Does saving for retirement show a lack of trust in God? How about having more than our daily requirement of food in our refrigerator or pantry? How about collecting emergency supplies before a storm?
I don’t know the answer. Common sense nudges us to be prepared for the future. Faith spurs us to trust God for our daily bread.
“Faith in active opposition to common sense is mistaken enthusiasm and narrow-mindedness, and common sense in opposition to faith demonstrates a mistaken reliance on reason as the basis for truth. The life of faith brings the two of these into the proper relationship. Common sense and faith are as different from each other as the natural life is from the spiritual, and as impulsiveness is from inspiration. Nothing that Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, but is revelation sense, and is complete, whereas common sense falls short.” (My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers)
Faith without common sense maybe naïve. However, common sense without faith is like betting all your money on the wrong horse. Oswald Chambers comes up this amalgam of faith and common sense that he calls ‘revelation sense’. He implies that God-given common sense compels us to take care of our families by gathering and storing what God has supplied in due season. In contrast, hoarding, while others go hungry, is not godly.
I’m reminded of the story of Joseph in Genesis 41. Joseph was given divine revelation sense to store up grain during the years of plenty, so that his family, his country, as well as neighboring countries could all be fed during the years of famine.
Lord, give us revelation sense, so we might know how to take care of ourselves and others.
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