Knowledge is a friend of faith, essential to faith and to our relationship with God in the spiritual life.

You know something when you are able to deal with it as it is on an appropriate basis of thought and experience.

People perish for lack of knowledge, because only knowledge permits assured access to reality; and reality does not adjust itself to accommodate our false beliefs, errors, or hesitations in action. Life demands a steady hand for good, and only knowledge supplies this. This is as true in the spiritual life as elsewhere.

Keep in mind that God did not say that Job was wrong in what he said, but that he did not understand what he was saying.

Prayer, it is rightly said, is the method of genuine theological research, the method of understanding what and who God is.

But what is true of Christianity in its inception and history is true of other religions as well. They all present themselves as providing knowledge of what is real and what is right. To think otherwise is to falsify the very nature of religious consciousness and religious life

It is desirable to base our beliefs on knowledge wherever possible. Knowledge stabilizes true belief and makes it more effectual for good as well as more accessible and shareable.

Knowledge is the basis of belief, and, when it is, it gives the belief a very different bearing upon life.

The spirit is able to consider alternatives, and God prompts us to have an interest in what is better and best.

What has to be done, instead of trying to drive people to do what we think they are supposed to, is to be honest about what we and others really believe. Then, by inquiry, teaching, example, prayer, and reliance upon the spirit of God, we can work to change the beliefs that are contrary to the way of Jesus. We can open the way for others, Christians or not, to heartily choose apprenticeship in the kingdom of God.

God both develops and, for our good, tests our character by leaving us to decide. He calls us to responsible citizenship in his kingdom by saying—in effect or in reality—as often as possible, "My will for you in this case is that you to decide on your own".

We are not only asking to be forgiven, we are asking for guidance and wisdom and strength to respond differently tomorrow.