Two tools to have at the ready

 My child, don’t lose sight of common sense and discernment. Hang on to them for they will refresh your soul. They are like jewels on a necklace. (Proverbs 3:21-22)

So many times, we count on something other than common sense to get us out of a sticky place. We got ourselves there because we didn't use common sense in the first place! Discernment is just a fancy word that describes the ability to see good from bad and then make the best choice. When we don't use either of these helpers God gave to us, we find ourselves in a muddle. God's purpose in giving us these "tools" was that we'd actually use them.

We aren't acting "independent" of God when we use discernment. We are using the good sense he gave us to "interpret" the moment. Yes, we might shoot up a quick prayer asking God to give us wisdom, but we can begin by listening to our conscience. It tends to niggle us a bit when common sense tells us something is not right for us. Perhaps our conscience has become a little confused by the many times we have violated it. God can restore it when we ask for his help to discern correctly what the moment challenges us with.

The tools God gives in the form of good sense and discernment are in our "immediate" toolbox of 'godly helps' to assist us in making wiser choices. Ignoring them while waiting on God to reveal something else that we label as "godly wisdom" is just silly. The more we use the discernment he gave us, the stronger it will become. Notice that they are gone kept close. That is because they are our"go to" tools when temptation or uncertainty arise. They are like our first line of defense. 

The wisdom God develops as we lean into these tools will become apparent to us as we look back at how we handled the temptation or trial. Just use what you were given and see how God multiplies his good sense and discernment in your life. Sometimes the simplest "tools" are the best ones to use. Just saying...

That isn't what I thought I saw

Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction. (Psalm 29:18)

Many of us think of 'vision' as the ability to see with our eyes. When it is not there, such as when we have been plunged into darkness by someone covering our eyes with a blindfold, we grope our way through life, don't we? We have to rely upon our other senses or else we will stumble. How well do you move in this state of total darkness? Are your movements as fluid as normal? Not likely - you probably take shorter steps, feeling your way to make sure your footing is solid before you even take the next one. I think we sometimes approach our spiritual life this same way - with a "blindfold" of sorts making us "stumble along" with uncertainty and a lack of vision. Vision is more than what we see with our eyes - it is what we hope in our hearts, understand with our minds, and sense in our spirit. Perception and discernment - the combined form of actually "seeing" and "knowing". If you have ever seen something, but then had to ponder for a while what the thing was you were beholding, you might know what it is like to possess sight without understanding. If you can interpret the general shape of an object while blindfolded, you might be able to guess at what it is you are not seeing, but you might not know for sure. Perception and discernment go hand-in-hand. They are God's way of helping us not only walk, but to do so with assurance and firm foundation.

Perception is the ability of the mind to actually apprehend an idea - we call this cognition. Discernment is the ability to put some "discriminating thought" into what it is we perceive. In other words, we can make some "judgment" based on what we know. We are reminded that without vision a people perish. In other words, when we don't have a clear perception of the redemptive work of Christ in our lives, we stumble around a lot. We need to apprehend (comprehend) the redemptive work of Christ - making us new creations in him. We give a lot of "lip-service" to this idea of being new creatures in Christ, but I wonder how many of us are really wearing our blindfolds and just stumbling along trying to perceive, but having our perception blocked by the self-imposed blindfold. Open your eyes with a blindfold on and what do you see? The blindfold! With the blindfold in place, we only have "internal reminders" of the things we previously perceived. We stumble around the furnishings because we remember their general shape, size, and likely location. We don't actually see them, but we recall what it is we know about them in order to avoid them. I wonder how many "hazards" in life we merely stumble around, blindfold in place, simply with the use of our "internal reminders" of them being there? The memories we form might give us a perception of the way things "were", but the ability to discern how they "are" now is only possible when the blindfold is removed by the grace of God's work in our lives.

The purpose of the blindfold is to impair the awareness or clear thinking of the one who is wearing it. When we put a blindfold on a child, spin him around, and then send him toward the picture of the donkey on the wall with a little "tail" to pin on it, how does the child respond? It becomes clear that his awareness of his surroundings is altered by the blindfold and his disorientation as to where he 'stopped' when he launched forward to pin the tail. He doesn't think clearly, but blindly walks forward (at least he thinks he is walking forward) and aims at whatever he comes into contact with. The danger is the tail may get "pinned" where it doesn't belong! Awareness or clear thinking are necessary in order to perceive. Until we have clear thinking, the thing we "think" we perceive will be only based on what it is we have formed an internal reminder about in our memory. Vision is the ability to have clear thinking and awareness of the redemptive work Christ is doing and has done in us. The redemptive work began at the moment we welcomed Jesus into our lives as our Savior. The work continues each day until we reach perfection in Christ Jesus. Since none of us are there yet, I believe we need to continually ask him to help us remove the blindfold from our eyes, so we see clearly what he desires to do in every area of our lives. We can stumble around with past memories (internal reminders), or we can get a fresh perceptive. The choice is ours. I think it is time to begin to ask God to remove some of the blindfolds we might have just kept on because we were afraid of the light! Light exposes, but once it does, the internal reminders are free to be understood exactly for what they are - past perceptions which need not influence our present reality! Just sayin!

