So that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. (Phi 1:10 NIV)

Somebody may have all good intentions to support the truth, yet if he doesn’t have the proper insight and even lacks the feel for what is good in the sight of God, then he will not be able to do the right and appropriate thing. The guidance of the Holy Spirit is a prerequisite to pursue what is best and pure and blameless. This is abundantly clear if we perceive what is going on around us – even in the Christian Church. Two people may be very conscious followers of Christ and yet their conduct may be as different as heaven and earth or as coarseness and smoothness are opposed to each other. Whereas the one finds acclamation everywhere, the other just clashes against rejection and contradiction. The one seems like a pure revelation, while the other seems more like a total eclipse of the divine doings. So much depends on having the right gift of discernment and adjudication. We have to be filled with the Holy Spirit to “discern what is best and that we may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ”.

O Lord, our heart is poor, make it rich. The house of our soul is wrecked, rebuild and refurbish it. The garments of our faith are torn, fix them and dress us with your righteousness. Grant that we fear you above all things and nothing else. That we love you above all else and trust you more than all else too. Keep us in this fear, love and trust always as we are your holy congregation and Church, praising and thanking you for ever. Amen. (Christian Geyer)

Oh, that the Lord would guide my ways To keep his statutes still! Oh, that my God would grant me grace To know and do his will!

Order my footsteps by your Word And make my heart sincere; Let sin have no dominion, Lord, But keep my conscience clear.

Assist my soul, too apt to stray, A stricter watch to keep; If ever I for get your way, Restore your wandering sheep.

Make me to walk in your commands, A most delightful road; Nor let my head or heart or hands Offend against my god. (Isaac Watts, 1674-1748)

This is a rather free translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Friday after the twenty second Sunday after the high holiday of the Holy Trinity. It is found on Pg. 374 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu!   (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and published in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.