⁹And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9 – 11)

Yesterday we considered how humility can help to ensure that we use the Discipline of Counsel for God’s glory.  Today we consider the role that discernment must play.

Discernment

History records that in some ancient civilizations, people would travel for hundreds of miles and spend a lot of their resources to gain access to oracles who could provide them with “wise” counsel.  With advances in technology we now have a vastly different scenario.  So called oracles are everywhere – on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and other platforms.  Many of them want to be “mega influencers” mostly for commercial gain and certainly not to glorify God. Plus, they are often right at our finger tips.  Discernment in who you take advice from was never more necessary.  If you read the page on Counsel in “The Disciplines Explained” document that can be accessed on our website https://40daysofdiscipline.com/disciplines/, you will find some useful advice on selecting counsellors.  I encourage you to read the page when you have some time, but from our passage today I want to draw our attention to the essential weapon of prayer.  A couple of you mentioned using prayer yesterday in the great set of commentaries posted, and Paul mentions discerning “what is best” in the prayer above.

Please prayerfully reflect on the passage and answer the question below.

Question:

How much do you pray when selecting advisors, and in addition to prayer, how do you practice discernment?

¹³The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood round him from morning till evening. ¹⁴When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, ‘What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand round you from morning till evening?’  ¹⁵Moses answered him, ‘Because the people come to me to seek God’s will.  ¹⁶Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.’  ¹⁷Moses’ father-in-law replied, ‘What you are doing is not good.  ¹⁸You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out.  The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.  ¹⁹Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you.  You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him.  ²⁰Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave.  ²¹But select capable men from all the people – men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain – and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.  ²²Let them serve as judges for the people at all times, but let them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you.  ²³If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.’  ²⁴Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said.  ²⁵He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.  ²⁶They served as judges for the people at all times.  The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.  ²⁷Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.  (Exodus 18:13 – 27)

We have now considered eight Disciplines: Bible Study, Spiritual Warfare, Prayer, Fasting, Worship, Fellowship, Service and Stewardship.  As we enter the last week before Passion Week and continue to consider the theme God’s Glory, we have three more Disciplines to cover: Counsel, Creation and Sabbath. We will start with Counsel.

Based on our discussions of the Discipline of Counsel over the last few years, it is clear that many of us approach seeking advice with a fair amount of hesitation.  It is not always clear to us that soliciting advice will result in God’s glory.  The hesitation is understandable but it is important that we do not avoid this Discipline altogether.  To encourage us to use this Discipline more, over the next two days we will consider two necessary underpinnings of God glorifying Counsel: 1) Humility and 2) Discernment.

Humility

The story captured in our passage today, describes an interaction between Moses and his father-in-law, Jethro.  As you read this, recall that Moses had already developed a special relationship with God that allowed him extraordinary access and direct exposure to God’s miraculous works in rescuing the Children of Israel from Egypt.  In contrast, Jethro had only recently acknowledged God’s greatness.  Yet, God in His wisdom honored Jethro’s counsel to Moses.  Fortunately, Moses was humble enough to take the advice Jethro offered.

Please prayerfully reflect on the Bible passage above and answer the question below.

Question:

What are your ideas for fostering the kind of humility that facilitates receiving wise advice?