dailywordofdestiny

Discernment

I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.  My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad.  Oh magnify the Lord with me , and let us exalt His name together.  I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.  They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed.  This poor man ( or woman) cried out, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.  The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them.  Oh, TASTE and SEE that the LORD IS GOOD; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!   (Psalm 34: 1-8)

Taste (ta’am) is to taste, eat; discern, perceive; to evaluate. It is a verb that refers to the testing of good by means of the sense of taste.  From the primary sense of physical tasting, ta’am developed into the idea of evaluative sampling of things other than food.  Ta’am as a noun came to refer to “discernment,” that is, the capacity to choose and delight in good things.  Proverbs speaks of a woman who lacks “taste” (11: 22), and a woman with good taste, who perceives (ta’am) that her merchandise is of high quality (31: 18).

We are all sinners saved by grace so all of us have sampled at one time or another, things that lack taste; they are called sin.  Many of us may still dabble in sin because our taste is not selective; it has not been refined by the fire of Holy Spirit (Revelation 3: 18).  When we acknowledge our sin before God and repent we are choosing a good thing; Something of high quality; Something more precious than silver or gold.  It is Jesus.  The more time we spend in His presence, the more healthy our whole body, soul, and spirit becomes.  We are nourished by fresh Bread from heaven each day and we never go thirsty when we drink from His fresh springs of Living Water that never run dry.

We must be able to discern, from the eternal perspective, between things that have value and those that do not.  Our time here is very short and some of the things we collect in our lives are less than perfect and they will rot, mold, or get rusty and will not last (1 Corinthians 3: 12-17).  We are all given a special Guide at the time Jesus is chosen by us; He is Holy Spirit and He takes up residence in our heart.  With His help, we learn to distinguish clearly between what is of high quality and what is not.  Our vision becomes sharper and our ears are always listening for Him to give us assurance when we are making good choices.

When we consistently are making the choices we should; we actually become more and more joyful.  There is a spring in our step and a smile on our face.  Our complexions are softer, our eyes are shining, and our words are kind.  We enjoy helping anyone we see who is in need and when they see us, they are really seeing Jesus and His love.  It is not long before they recognize their own poor health and they begin to get hungry for what they see in us.  Before long they too are reborn and being renewed in Jesus and they are REJOICING and PRAISING God for His provision for all they have need of.

In the final analysis, we all become fully aware that we will truly LIVE happily forever after  (Revelation 21: 22-27 – 22: 1-5)!    Amen.