Help me to get this one

We are often reminded of the importance of allowing the moral foundation of our lives to be rebuilt or "re-formed" by the hand of God, in order to affect the choices that ultimately work to form our reputation. Add to that the attribute of spiritual understanding and you have a recipe for a strong walk. This is definitely more than a personal interpretation of the things contained in the Word of God. It involves all our intellectual faculties for sure, but it also involves the power to discern - to really identify truth from fiction and then to embrace only truth, dismissing all fiction (deception) from our lives.

So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can't see what's right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.

(2 Peter 1:5-9)

Discernment is the ability to recognize something for what it is - in other words, it is the application of knowledge (what we know) to what it is we are interpreting. If we are using "natural" discernment, we are relying on the past experiences we have had and what we have amassed in our years of learning (education, exposure to research, etc.) to "interpret" the new information or experience we are encountering. The problem with this type of discernment is that it is limited by our experiences and exposure to things in life. I am limited in my understanding of woodworking, but I have some experiences that tell me some basic tools are necessary. I also understand the truth of measure twice, cut once! These are 'experience' truths - I could learn them from a book, but the more I do a little woodworking here and there, the more I 'experience' the opportunities to relearn these truths.

Spiritual discernment involves the process of taking what we are exposed to and running it through a series of "testing" filters to ensure that we are interpreting it correctly - not solely upon past experience and outcomes. These include the Word of God, the direction of the Holy Spirit, and our own conscience. If what we are interpreting "checks out" through these filters (lines up with the Word, doesn't get us a "check" in our spirit, etc.), we are usually safe to embrace the learning, tackle the project, or pursue the path before us. If it does not, we need to step back and "regroup" with God on the matter. It is that 'regrouping moment' that often saves the heartache and hardship of pursuing an incorrect course with our actions. It is that specific action we often are missing in our walk - taking time to hear what God has to say on the matter.

Discernment involves the ability to distinguish between two or more "criteria" and find the truth in it, know the direction we are to take, etc. As we grow in our understanding of the Word of God, for instance, we find it takes less time to distinguish truth when we are hearing it. The Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance what we have previously studied, allowing it to deny or confirm what it is that we are being exposed to today. When we say someone has a discerning taste for some particular food item, we are acknowledging their ability to appreciate the small nuances contained within each dish. They are able to not only 'taste' the finished product, but they are able to distinguish what has gone into the completion of that product.

Spiritual understanding grows as we are exposed to the things God has given us for our development - the Word, solid teaching, etc. Understanding is never a stagnant thing - it develops over time, constantly being expanded and renewed - and tested. I know that things I had been exposed to in the Word a long time ago can come alive in a new way when I am exposed to those same things today. Why is this? It is simply that I have grown in my understanding by little bits here and there - you, too. We have allowed the Word to affect us - giving us new "filtering" capacity. What we "filtered" one way in the youth of our Christian walk may have a totally different application to us today.

If we are to develop a solid moral foundation, we need our spiritual understanding to be developed. Development is always a process - it is one foot in front of the other - not leaps and bounds. To this small iota of knowledge about how God works we see added another iota of knowledge. This is repeated over and over again, until our knowledge of God's ways of working in our lives is increased. In time, this serves as a basis of "interpreting" how we respond to what circumstances life brings our way.  If we expect to rely solely upon experience to get us through, we will find our discernment is very limited. We need God's guidance added to that experience - this is what will help us develop a solid foundation upon which we move forward. Just sayin!

Remove the blindfold

Vision - most of us think of this as the ability to see.  When it is not there, such as when we have been plunged into darkness by someone covering our eyes with a blindfold, we grope our way through life, don't we?  It is as though we have to rely upon our other senses or else we will stumble.  How well do you move in this state?  Are your movements as fluid as normal?  Not likely.  In fact, you probably take shorter steps, feeling your way to make sure your footing is solid before you even take the next one.  I think we sometimes approach our spiritual life this same way - with a "blindfold" of sorts making us "stumble along" with uncertainty and a lack of vision.

Where there is no revelation, people cast off restraint; but blessed is the one who heeds wisdom’s instruction. (Psalm 29:18 NIV)

Two words come to mind when I think of vision: Perception and Discernment.  It is the combined form of actually "seeing" and "knowing".  If you have ever seen something, but then had to ponder for a while what the thing was you were beholding, you might know what it is like to possess sight without understanding.  If you can interpret the general shape of an object while blindfolded, you might be able to guess at what it is you are not seeing, but you might not know for sure.  Perception and discernment go hand-in-hand.  They are God's way of helping us not only walk, but to do so with assurance and firm foundation.

