Let this be our prayer today: God give us grace, mercy, and some good old fashioned common sense! Let us consider today the words of Isaiah the prophet…
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Isaiah 1:18, KJV
While we know that God’s ways are not our ways and that we can never really know the mind of God I also think that God gave us common sense. God invites, “Come now, and let us REASON together…” God want us to pull up a chair and THINK through things with Him. Yes, God is far above man’s reason on spec but God also doesn’t go against reason or against good old fashioned common sense.
My early years of ministry were spent in the loosely organized Pentecostal holiness movement. Let’s just say they are not socially liberal or theological progressive folks. Lol. I shake my head when I think back on some of the ideas and “doctrine” we taught and held so dear. They used to teach a married couple must dissolve if one of the two were previously married and divorced. Taking scripture literally they believed the couple was living in “perpetual adultery” and the sinful relationship needed to stop.
As if that belief and practice wasn’t screw ball enough. It didn’t even matter if the couple living “in sin” had children of their own. God give us some good old fashioned common sense. Let’s break up a marriage and family that is working and coming to church, break up whatever family unit their exes were in, and teach people to patchwork back together ripped pieces of cloth from other happy homes? Now where in the world is the common sense in that!? God help us to use a little more common sense in our day to day living because just a little will go a long, long way.
Yes, God’s reason may often be higher than ours but God will rarely go against logical and sound reason. God wants us to do things “in decency and in order” and whenever possible “live peaceably with everyone.” While deliberating our doctrine and trying to discern His will let’s make sure we using common sense as a needed ingredient.