Psalm 10:4 describes the Western Israelitish nations: the wicked do not seek God, and God is in none of their thoughts. Even where the Bible is accepted, it has become one voice among many, and nominal Christianity has weakened its force by distorting the image of God. Some picture a God who is distant and uninvolved, as in Zephaniah 1:12. Others picture an indulgent benefactor who blesses but never judges, so that calamity cannot be an act of God. Job, however, asked whether we should accept good from God and not adversity. Nominal Christianity appoints itself judge over what God may do, crediting nature, chance, conspiracies, or Satan for what He claims as His own. Yet God says He will send plague, fever, consumption, and pestilence when His people reject Him (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28; Jeremiah; Amos 3:6; Isaiah 45:7). Whether the COVID-19 pandemic began with a bat, a lab mishap, or a deliberate release matters less than that it fits what God promised, and disbelieving His word is part of what invites the curses. God uses even wicked men, such as Hazael, the Chaldeans, and Nebuchadnezzar, as instruments, so fixating on human origins limits Him. The nation hardly discussed its moral state and instead blamed politics, nature, or the Devil, then vowed to rebuild stronger, like Babel's builders. God sends lesser calamities to turn His people back (Amos 4:6-12). The fitting response is to examine one's own life, acknowledge that God creates calamity, grieve over abominations, and humble oneself, seek Him, and turn (II Chronicles 7:13-14).

Scientists who discuss the Icelandic volcanic eruption in online livestream chats explain it entirely in naturalistic, evolutionary terms, speaking of millions of years and purely material forces. They credit "Mother Nature" or personify the Earth as a rational being, nearly to the point of invoking Gaia, and none acknowledges God's part in creating and setting in motion the massive forces that sustain the earth and make it habitable. Whether God caused this particular eruption is left open, since it may simply be a built-in mechanism for relieving the planet's interior pressure. Still, this exclusion of God is a current example of Romans 1:18-21, where men ignore God's obvious attributes displayed in creation and deliberately suppress the truth about His involvement in it. It also recalls Hebrews' statement that Christ sustains all things by the word of His power. God's rebuke of Job in Job 38 shows the right perspective. Asked where Job was when the earth's foundations were laid and the sea was shut in with bounds, Job learned that these great forces obey God, and he was humbled, seeing himself as less than a worm. Even a modest volcano gives a glimpse of God's beauty and power, and it is good to consider His greatness and say with Job, "now my eye sees You" (Job 42:5-6).

People often fail to keep God in their thoughts in a true and accurate way. They imagine conceptions of God that are unworthy of Him and act as though those conceptions are real. This practice forms the essence of idolatry. Wrong thoughts about God begin when people stop seeking Him after making a covenant with Him. They allow their imaginations to run wild and substitute their own ideas for what He has revealed. Such misconceptions lead them to live in ways that displease Him and produce moral and spiritual decline. God charges those in covenant with Him to seek Him so that they may live. Seeking involves learning His attributes, character, and the way He lives life. Abraham provides an example of one who added up what he knew about God and acted on that knowledge rather than on guesses or emotions alone. In contrast, most people today hold vague or false ideas drawn from many sources other than His Word. These ideas leave them without awe or respect for His majesty. A right conception of God serves as the necessary foundation for right conduct. Without it, people cannot truly know Him, love Him, or live as He lives. Eternal life consists in knowing God in this intimate way. Therefore those He has sought out must continue seeking Him with diligence throughout their lives.

God is not a reality to most people, and that is why the world sins and scoffs. Psalm 10:4 says the wicked, through pride, will not seek God, and "God is not in all his thoughts." Even religious people may think about and pray to a distorted god. Ezekiel 8 shows Judah's leaders practicing idolatry in the "chambers of his imagery," saying the Lord does not see, yet God knows every thought and intent (Hebrews 4:12). Ecclesiastes 8:11 explains that when judgment is not immediate, the carnal mind concludes God did not see or does not care, and goes on sinning, like a child who thinks he has gotten away with something while a parent watches. Scoffing at Christ's return calls God a liar, and so does refusing to believe what God says about His Son. The world's leaders likewise offer only carnal solutions to coming calamity because they do not seek God. Pride keeps people from Him, and humility opens the way to reality. Isaiah 2 shows that God will humble mankind and abolish its idols, making Himself real through fear. Believers can avoid that lesson by keeping God in their thoughts daily, through prayer, study, and sacrificial obedience, and by not sleepwalking through the Christian life. Real faith grows into a desire not to sin and a personal, intimate relationship with God.

