05/08/2021
*THE KENYA CHRISTIAN YOUTH FELLOWSHIP*
*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 m