Text- Acts 15:6 – “And the apostles and elders came together for to consider this matter.”

I think one area where the Church needs to pay some attention to, especially in an age like this, is to teach Believers how to live a sensible life without violating the leading of the Holy Spirit. This balance is very essential.

Many believers blur the line between sensibility and sensuality, and thus become carnal. Then there are others who blur the line between spirituality and stupidity, and thus become docile.

My take is that believers must be taught how to balance sensibility and spirituality, while avoiding the extremes of sensuality and stupidity.

We must understand that God deals majorly with principles, while men deal majorly with methods. The implication of this is that we must be spiritual enough not to violate divine principles, and we must sensible enough to choose the best methods. This is one of the formulas for a high performance life.

So then, in addition to considering the purpose, problems, and potentials of a thing, another thing that we must consider are the PRINCIPLES.

There is this common saying that if you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything. That is very true!

You must have established principles that guide you in life, and through which you view everything that comes your way in life. These principles will prevent you from making costly and highly regrettable mistakes. These principles must be prescribed by the scriptural standards and wise discretion.

These principles are like the perimeters of your safety. Honesty, integrity, purity, sincerity, thoroughness etc. are some examples of good principles to live by.

Furthermore, in considering a matter, you must examine the principles that guide the subject matter itself, and be sure you’re willing to be bound by them.

I know that you probably didn’t read the terms and conditions of Google Mail before you clicked “I agree” while creating your Gmail account… well, I didn’t too. That’s an example of venturing into a matter without considering the prescribed principles.

But then, leaving trivial issues to more important ones – the scriptural principle on marriage is not to marry an unbeliever. So then, no matter how cool, calm, collected, well-to-do, and what-have-you an unbeliever is, he/she is not a prospective husband/wife for you!

Principles are important; the moment you compromise them, you have compromised your safety!

PRAYER

Father, please grant me grace to rightly consider every matter, to abide by the principles of righteousness and wise discretion, make the best out of every situation, and live a high-performance life for your praise and for your glory in Jesus Name.

Image Credit: hackerearth.com