Israel had an incredibly difficult time keeping God in mind, forgetting Him almost as if He did not exist despite the daily witness of the manna, the cloud, and the pillar of fire. Manna pictures the food that feeds and strengthens, fulfilled in Christ as the true bread of life, while the cloud and fire picture God's guiding presence by day and by night. Because the Israelites were not truly listening to Moses, and faith comes by hearing the word of the Lord, they did not think about God or His importance to their daily lives, let alone their prospects in the Promised Land. They lived without faith or hope, did not seek to be like Him, and so did not know Him, though knowing God is eternal life. They did not look, as Abraham did, for a city whose builder and maker is God. The remedy is to see God's hand and sovereignty in everything that unfolds. In Deuteronomy 2 and 3 He controls the peoples' tempers and decisions, assigns lands to Edom, Moab, and Ammon, and hardens Sihon's heart, so that nobody pushes Him around. When Israel keeps Him in view and acts by faith, He opens doors, fights for them, and shuts doors that would hurt them.

God makes His existence and commands so simple that anyone of normal mind can comprehend them, and Romans 1:20 shows that creation leaves mankind without excuse for denying Him. The first sin in Eden illustrates why people still sin after God reveals Himself: Adam and Eve actually saw Him and knew He had created them, yet they did not truly believe in His personal reality or what He said. Eve judged by what she could see, and Adam, who was not deceived, deliberately sinned to please Eve, making an idol of her. Their actions were preceded by thoughts that were not like God's. They preferred Satan's appeal to their vanity, the promise of becoming like God, over His plain command. Seeing God did not help, because something within shuts the mind to the fact that He is, so even those who claim belief sin anyway. A second hindrance is not being convicted that sin is truly bad, though the world's wars, broken families, disease, and debt all display its effects. Proverbs 26:2 says the curse does not come without cause, and the cause is simply not doing what God says. Sin never improves anything, and its end is always death.

God cannot be reduced to our own categories, and the question of who He is remains a mystery hidden from the world. Most people hold a one-dimensional view of Him as loving, Provider, Healer, or Savior, but Exodus 34:6-7 shows both soft and hard traits: He is merciful and gracious, yet by no means clears the guilty. He loves and hates, makes peace and war, blesses the obedient and curses sinners. Malachi 1:2-3 states that He loved Jacob and hated Esau, and Romans 9 affirms there is no unrighteousness in this, because God is sovereign and does as He wills. Jesus Christ is likewise multifaceted: gentle and lowly of heart, blessing children, yet denouncing the Pharisees as a brood of vipers and driving the money changers out with a whip. Though God is too complex for finite minds to grasp fully, defining Him too simply confines Him to what we comprehend, ourselves, making Him a somewhat greater human who is limited and tamable. Psalm 50:21 warns against thinking He is altogether like us. This thinking leads to presuming on forgiveness, treating His commands lightly, and eventually rebelling, as Israel did in the wilderness when they limited the Holy One (Psalm 78:41; Hebrews 3:17). The Bible draws a straight line from limiting God to death. Instead, God must be recognized as holy, pure, transcendent, and infinitely greater than revealed, producing humility and submission to His Word (Isaiah 66:2).

God's sovereignty extends over all things, even over beings who have corrupted themselves. As seen in the life of David, when God moved him to number Israel, He did not cause him to sin, but rather revealed the sin already present in David's heart—self-reliance and the absence of God in his thoughts. David's focus on military might and personal circumstances, rather than trusting in God, demonstrated a deeper issue of selfish ambition and presumption. These sins existed in his heart before the census, and God's action in prompting the numbering simply brought this hidden sin into the open for healing to begin. David's failure to consider God and His instructions, evident in both the improper census and his handling of the Gibeonites, showed that God was not in his thoughts, leading to grave consequences. Despite this, God, in His mercy, opened the way for David to see his error, allowing restoration to start.

Mankind's trouble with God is not intellectual but a matter of where the mind is set. Romans 8:5-7 shows that the carnal mind is self-centered and hostile to God, so it has little time for Him or His purpose, and what the mind fixes on takes over one's time and energy. This nature is within every person from birth, and it perceives God as an enemy. Romans 1:18-22 teaches that the unconverted are without excuse: God's invisible attributes are plainly seen in creation, yet people suppress the truth, ignore Him as if He did not exist, and become futile in their thoughts. They are not merely sleepily unaware but actively resisting, which explains God's controlled anger. Jesus said the world rejects God because it does not truly know Him through relationship (John 15). Adam and Eve show how quickly this works: though they knew and spoke with their Creator, their minds were fixed on the fruit and on pleasing each other, not on God, and they did not believe Him. A Catholic correspondent who clung to human authorities over Scripture on death illustrates the same suppression. Building a structure without a plan is unthinkable, yet people live amid a far greater creation and give its Builder little thought. They are not in their right minds because they focus on the wrong things. Believers must deliberately set their minds on things above (Colossians 3:1-2), using the gifts God provides.