Me: Does that sign say they are offering free beer?
Prodigal: While you have to look closer, because they are not offering free beer. They are just trying to get you to come inside.
Me: Sometimes we all need discernment in our lives.
Charles Swindoll talks about discernment in his book Abraham
Discernment is “the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure; a power to see what is not evident to the average mind.” When life is a blur, we miss all the details that make living worthwile. Without discernment, we see without observing, we hear without listening, and life becomes a series of experiences without meaning. We are awash in random scenes that do not tell a story. Without discernment, we are, in the words of William Irwin Thompson, “likes flies crawling across the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel: We cannot see what angels and gods lie beneath the threshold of our perceptions. We do not live in reality; we live in our paradigms, our habituated perceptions, our illusions; the illusions we share through culture we call reality, but true historical reality of our condition is invisible to us.
Grow deep in your relationship with God, and you will begin to discern people and, therefore, enjoy a depth in your relationships like never before. You will understand yourself, including your own motivations and flaws, and as you allow the Lord to address them, you will live more sensibly–you will experience more joy and less drama. You’ll understand a number of things that are currently mysteries to you.
Yes we are called to love one another but we are not called to trust every thing said and every one. We know that we all sin and we are all imperfect. If that is the case then sometimes I may have a good heart but because I do not have the wisdom of God in all things there is no way I can know what to say and do in everybody’s lives unless is comes from the Lord. There has been plenty of “good advice” that comes from people that have lead people away from the path of their calling instead of listening to the Holy Spirit and meditating over God’s word. Maybe this week is a time to seek God and His word so that you can have true discernment over your life.
When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
Psalm 27:8
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
