February 8, 2025 Devo

It always astounds me a bit when I hear about people who don’t believe that God exists. To me, the existence of things, especially of the earth and the people upon it, shows the design and complexity of a universe that can only be explained by a Creator. Does it really make sense that an eye just evolved? Or that our DNA “just happened?” Or that all of the millions of varieties of life on our planet “just came to be?” Life from non-life is not a jump of faith I can take.
But that kind of atheist is not what David is referring to in our Psalm today. David is not talking about someone who doesn’t believe in God. He’s talking about someone who believes in God but LIVES as if they don’t believe in God! The “fool” is not someone who can’t intellectually accept that God exists. The fool is the one who believes God exists, believes God created it all, and even believes that God ultimately rules over it all. But they have decided that God doesn’t rule over THEM.
Jesus ran into this a lot in His ministry. Many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were believers in the intellectual sense of the word. They didn’t just believe that God existed, they taught others that He existed. But they LIVED as though He didn’t. They were cruel. They were self-seeking. They oppressed the poor, the disabled, and the needy. They were rigorous when it came to rituals, but they possessed none of the Spirit of God. God described them in Isaiah as people who “serve me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Jesus called them “white-washed tombs.” They were Fools. They were atheists of the heart. They thought their knowledge of God would be enough to escape accountability. But they were wrong.
How about YOU? Do you believe in God? Not with just your mind, but do you believe in Him with your heart and in the way you live? It’s wonderful to believe that God not only exists and created all that is. But it’s even more wonderful to live a life that shouts of God’s existence and with a spirit that draws others toward Him. Make no mistake. To say you believe in God but live like the world is the kind of fool David is referring to. You’re not an atheist of the mind. You’re an atheist of the heart. That’s God’s Word for you today.