Philippians 1:9-11
9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Navigating life in a complex moral world is difficult. We want easy answers and clear direction as to what is right or wrong. But this is often hard to know, and it is even harder to know how our choices might affect others. We want to honor Jesus with our lives, but knowing how best to do that in every situation isn’t simple or clear. So often it feels like we are trying to determine the lesser of multiple evils rather than choosing between right, Jesus-honoring choices.
We feel this complexity in our finances and generosity.
We feel it in our relationships.
We feel it in our families.
We feel it in our work and careers.
We want to be on the side of good, of honorable, and of honoring Jesus. As Philippians 1:9-11 says we yearn for our love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that [we] may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. So we need wisdom– clarity and skill only God can give in order to navigate life well. We need his perspective and his mind so we can discern how to navigate complex, difficult situations with grace.
And he has given us all we need for life and godliness in his word. Proverbs 2:6 tells us For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. So we must approach the Bible with curiosity, with hunger, and with open hearts to receive his wisdom. And we plead with God to help us see him in all his glory so that we rightly fear him and submit to him, because “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” We seek to be students of God’s word and servants of it.
I originally wrote this post for my church, Immanuel Nashville, in our Daily Pulse email. If you want encouragement from God’s word delivered Monday thru Friday to your inbox, I encourage you to subscribe.
