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Discernment

             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 passage goes nicely with the material I’m reading for Sunday School. Let’s suppose it’s a typical day, and you are offered some treat. It could be anything from a piece of candy to a trip around the world, but it is something that you don’t need and find attractive (but, for the sake of simplicity, it’s not something anyone could call evil, wrong, or immoral. It does no harm to anyone except, perhaps, yourself.) Food is an easy example. It’s only been 2 hours since your last meal, so you’re not hungry. It might not be especially healthy, but it would taste wonderful. How should you decide whether or not to accept the treat? How do you decide?

If we’re dealing with reality, we should bypass the treat. At the same time, if we’re dealing with reality, we probably don’t. The treat is good, we tell ourselves.  Just this once, it can’t hurt. The excuses pile up because our focus is on the treat, and its goodness rather than on what is best. We may not even be able to discern what is best because the goody is there. It is “good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom” (Genesis 3:6.) Or, if not wisdom, then joy, peace, or some other positive result. Maybe we will note that the good is not as good as we are claiming, and certainly not what’s best, but our bodies, our egos – seemingly everything in us – has another idea and even if we want to make a better choice, we can’t hear what it is.

This takes us back to the material for Sunday School. Prof. Willard suggests that if we would change, we must change our thinking first. To become the kind of person who doesn’t give in to temptation, we must do something about it before the temptation arrives. This is where we put vision, intent, and method. This is where we talk to God about what it would look like if were stood strong against this temptation. This is where we talk to God about what that “good” looks like to Him and why we should agree. This is where we practice being the kind of person we know we would prefer to be, if we could just resist the temptation. This is where we build discernment.

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