Personal Body Guards
Proverbs Chapter Two
11. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you. NIV
According to this passage, this growing relationship I have with the Lord provides for me the gift of two personal body guards. Their names are Officer Discretion and Officer Understanding. Officer Discretion is an expert in discernment. He discerns for me what is wise and what is foolish, what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong. I try to listen to him at all times.
I John 4:1 says; Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. Our adversary is tricky and likes to appear shiny and good.
It is so easy to get caught up in thinking that surely God wants us to be happy. Friend, God wants us to be obedient. Sometimes obedience is difficult and it does not always feel good. How we feel is not the correct barometer to determine what is wise. We cannot trust our feelings, we cannot trust our own hearts. According to Jeremiah 17:9, 10 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? If we, as the saying goes, "follow our hearts" we are likely to be led down wrong paths, foolish paths, paths of self-centeredness. Because of this I need discernment beyond my own ability.
Officer Understanding has the ability of knowing the probable outcome of things. Kind of like getting a tomorrow view of a today action. I try to pay attention to his guidance also. It is good to ask the questions often. What will the result be if.......? How will this choice affect my family.........? How will this affect my relationship with the Lord.............? Wisdom looks past today.
I was blessed to begin a relationship with my heavenly Father at a very young age. I grew up loving Him and wanting to serve Him. I remember as a young child praying for wisdom. I remember specifically praying that God would help me learn from other people’s mistakes so that I wouldn’t have to make so many mistakes myself and reap the consequences. I believe that God honored those sincere prayers of a child. He steered my life away from many harmful things. He guided me to places of growth and strength. Did I get everything my heart wanted? No, but I got joy. He placed joy within my heart.
It only makes sense that if it was good for Solomon to ask God for wisdom then it is probably good for us too. In face, we find the invitation to request wisdom from God in the new testament.
James, the brother of Jesus wrote a letter to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations. In this letter, he writes in Chapter One verse Five: If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. NIV
It is God’s desire that we all have discretion and understanding to protect and to guard us. It is because God loves us so much that He wants to be our guide. He knows that our own hearts and minds are not qualified to lead. They are not trustworthy. We can be sure that God is trustworthy.
I pray that we will be a people asking God for wisdom, a people asking for the two protectors "discretion and understanding", and a people who understand how much He loves us.
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