August 5, 2021 CAC LIVING WATER DEVOTIONAL : TOPIC – DISCRETION: MARK OF CHRISTIAN MATURITY (II)

By | August 4, 2021

August 5, 2021 CAC LIVING WATER DEVOTIONAL : TOPIC – DISCRETION: MARK OF CHRISTIAN MATURITY (II)

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LIVING WATER CAC DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE

Thursday, August 5, 2021. 

DISCRETION: MARK OF CHRISTIAN MATURITY (II)

Read: Ephesians 4:31 – 32

Ephesians 4:31-32 Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind).

And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.

MEMORISE:

Good sense makes a man restrain his anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression or an offense. (Prov.19:11)

EXPOSITION

Discretion is the Hebrew word “sekel” and it means carefulness received due to intelligence and good sense. “This intelligence is more than just mere book knowledge or learning about a particular subject. It has a greater significance, and means insight or understanding. It is having this intelligence and insight that gives a person that ability to have patience” (Complete Word Study Dictionary, Zhodiates).

Anger tends to make us not think about what we are doing. It is usually a reaction to the fact that we cannot control our own situation and the people around us, or it is a reaction to how we view the way we have been treated by others. Discretion makes us slow to anger, not taking rash decisions due to our angry dispositions.

Christianity is the religion of forgiveness, for it is the cornerstone of our relationship with God and others (Matt.6v14-15, Eph.4v31-32). It takes far more grace and character to overlook a personal offence than to strike back in anger. Godly wisdom and strength is the desire and ability to overrule a hasty spirit (Prov.16v32, Jas.1v19-20). Those who think passing over offences is weakness, fear and compromise are fools.

Think for a moment what life would be like, if everyone demands instant justice on all matters where they think something wrong has been done to them. The world would be filled with vigilante justice everywhere. Life would consist of moving from one slight to another, demanding that there be payment for how we have been wronged. There would be no peace, and very few relationships would go well. Thus, it is better for us to simply overlook transgression (real or imagined)

A wise man or woman knows that he/she has been forgiven much, and this shapes how he/she deals with others. He/she does not act as if he/she must hold everyone accountable for every transgression, but knows when to overlook a transgression.

PRAYER POINTS:

1. Lord Jesus, endow me with the Spirit of intelligence and insight that makes one patient, even in the face of the most annoying provocation / offence.

2. Holy Spirit, give me victory over anger that makes one not think about what he is doing when reacting to an offence.

3. Lord Jesus, grant Christians and especially, our leaders, victory over the Spirit that demands jungle justice in situations they think they have been wronged.

EXTRA READING FOR TODAY: Job 36:22 – 38:27,Acts 27:42 – 28:19

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