What discernment isn't
September 8 - 14, 2024 | Always Peachy Devotionals | Discernment Week 2
Have you ever made a bad call?
It’s okay. Unscrew the halo. We have all made bad calls. Wrong choices. Uninformed decisions. Whatever moniker you want to slap on it, we’ve taken a wrong turn more than once in our lives.
But how does it happen?
We can all easily agree that it’s a thing across all of humanity. Nobody’s perfect. We’ve all screwed up. Most of us have screwed up more than once. The question is, why?
None of us want to make mistakes. We don’t normally go out with the intention to go the wrong way or make trouble for ourselves. I’d venture a guess that most of us would prefer the easy route with as few potholes and pitfalls as possible. So if we want a road without complications, how do we always end up in trouble?
I’m sure there are many explanations, but personally I choose to believe that every living human being is just doing the best they can with the knowledge and experience they have available at the time. No one purposefully sets out to blow up their lives. But sometimes we make bad decisions simply because we don’t know how to identify a good decision.
This month we’re studying discernment, which is basically knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing to act on what is right. Scripture is full of examples of discernment, but before we dig into those, I thought maybe it would be valuable to look first at examples of people without discernment.
Sometimes a lesson sticks better in my head if I can identify what something isn’t, rather than what it is. So that’s what we’re talking about this week, using examples from the Bible: What discernment isn’t.
Monday - Eli the Priest (1 Samuel 1:12-14)
Tuesday - The Young Foolish Prophet (1 Kings 13:8-9, 14-19)
Wednesday - King Sennacherib of Assyria (2 Kings 18:22)
Thursday - Jonah (Jonah 4:1-2)
Friday - Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10:1-2)
I’m always astonished at God’s Word. It truly has a story and a lesson for every area and aspect of life. But that’s part of the beauty of the Holy Spirit.
We say that there is power in story, and I do believe that. Story is a magnificent tool we can use to help others learn what is true and decide for themselves which path they are going to take. But when it comes to stories that incorporate biblical truth, there’s another Power at play.
The Holy Spirit tailor-makes every message for the people who are listening to it. I’ve seen it happen too many times for it to be coincidence. Two different believers can hear the exact same story and come away with two completely different messages, depending on where they are in their spiritual journey. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit.
Knowing the Holy Spirit and recognizing God’s voice and being able to tell what is of God and what is of the world is more important now than ever. We are inundated with information every second of every day, and if you shut your brain off—if you close off your mind to the Holy Spirit—you’ll be stumbling in the dark through a minefield of falsehoods without a map.
The Church has always struggled with this concept, even in the early days. People who had selfish ambitions and nefarious motives came into the church and tried to tear it apart. That’s where discernment came into practice, and that’s why John issued this statement, which is what we’ll be memorizing this week, 1 John 4:1.
If what you are hearing from another person is in line with God’s Word, then you can trust what that person is saying. But if what someone tells you doesn’t line up with Scripture, don’t listen to them. Don’t trust them. Don’t believe them.
God’s Word is our ultimate litmus test for identifying what is true and what is not in this world. This is why knowing the Scripture is so vital. We can’t know what is true unless we know God’s Word and how to implement it in our lives.
Don’t just believe someone because they say they know Jesus. Don’t just trust someone because they say they’re religious or that they have faith. Test what they say against God’s Word. If it holds up, awesome. If it doesn’t?
Well, what do you think the discerning choice would be?
Praying for you guys this week.
Amy
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