Cry Out For Discernment

Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity were building the temple of the Lord God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here" (Ezra 4: 1-2).

"Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do." Lies! These were the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin who were approaching them with the guise of wanting to help. Oh how we need God’s discernment within our lives, to look beyond the surface and see the intentions of hearts! God is well able to know a man's inner thoughts and intentions that is why Jesus can say “These people draw near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matt 15:8). Zerubbabel and his companions were not fooled by this apparent kind gesture “But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, “You may do nothing with us to build a house for our God; but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us" (Ezra 4:3).

Let God show you what truly is and before you make hasty decisions, seek His counsel on everything, because He knows everything! Remember Joshua, who got tricked into forming a treaty with the Gibeonites because he used his own eyes and understanding (Josh 9). How many times have we looked back on our lives and seen mistakes that could have been avoided if we sought the Lord's counsel? My encouragement to you is to ask the Lord for discernment. Let us deliberately train our decision-making to seeking God and His counsel. Practice doing this in the small decisions, so that when large, weighty matters of life occur, we have been accustomed enquiring of the Lord.

Prayer

Lord, we invite you into our daily decision-making. You are not only concerned with the large affairs of our lives, but also with our everyday living. Give us discernment that we may accurately see what is true and false. Give us Your eyes to see and Your ears to hear. And when You do show us, let us be obedient to walk in the ways of truth. We thank you for doing this in Jesus name. Amen.