Keeping this passage & quote in mind:
Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and do not depend upon your own prudence. In all your ways, consider him, and he himself will direct your steps. Proverbs 3:5-6
Besides the prudence which is the fruit of training and experience, and is developed into a stable habit by repeated acts, there is another sort termed "infused". This is directly bestowed by God's bounty. It is inseparable from the condition of supernatural charity and so is to be found only in those who are in the state of grace. Its scope of course is to make provision of what is necessary for eternal salvation. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12517b.htm
Dear Prudence
by: The Beatles
Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play. Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day. The sun is up, the sky is blue. It's beautiful and so are you. Dear Prudence won't you come out to play. Dear Prudence open up your eyes. Dear Prudence see the sunny skies. The wind is low the birds will sing.That you are part of everything. Dear Prudence won't you open up your eyes?Look around round round. Look around round round. Oh look around. Dear Prudence let me see you smile. Dear Prudence like a little child. The clouds will be a daisy chain. So let me see you smile again. Dear Prudence won't you let me see you smile? Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play. Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day.The sun is up, the sky is blue. It's beautiful and so are you. Dear Prudence won't you come out to play.
I never actually heard of that song, "Dear Prudence". I read the lyrics and liked it a lot. The world needs much prudence these days. People are too quick to act and make a lot of bad decisions. For us who try to be prudent it still can be hard to make the right decisions in life. I recently finished a very short book called "Trustful surrender to Divine Providence" ( http://www.amazon.com/Trustful-Surrender-Divine-Providence-Happiness/dp/0895552167 ) which I think fits well in this convo and I recommend to you. Anyway, our minds can very clouded by our society’s ways of thinking and other societies’ ways of thinking. A lot of people in a sense play "God" by saying "this is the way this or that should be" as a way of justifying doing what they want. People are also quick to yell. This book helped me look at the world through a different lens and accept anything that comes my way as God's will whether it’s a form of pain or joy. It has helped me not get so angry when certain things happen but just accept them as "God's will". Someone could hit me with a bat over the head and I would accept it because God gave that person free will. It would hurt, but I still accept it as God’s will. God gave that person arms and hands to use for any purpose he wanted. It was that person’s choice to use that innocent bat to hit me instead of using it to hit the ball. That's the difference between following God's will and that person’s will. Although God allowed it to happen; however, he did not wish for it to happen. He gave that choice to someone else when he gave Man free will. If this person was well-trained in prudence and followed God's prudence or God's will he would have used the bat the way it was designed to be used.
This term “infused” we can relate to the story of Saul in the bible (Acts 9). He at one point use to kill thousands of Christians and then one day, God spoke to him and changed his life forever. At this point on he became a defender of Christians- not a killer/persecutor of them. He began working for God instead of against him. It was a radical change and most likely wouldn’t have been done without God’s intervention. God will give this supernatural gift, grace, to certain people to help lead others closer to Him. For those who don’t receive this gift of grace are obliged to listen to those people who are bestowed with the gift of grace. They should learn from them, pray for this grace to come into their own lives, and pray for faith. God in his own time will eventually respond to this. This response could come through other people speaking to them, something they read, something they see. They need to be on their feet all the time. It’s a moment in time where there’s a conversion. There could be several moments that help increase their faith. These moments help them keep searching. For any practicing Christian there should always be conversions happening because we should always be trying to become closer to God, to always have our will be more and more in union with His own. This union of course gets closer and goes further away.
So to go back to the “infused” term, anytime we receive “grace” it’s infused. It’s the difference between working over a period of time to receive this versus God in a sense “declouding” our senses, “softening our hearts”, and giving us the eyes to be able to focus on Him in everything we do and say. It makes us make all the choices we make in accordance with his will. We become a walking instrument of his. Most of however are afraid to trust Him and his choices because we want to be in control. We want to play “God”. I think I’ve babbled a lot and I hope I haven’t confused you too much. Ask me anything you want in case I’ve gone off track.
