Hi Folks,
Our devotional topic for this week is "discernment."
I was thinking Sunday night of how we are bombarded with messages of all sorts these days via the news, social media and the public in general. It gets to a point where you wonder, "What is the truth?" "What can I believe anymore?"
This is the same sort of question Pontius Pilate asked Jesus when they brought Him for questioning before His crucifixion. "What is truth" (John 18:38), Pilate asked.
I guess Pilate had never heard Jesus say that He Himself was the truth (John 14:6) and also say, " And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32)
In a world of conflicting messages, how can we know what is the truth, what is hype, fabrication, a lie, or someone's opinion? DISCERNMENT.
Discernment is the ability to judge whether something is right or wrong. It is a gift of God, that sense of "I'm not sure this is right.." or "I feel God has given me His peace to do this. It doesn't go against His Word, so I think what I'm doing as He would want me to."
I have heard through Dr. Charles Stanley from https://www.intouch.org. say that each person who comes to faith is Christ is given the gift of discernment when they receive Him, but if they do not use it, they lose it.
So how can we gain discernment?
1. By getting into God's Word, reading it so we truly know the Truth, know right from wrong.
2. Don't fall hook line and sinker for whatever we are told, but use the minds God has given to us, pray, ask Him, "Is this a truth,
is this the right thing, or is this a lie I'm being given and is this the wrong thing to go along with? Does this match with the
Truth of God's Word or is it contrary to it?" If you are sincere in seeking, asking, God will show you.
I also remember a former pastor of ours saying from the pulpit as he opened the Word of God to preach, "Don't take my word for it. Get in The Book and read it! Search the Scriptures for yourself!"
3. I was telling a group of young ladies I mentor via zoom that peace or the lack thereof is another way God directs us in the right way, or steers us away from making the wrong choice. If you don't have peace from God, don't do it, stay where you are. If it is there peace, proceed in obedience to what He is asking you to do.
4. God will never go against His own Word and what it says, but you will never know the truth from a lie if you don't read It.
My mom and I frequently say, as God continues to teach us, how many Christians lack discernment in a very big way. They don't see the subtle, spiritual danger of things Satan is putting in their path, or they believe something that has us scratching our heads.
My mom reminds me it is by God's grace that He has given us discernment to see these things, we have nothing to boast about (there go we before the grace of God), but to thank the Lord for it, stay close to Him and pray that He keeps giving us His insight though His Word, through prayer and our personal walks with Him, but that the reason others do not see what is in front of them is that they are not using the discernment God gave them when they received Him in their lives.
Would you pray this week and ask the Lord to give you discernment in every area of your life? (The ability to know right from wrong practically and spiritually)?
Would you crack His Word, start to read it, ask Him to teach you, open your eyes to what He wishes to show you in your own life?
Ask that He direct everything you do so that you may honor Him?
I can promise you from personal experience that you will not be sorry that you did...By doing so, you are asking the Lord to keep you under His care, protection and from spiritual and physical harm of any kind. Satan is subtle and he would like nothing more than to open our lives to his influence. By inviting God into our lives by asking for discernment, we effectively shut that down.
Below are some very practical devotions on starting that journey. I pray that the Lord would use them in your lives this week!
God bless and stay safe!
(Devots. used by permission. Taken from https://www.intouch.org/)
Developing Discernment (Short audio clip, 2 minutes)
Developing Spiritual Discernment: (Devot.)
The Need for Spiritual Discernment:
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