In the same way, the fool thinks he can live without God, and he fumbles his way through life. The fool has his heart, his understanding, his mind and reasoning set at a disadvantage. It is as if he chose to be deliberately left-handed whenever he uses his mind and consequently all his thinking and his knowledge of himself, the world and God is affected. In his overconfidence he thinks he has the ability to cope with life’s dangers and pitfalls, and to reach his destination safely without a guide in heaven. He dreams away far above his capability. The natural and obvious thing is to go through life seeking the help of God. But no, he says ‘I will prove my independence from God. I don’t need his forgiveness; I won’t ask for his guidance; I don’t need to pray; I won’t seek light from the Bible to shine on my path through life; I will not go to Christ for life.’ He thinks he can make out on his own. Viewed by God we reject the natural and the obvious. Life is dangerous; we stand to lose not just our physical existence, but our eternal souls. It is foolish to leave God out of the reckoning. You can’t control your life. Things will blow up in your face and go wrong. It is not the preacher who says this; it is the Lord himself speaking to us through his word. He means to persuade us, not just to knock us down. Seek the Lord, become his child through conversion, and your desires will move to your right hand, and you will live life the way God intends you to live.
As a result of that ungodly choice, we experience the pain of doing daily battle with conscience. Conscience has power in the believer to bring great happiness and a deep sense of peace, but the unbeliever is only tormented by it. He goes through life not understanding its purpose and lacking any profound meaning to his life, having instead to create meaning for himself from the passing projects of time. He cannot understand himself or the world around him; he cannot understand his final destiny, and all this because he rejects the revelation of God in his word. Worst of all, he makes God his enemy and so finds himself judged throughout life and living with the certainty of eternal condemnation. He is a dependant being and cannot be anything other than this, but he struggles constantly to deny that dependence and to steal each breath without recognising his Creator.