DISCERNMENT MATTERS How to become discerning Spiritual discernment is a gift of God. It’s not something we can manufacture in ourselves, but a quality He develops in us if we’ll choose to ground ourselves in prayer and Bible reading. The more time we spend communing with God and filling our minds with His thoughts, the more discerning we will be. The goal is to let His Spirit guide us in every moment. To do that, we must guard what we allow into our minds. Worldly thinking will overpower spiritual discernment if we spend two or three hours in front of the television and only ten minutes in the Bible. Because of the Holy Spirit’s continuous presence within us, we never have to make a decision alone or depend on our own limited resources. He’s always there to guide us into all truth and help us recall Christ’s words (John 14:26; John 16:13). However, we have a responsibility to put Scripture into our mind so He can bring it to our remembrance. The time to begin developing discernment is now. You cannot afford to wait until you are facing a critical decision. Sound judgment is produced through practice as our senses are trained to discern good and evil (Heb. 5:14). It’s not a matter of perfection, but a long process of learning to distinguish God’s guidance. We’ll all make some mistakes along the way, but each wrong turn is an opportunity to learn as we evaluate the outcome. Begin today by spending time in prayer and filling your mind with Scripture. Ask the Lord for guidance, and to the best of your ability, do what you think He’s saying. If you’re truly seeking to follow Him, He’ll show you the way. (Dr Charles Stanley---In Touch Ministries)
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 14:09:36 +0000