An Idea Borrowed

Years ago on a radio program someone shared that they read a chapter in Proverbs every day. Since there are 31 chapters and the longest month has 31 days it allows you to read through Proverbs on a regular basis. I use it as the launch pad for my personal worship time and branch out from there. On this blog I will try to share some of the insights I have in the Word. I will try to organize them in the archive by reference.

Friday, December 2, 2016

Mercy’s Designated Driver

(Proverbs 2:11 KJV)  Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

“Discretion” (4209) is not wisdom.  It is not personified.  It is interesting to me that the definition of the word has an evil taint to it.  I think that might be because of the hard choices it demands.  If you look back the discernment involved is built up by training and grown into.  It is a mark of maturity and a trait that the immature do not understand.

It is also a trait that people focused on certain gifts of the Spirit have a hard time with.  To the person who is saturated with the gift of mercy, discernment seems to be some alien harshness.  To the gift of service it seems like the epitome of selfishness.  That is because maturity demands hard choices and many people do not want to make them.

So?  If you are a mercy person understand that the Spirit also gives discernment.  Just because you run on empathy, discernment is fueled by clear thinking.  We need both but my feeling is that the modern church is rejecting the hard choices.

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