Discernment

Psalm 119:34 - "Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart."

Hebrews 5:12-14 - "In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's Word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

Discernment is the process of training yourself to distinguish between right and wrong by disciplining your conscience, mind, senses and body. The Bible tells us that discernment is necessary for us to mature in our faith. We cannot grow if we are unable to discern. Recognising the difference between right and wrong is therefore a skill which we can develop.

When you start to grow and mature in faith, you will become more astute at recognising temptation before it engulfs you. You will also learn to recognise truth from lies, and know the difference between God's voice and other voices. Discernment then is a very important skill to master.

It is very important for all of us that we read the Word and meditate on it daily. A good knowledge of the Scriptures will help you discern false teaching when someone uses a passage of Scripture incorrectly. When you learn to practise discernment and train yourself to detect right from wrong, you can avoid the pitfalls that many people fall into. With the skill of discernment your life will work better and you will live better as you are following God's intended path for you.