than perfectly bright.
When mankind took on darkness, for love, God erected a veil between His perfect blazing holiness, and the darkness now in man. Light destroys any darkness, and God was unwilling that His beloved man be destroyed. Until the process of rescue could be carried out, God withdrew from the garden He had created for His own delight. Nature itself fell as the Holy Presence of the Father withdrew...thorns grew and up and even the ground hardened.
Suddenly, Adam's eyes lit on everything "less than" God. Oh, the dilemma of what to worship now! His neighbors wife? His brothers horse? The recognition of men?...to be known and elevated by his family, or city?...fame, wealth, status, the quick filling of appetites...all these began vying for man's desire, yet none of them could ever satisfy him. So many options now for what to make his life about, where before the obvious choice overwhelmed every other, simply by beholding God's glory.
Worship is the highest expression of desire, and we become whatever it is we worship. This is because of God's commitment to free will. God refuses to make us worship the only thing that could satisfy our desire...which is Him. But He HAS made it possible to worship Him, if we choose:
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Love REQUIRES a choice to love back. If we worship God...turn our gaze to rest on His infinite beauty, let our desire be focused at him and His perfect qualities of goodness...make Him our very source of satisfaction, and our reward...let His opinion outweigh any other...living for His recognition...then we become more like Him! This is what frees us from the lesser opinions of our identity the world may impose on us, if we let it.
This is the default mode of man: to let the world shape our identity. The world trades power...elevation...for loyalty. This enslaves us to the fear of man's opinion. The divine option is to, by an act of choice...to cry out for it...fear the Lord's opinion, which brings liberty. The Lord's opinion is rooted in perfect goodness!
II Corinthians 3:16-18 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is , there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The truth is, my heart was made for eternity. It was designed to be satisfied forever....unending... Noting less than an infinite source of satisfaction could ever have a chance of meeting the needs of my heart. Everything less than infinite falls short of what my heart really needs. No person can notice me enough to really satsify my heart. No one could ever say enough nice things to be enough to quiet the longing of my heart. No group of people could think I am smart enough, or anointed enough, or beautiful enough to satisfy my longing for greatness. But this is the dilemma...all those people are easier to see than God. They are an easier to obtain source of feedback. Those lesser sources of recognition offer me a more instant gratification, but a much lower view. It is easier to seek out my neighbor's opinion, as inaccurate as it may be, than do the hard work of locking my gaze on God, the glorious well of infinite beauty on the other side of the veil who hast the perfectly true opinion of my value. All the loud and clamoring voices are much easier to tune into than the still soft voice of infinite knowledge and power...
Yet, none of those louder voices could ever satisfy my heart. There is nothing they could say that could hold my heart forever. Even if they made me king of all creation....this form of creation is passing away...it is going to be renewed by the One who longs to satisfy my heart forever...starting now!
No one is born with the fear of the Lord. Fear is connected to what we see, by nature. It takes intention to dwell in the constant desire to elevate God's opinion over every other. It takes intention to isolate that One conversation and draw from it who I am. But, He is worthy of it, and I am worth it. Worship is what strengthens my heart, establishes it in truth, and feeds me on whatever it is I am directing my desire to. I want to drink from the well that will never run dry...the living water that will forever refresh my soul!
Psalms 37:3-11 Trust in the Lord , and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord , And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret— it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the Lord , They shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, But it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Isaiah 57:13 When you cry out, Let your collection of idols deliver you. But the wind will carry them all away, A breath will take them. But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land, And shall inherit My holy mountain.”
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