Hebrews 4:12-13

Since spiritual discernment is the ability to see life from God’s perspective, it requires that we know how He thinks and acts. The Bible is His unchanging, infallible revelation of Himself. However, the Lord doesn’t simply give us a list of facts about His character and ways. All throughout the pages of Scripture, He illustrates who He is and how He operates.

Although the Bible is ancient, it’s not a dead book. It’s alive and as fresh as if He were speaking directly to you. The stories may have taken place centuries ago, but the principles and applications are current and relevant. It’s our instruction book about how to live. Guidance for decisions and discernment about situations are found from Genesis to Revelation.

God’s Word is active and piercing. The words don’t simply sit on the page. They penetrate our hearts and judge our thoughts and motives. This convicting quality is why some people don’t like to read the Bible. But self-discernment is essential if we don’t want to keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Some Christians live on a surface level, never understanding why they react to situations the way they do. But if we’ll approach the Word of God with an open spirit, it will bring to light our hidden motives and reveal unrecognized sins.

Spiritual discernment involves seeing not just our circumstances but also ourselves from God’s perspective. Have you learned to embrace the piercing sword of Scripture, or have you avoided doing so because it makes you uncomfortable? Remember, God’s Word cuts only so that it can heal.

 Every so often I am too tired to yield to pangs of thirst, and get myself a glass of water before going to sleep for the night. And it is often on these nights that I have the most frustrating dreams (and unsettled sleep). Whether I’m driving through the countryside or solving crimes in Washington, D.C., the events in my dreams carry on as usual. But amidst moving scenes and thickening plots, I am continually stopping to gulp down glass after glass of water. I have even stopped dream conversations in mid-sentence to tell the person I am talking to that I just can’t seem to get enough water. Upon waking the frustrated lesson is palpable. I couldn’t dream my thirst away because my body knew it was real. 

 Apparently such dreams and the dreamers they frustrate are not uncommon. Centuries before me, the prophet Isaiah described them perfectly. “Just as when a hungry person dreams of eating and wakes up still hungry, or a thirsty person dreams of drinking and wakes up faint, still thirsty, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.”(1) The passage is one of several prophecies God gave Isaiah concerning the nation of Israel. Isaiah was describing the attitude of their invaders, who believed they were tasting victory, but would wake to disappointment. It was a promise to the people of God: those who lick their lips at the thought of their demise will ultimately be frustrated. Certainly there have been, and will continue to be, similar occasions when the world has prematurely celebrated the unraveling of belief and believer. Yet “the trees of the LORD are well watered,” praised the psalmist.

 Even so, though frustrated-thirst was promised of God’s enemies, in the same chapter of Isaiah, God laments over the dry and empty faith of Israel itself. “[T]hese people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote.”(2) They were dreaming of well-running springs and manmade reservoirs, putting the kind of water to their lips that would only leave them thirsty. Isaiah describes a people surrounded by the living waters of the kingdom but preoccupied with make-believe mansions and their pools.

 Today the frustrated dreamer the prophet describes is closer to home than ancient Israel. Dryness of faith and heart is a struggle as unsettling as unquenchable thirst. Spirituality is popular, religion is dismissed, and faith is often obscured or synthetic. At times it is like my dream; we can’t seem to get enough water because we are drinking from artificial wells. Other times dryness comes without explanation. We stand before living water unable to drink and be satisfied, seeing that the well is deep but having nothing left to draw with.

 As a Christian longing to know and to be known by God, dryness of faith does not elude me. An old song written by musician Keith Green has often captured my prayer in the midst of thirst and drought. “My eyes are dry, my faith is old. My heart is hard; my prayers are cold. And I know how I ought to be—alive to You and dead to me. Oh what can be done for an old heart like mine? Soften it up with oil and wine. The oil is You, Your spirit of love. Please wash me anew in the wine of your blood.” Men and women throughout Scripture found similar respite for maddening thirst as they cried out to God within the very pangs of that thirstiness: Our thirst, too, is something we can give to God. Though the land is weary, our hearts faint for the one who promises to reach weariness with sustenance and hunger with an actual meal for bodies that know the difference. “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever” (John 4:14). To the dry and emptied faith of Israel God provided a spring. And for generations long thereafter, the water of life remains a gift for the thirsty.  

 Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

(1) Isaiah 29:8. 
(2) Isaiah 29:13. 