Perception is the ability of the mind to actually apprehend an idea - we call this cognition.  Discernment is the ability to put some "discriminating thought" into what it is you perceive.  In other words, you can make some "judgment" based on what you know.  Our passage today reminds us without vision a people perish.  In other words, when we don't have a clear perception of the redemptive work of Christ in our lives, we stumble around a lot.  We need to apprehend (comprehend) the redemptive work of Christ - making us new creations in him.  We give a lot of "lip-service" to this idea of being new creatures in Christ, but I wonder how many of us are really wearing our blindfolds and just stumbling along trying to perceive, but having our perception blocked by the blindfold.  

Open you eyes with a blindfold on and what do you see?  The blindfold!  At best, with the blindfold in place, we only have "internal reminders" of the things we perceive.  In other words, we stumble around the furnishings because we remember their general shape and size.  We don't actually see them, but we recall what it is we know about them in order to avoid them.  I wonder how many "hazards" in life we merely stumble around, blindfold in place, simply with the use of our "internal reminders" of them being there?  The memories we form might give us a perception of the way things "were", but the ability to discern how they "are" now is only possible when the blindfold is removed by the grace of God's work in our lives.  

The purpose of the blindfold is to impair the awareness or clear thinking of the one who is wearing it.  When we put a blindfold on a child, spin him around, and then send him toward the picture of the donkey on the wall with a little "tail" to pin on it, how does the child respond?  It soon becomes evident his awareness of his surroundings is altered by the blindfold.  He doesn't think clearly, but blindly walks forward (at least he thinks he is walking forward) and aims at whatever he comes into contact with.  The danger is the tail may get "pinned" where it doesn't belong!  Awareness or clear thinking are necessary in order to perceive.  Until you have clear thinking, the thing you "think" you perceive will be only based on what it is you have formed an internal reminder about in your memory.

Vision is our "V" List trait - the ability to have clear thinking and awareness of the redemptive work Christ is doing and has done in us.  The redemptive work began at the moment we welcomed Jesus into our lives as our Savior.  The work continues each day until we reach perfection in Christ Jesus.  Since none of us are there yet, I believe we need to continually ask him to help us remove the blindfold from our eyes so we see clearly what he desires to do in every area of our lives.  We can stumble around with past memories (internal reminders), or we can get a fresh perceptive.  The choice is ours.  I think it is time to begin to ask God to remove some of the blindfolds we might have just kept on because we were afraid of the light!  Light exposes, but once it does, the internal reminders are free to be understood exactly for what they are - past perceptions which need not influence our present reality!  Just sayin!

Spiritual Understanding

^5-9So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others. With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus. Without these qualities you can't see what's right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.

(2 Peter 1:5-9)

We explored the specifics of good character yesterday.  Peter reminded us of the importance of allowing the moral foundation of our lives to be rebuilt / reformed by the hand of God, in order to affect the choices that form our reputation.  Today, we look at adding to that the attribute of spiritual understanding.  This is more than a personal interpretation of the things contained in the Word of God. It involves our intellectual faculties, but it also involves the power to discern.

Discernment is the ability to recognize something for what it is - in other words, it is the application of knowledge (what we know) to what it is we are interpreting.  If we are using "natural" discernment, we are relying on the past experiences we have had and what we have amassed in our years of learning (education, exposure to research, etc.) to "interpret" the new information or experience we are encountering.  The problem with this type of discernment is that it is limited by our experiences and exposure to things in life.  

Spiritual discernment involves the process of taking what we are exposed to and running it through a series of "testing" filters to ensure that we are interpreting it correctly.  These include the Word of God, the direction of the Holy Spirit, and our own conscience.  If what we are interpreting "checks out" through these filters (lines up with the Word, doesn't get us a "check" in our spirit, etc.), we are usually safe to embrace the learning, tackle the project, or pursue the path before us.  If it does not, we need to step back and "regroup" with God on the matter.

Discernment involves the ability to distinguish between two or more "criteria" and find the truth in it, know the direction we are to take, etc.  As we grow in our understanding of the Word of God, for instance, we find it takes less time to distinguish truth when we are hearing it.  The Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance what we have previously studied, allowing it to deny or confirm what it is that we are being exposed to today.

Spiritual understanding grows as we are exposed to the things God has given us for our development - the Word, solid teaching, etc.  Understanding is never a stagnant thing - it develops over time, constantly being expanded and renewed.  I know that things I had been exposed to in the Word a long time ago can come alive in a new way when I am exposed to those same things today.  Why is this?  It is simply that we have grown in our understanding by little bits here and there.  We have allowed the Word to affect us - giving us new "filtering" capacity.  What we "filtered" one way in the youth of our Christian walk may have a totally different application to us today.  

If we are to develop a solid moral foundation, we need our spiritual understanding to be developed.  Development is always a process - it is one foot in front of the other.  To this small iota of knowledge about how God works we see added another iota of knowledge.  This is repeated over and over again, until our knowledge of God's ways of working in our lives is increased.  In time, this serves as a basis of "interpreting" how we respond to what circumstances life brings our way.

Tomorrow, we will consider the next trait that Peter reminds us is important for our spiritual development:  Alert Discipline!