"Leaning... Learning"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"Leaning… Learning"

   

   We use our understanding in our walk with the Lord.  But we don't "lean" on it.

   "Think on these things" (Philippians 4:8).

   "Lean not on thine own understanding" (Philippians 4:8).

   God made us with the marvelous capacity for thought, reasoning, and the making of choices based upon actively engaging our minds.  He calls us to love Him "with all thy mind" (Matthew 22:37).  Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ must seek to think in accordance with God and His Truth, recognizing that the faith to which He calls us requires applied knowledge in order to trust and obey Him in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Regular reading and pondering of Scripture serves as the primary means of preparing our minds to "think on these things" and  "choose you this day whom ye will serve" (Joshua 24:15).

   This being said, it remains true that we do not place our trust in our understanding.  Our faith can never be in what we know, but rather Who we know.  We can have our facts - including our Biblical facts - present in our minds to an adequate degree of mental organization and assimilation.  However, this does not guarantee we will walk faithfully with our Lord.  The knowledge of Truth does not assure the personal and trusting response to God that characterizes the loving fellowship to which He calls us.  Such devotion requires His personal working in our hearts "both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).  At the end of the day - and in its beginning - we lean upon our Heavenly Father regardless of how much we have learned from Him and His Word.  Indeed, note that the Apostle Peter calls us to first mature in the freely given favor of God in Christ that leads to trusting devotion, and then in the necessary understanding of Truth:

   "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Peter 3:18).

    We can be sure our Father ever leads us to seek greater knowledge of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus, the primary theme of Truth and the Scriptures that declare it.   Whatever we presently know and understand, let us learn more!  But may we never lean on our knowledge and understanding.  Let it rather be said of us that which Solomon so beautifully declared of one who well knew her complete dependence on the faithful Lord of grace first, and then of knowledge…

"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning on her Beloved?"

(Song of Solomon 8:5)

Weekly Memory Verse

  Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

(I Corinthians 10:31)

  

5572