Where Wisdom Begins

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 114, Where Wisdom Begins.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Proverbs 9:10.

Let that land for a moment. Don't rush past it. The beginning of wisdom. Not one ingredient among many — the beginning. The starting point. The place where everything else comes from.

And the world will tell you the opposite. The world will tell you wisdom is something you accumulate — more years, more data, more experience, more degrees. That the wise person is the one who has read the most, seen the most, lived the most. But Solomon — the wisest man who ever walked this earth — opens his mouth and says: no. Wisdom does not start inside you. It starts before God.

And I need to tell you what this fear is not. Fear is not dread. It is not tiptoeing through life afraid of making a mistake. To fear the Lord is to take Him seriously — genuinely, all the way down. It is standing before the immensity of who He is and feeling the awe of knowing exactly where you are. It is marveling at His greatness and loving His holiness. It is the reverence of someone who has walked into the presence of someone infinitely greater and gone still — not out of terror, but out of wonder and deep respect.

That is where it begins.

And the verse carries us further: the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Not knowledge about God — knowledge of God. A Person. A living relationship. The more you know Him, the more the world comes into focus. The hard decisions get clearer. Priorities line up — money, time, relationships — everything starts to settle into its right place when the foundation is right. The starting point sets the destination.

And notice that word: beginning. Beginning is not a ceiling — it is a door. It means there is a road ahead. The reverence you practice today becomes the discernment you carry tomorrow. Every step taken in the presence of God is another step higher on the path of clarity. Not all at once — step by step, day by day, all the way to the summit. Wisdom grows. And it grows from here.

So I want to invite you to do one thing today. Just one. Before you pick up your phone — before the first notification, before the first scroll — stop. Breathe. And speak one sentence to God. Not a list of needs. One sentence about who He is. It can be simple: "Lord, you are great." "You are holy." "I know whose presence I am in." Let reverence come before the screen. Let wisdom begin before the noise of the day rushes in.

That is the first step. And it is enough.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.