ABOUND IN DISCERNMENT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Philippians 1:9-11

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Do you need advice on how to handle things in life?

I think we have all been there at one time or another and this is what we typically discover.

There are plenty of people who are ready to give us there opinion.

It’s true, isn’t it?

Just reach out to people with your issue and see how many people are eager to tell you what you should do. And often, there is such variation in these opinions that it can leave your head spinning as to which one is best.

This is where the power of discernment is so incredibly important. A person needs a trusted way to know what is right with absolute certainty, not so much what is right in the world’s sight but what is right in God’s eyes.

Thank goodness the Lord has given us three primary resources we can seek to ensure we will always make the right choices.

First, He has given us His holy word. Allow the scriptures to be your guide and you will be well on your way to living in right and righteous ways.

Think of the Bible as God’s life instruction manual, given to His people as a gift. He not only tells us how He wants us to live and does so through the lens of challenges we face but He also gives us historical context by showing us people who succeeded and failed by either following His word or rejecting it. All we need to do is follow the lead of those who were obedient and avoid the ways of those who weren’t.

In the scriptures, we also find the life of Jesus, not just documented in one book but four, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Four men with four different accounts of Jesus’ biography and when taken in whole, a person has a full picture of God’s only Son, the only person who has ever lived a perfect life. We could never have a better role model than Jesus.

A person also has the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the Counselor Jesus promised that God would send after He left.

How critical was the Holy Spirit to living the way God intended?

So critical that Jesus ordered His disciples to not enter into any ministry work until they had received the Spirit, an act that happened on the day of Pentecost in an upper room in Jerusalem.

Jesus had physically been with His disciples before and could dictate to them what they should and shouldn’t do. But after He ascended, a new guide was needed, a guide who could provide divine discernment to Jesus’ followers from that point forward. This guide was the Holy Spirit and He is still guiding us this very day, illuminating the scriptures to bring us understanding and reigning in our consciousness to lead or convict us as needed.

Finally, we have been allowed direct access to our Lord through prayer. Some have jokingly said that this was the first instituted wireless communication and truly it was. Just as we can pick up a cell phone at any hour of the day and get connected, so too can we approach our God, knowing that He is always available.

Now, think about this for a moment.

We need to live as God desires and God is always available to receive and answer our prayers.

What better way of finding discernment is there than that?

There isn’t. We just need to do it.

You see, this is where we falter more often than not. We have these three amazing ways to seek and find what the Lord wants us to do and too often, we don’t use them. In Proverbs, we find the following words of wisdom:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Proverbs 3:5-7a

Friends, we should write these words in our minds and on our hearts for they will always keep us focused on the true source of discernment.

As we look at our passage from the opening chapter of Philippians, we find the Apostle Paul exhorting the Philippian Christians to seek and find discernment in their lives and through His words, we see the benefits of doing so, benefits that still exist today. Look again at his words here:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

Paul used the power of prayer here to intercede for the Philippians. He hoped they might have a deep devotion toward pursuing “knowledge and depth of insight” in order to “discern what is best” so to appear “pure and blameless” on the day when Jesus returns.

This is where the Lord will always lead us when we dedicate ourselves to finding discernment through His word, Spirit, or prayer for He wants to make us more and more like His Son. And when we become more and more like Jesus, which is what a Christian should do...become Christ-like in their living, then a believer will be filled to overflow with the fruits of righteousness, all to the glory and praise of God the Father.

What are the fruits of righteousness?

Paul mentions them in the fifth chapter of Galatians where he writes:

“...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Vv. 22-23a

Allow the Lord to lead you, seeking wisdom and understanding through Him and all He has provided, and you will abound in discernment in your life, harvesting the abundant fruits of the Spirit that you can share with others.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com