The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. (Proverbs 9:10, ESV)
In Southern California, we have a Links Fellowship that meets weekly in an indoor golfing studio. What a facility! The video equipment is amazing—maybe too amazing. I went on the monitor once and he compared my swing to one of the top PGA golfers swing. Ugh! I was so off plane, it was a bummer. Here I thought I had a good swing, but compared to this professional, I was way off. I realized in a moment that I needed to work on my swing with this knowledge of the correct golf swing and golf plane.
This summer, I have the privilege to counsel and to marry a few couples. When they asked me to marry them early this past year, I said I would be honored to, but they must go through a six-month marriage counseling session with me. After they agreed, we started on this journey.
My wife and I celebrated 35 years of marriage in May. Both ups and downs have happened in our marriage. What I have learned in that time is that without Christ and marriage counseling before and after our wedding, we could have easily given up. But also I cling to the book of Proverbs, because it is full of wisdom for the married couple (and everyone else!).
As I finish my counseling sessions with engaged couples, I have them read through the book of Proverbs. There are 31 chapters and the easy way to read the book is a chapter a day, so you are done in a month.
Proverbs 9:10 picks up a refrain of Solomon throughout this great book. It allows us to answer the big question, “Where do we find wisdom?” It begins, according to Solomon, with fear of the Lord.
When I started my journey of following Jesus as my Lord and Savior, this verse was key. My mentor would remind me constantly, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom!” In other places, you’ll read “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Humans hunger for knowledge. I have a friend who is right now a non-believer. He is a bright man, but his proud intellect gets in the way of trusting in Christ. Here’s what I believe, though: as this friend seeks God, he will find him. And when he finds him and surrenders his life to him, so many things will make sense. Why? Because in fearing the Lord, he will attain wisdom, not just factual knowledge. The creator of all things will provide the basis for my friend’s understanding. Now that’s a sure foundation!
I don’t know if I will ever understand my golf swing well enough to catch up to the PGA pros on the video screen. But I do know that when people seek God as their source of knowledge and wisdom, they set themselves up for exceptional living.
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Dereck Wong
June 9, 2015
Copyright 2015 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.