With a Focus on 40-days of Prayer & Fasting… Day-37/40 (93% Complete)

• Hebrews 12:11 (NKJV) Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

I’ve got a friend that is an electrician. One of the ways that he checks to see it a wire is “hot” is to simply grab hold of it. I witnessed this several times when he and I have been on mission trips together. I’d shudder every time thinking that this may be the time that electricity wins out. Of course, as an experienced electrician he knew which wires he could touch and which one he’d better stay away from.

But here’s the point: the reason he could touch those “live” wires was that he had deaden the nerves in his hand through so much exposure to electricity.

Many people allow their “discerning nerves” to become deaden. We’ve all done it; finding ourselves saying something or doing something that really made a mess all because we missed the signals.

• It’s the husband that believes it when his wife tells him not to get her anything for her birthday – think brother! She doesn’t really mean it; what she’s really saying is that she wants you to care so much that she doesn’t have to remind you or tell you what to get her.
• It’s the teenager that screams at their parent: “I hate you!” Think dear parent – they don’t mean it, what they’re really saying is, “Listen to me; understand me.”
• It’s the difficult person at work. They probably not demon possessed, they’re just overcome with issues that your prayers and witness could possibly help if only you’d catch the signals.
• And most important of all, don’t allow your thinking to become numb in your relationship with God. Those tests and trials are God’s loving way of teaching you something if only you’d listen and learn.

Bottom line, one of the most important skills in life is to be able to discern what is really happening around you. There’s often a big difference between what you think you see and hear and what is really happening. Often that difference is measured in terms of eternity.