 

 Morning “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” / Exodus 14:13

 These words contain God’s command to the believer when he is reduced to great

straits and brought into extraordinary difficulties. He cannot retreat; he

cannot go forward; he is shut up on the right hand and on the left; what is he

now to do? The Master’s word to him is, “Stand still.” It will be well for him

if at such times he listens only to his Master’s word, for other and evil

advisers come with their suggestions. Despair whispers, “Lie down and die;

give it all up.” But God would have us put on a cheerful courage, and even in

our worst times, rejoice in his love and faithfulness. Cowardice says,

“Retreat; go back to the worldling’s way of action; you cannot play the

Christian’s part, it is too difficult. Relinquish your principles.” But,

however much Satan may urge this course upon you, you cannot follow it if you

are a child of God. His divine fiat has bid thee go from strength to strength,

and so thou shalt, and neither death nor hell shall turn thee from thy course.

What, if for a while thou art called to stand still, yet this is but to renew

thy strength for some greater advance in due time. Precipitancy cries, “do

something. Stir yourself; to stand still and wait, is sheer idleness.” We must

be doing something at once–we must do it so we think–instead of looking to

the Lord, who will not only do something but will do everything. Presumption

boasts, “If the sea be before you, march into it and expect a miracle.” But

Faith listens neither to Presumption, nor to Despair, nor to Cowardice, nor to

Precipitancy, but it hears God say, “Stand still,” and immovable as a rock it

stands. “Stand still;”–keep the posture of an upright man, ready for action,

expecting further orders, cheerfully and patiently awaiting the directing

voice; and it will not be long ere God shall say to you, as distinctly as

Moses said it to the people of Israel, “Go forward.”

 

Evening  “His camp is very great.” / Joel 2:11

 Consider, my soul, the mightiness of the Lord who is thy glory and defence. He

is a man of war, Jehovah is his name. All the forces of heaven are at his

beck, legions wait at his door, cherubim and seraphim;, watchers and holy

ones, principalities and powers, are all attentive to his will. If our eyes

were not blinded by the ophthalmia of the flesh, we should see horses of fire

and chariots of fire round about the Lord’s beloved. The powers of nature are

all subject to the absolute control of the Creator: stormy wind and tempest,

lightning and rain, and snow, and hail, and the soft dews and cheering

sunshine, come and go at his decree. The bands of Orion he looseth, and

bindeth the sweet influences of the Pleiades. Earth, sea, and air, and the

places under the earth, are the barracks for Jehovah’s great armies; space is

his camping ground, light is his banner, and flame is his sword. When he goeth

forth to war, famine ravages the land, pestilence smites the nations,

hurricane sweeps the sea, tornado shakes the mountains, and earthquake makes

the solid world to tremble. As for animate creatures, they all own his

dominion, and from the great fish which swallowed the prophet, down to “all

manner of flies,” which plagued the field of Zoan, all are his servants, and

like the palmer-worm, the caterpillar, and the cankerworm, are squadrons of

his great army, for his camp is very great. My soul, see to it that thou be at

peace with this mighty King, yea, more, be sure to enlist under his banner,

for to war against him is madness, and to serve him is glory. Jesus, Immanuel,

God with us, is ready to receive recruits for the army of the Lord: if I am

not already enlisted let me go to him ere I sleep, and beg to be accepted

through his merits; and if I be already, as I hope I am, a soldier of the

cross, let me be of good courage; for the enemy is powerless compared with my

Lord, whose camp is very great.

‘Behold the man!’   1 John 1:7 

 “Cleanses,” says the text—not “shall cleanse.” There are multitudes who think that as a dying hope they may look forward to pardon. Oh, how infinitely better to have cleansing now than to depend on the bare possibility of forgiveness when I come to die.

Some imagine that a sense of pardon is an attainment only obtainable after many years of Christian experience. But forgiveness of sin is a present reality—a privilege for this day, a joy for this very hour. The moment a sinner trusts Jesus he is fully forgiven. The text, being written in the present tense, also indicates continuance; it was “cleanses” yesterday, it is “cleanses” today, it will be “cleanses” tomorrow. This is the way it will always be with you, Christian, until you cross the river; every hour you may come to this fountain, for it cleanses still.

Notice, likewise, the completeness of the cleansing: “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin”—not only from sin, but “from all sin.” Reader, I cannot convey the exceeding sweetness of this word, but I pray that God the Holy Ghost will give you a taste of it. Manifold are our sins against God. Whether the bill be little or great, the same receipt can discharge one as the other. The blood of Jesus Christ is as blessed and divine a payment for the transgressions of blaspheming Peter as for the shortcomings of loving John.

Our iniquity is gone, all gone at once, and all gone forever. Blessed completeness! What a sweet theme to dwell upon as one gives himself to sleep.

Sins against a holy God;

Sins against His righteous laws;

Sins against His love, His blood;

Sins against His name and cause;

Sins immense as is the sea—

From them all He cleanseth me.

Family Reading Plan   Jeremiah 19   Mark 5