Do you ever wonder how you didn’t see something coming? Why you didn’t notice what was right in front of your eyes?
It may be that you weren’t very discerning. You missed something. When we aren’t discerning, we become gullible and easily mistake fiction for fact.
But there is a way to see and hear things on the front end. There’s a key to being more discerning. But first we need to make sure we understand what discernment is. Continue reading
People often want to be able to discern the voice of God in their lives. But many times their efforts seem to fall flat.
Maybe you’re the same way.
You feel something tugging at you day after day, but you’re not sure if it’s really God. Continue reading
This is a guest post from my friend Brittany Gardner. Recently, we talked about how to be more discerning. This is an excellent example of what discernment looks like in practice. Brittany is an unmarried, twenty-something who enjoys wine and Will Ferrell and struggles with judging others and maintaining purity with her handsome, talented, amazing boyfriend. You can follow her on her blog.
I’m really struggling with this whole Fifty Shades of Grey deal.
Photo courtesy: screencrush.com
If you haven’t heard about this book, you should probably Bing it now so this post will make sense. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.
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Welcome back! I missed you.
I cannot express how disappointed I am at the amount of Christian women who are not only reading this book, but passing it along to friends and discussing it in small groups. Married women claim it puts a spark in their marriage. Single women think it’s as innocent as watching Glee. (Don’t even get me started with Glee…)
The more I rest in God’s Word, the more I have been forced to wrestle with how uncomfortable it truly is. Sure, there are the confirming promises our Father delivers, and encouraging verses that can be tweeted.
But for those of us who are Christ-followers, why do we continuously justify skipping the parts of the Bible we don’t like?
Truth is not truth unless it is whole.
Whole can be painful, but whole is ultimately healthy. You cannot accept some parts of the Bible while dismissing others and call yourself a Christian.
That is precisely the problem with religion now, though – too much picking and choosing what makes us feel warm and fuzzy while neglecting what God has directly commanded of us.
As it relates to Fifty Shades of Grey and the Christians who are reading it without a second thought (actually their second thought is that those of us who aren’t reading it are judgmental, stuck-up prudes), I’m finding a lot of Christians compartmentalizing God.
When we do this, we live as if God has office hours from 8am-1pm on Sundays, rather than living as if He is with us each and every day, in even the smallest details of our lives.
Christ-followers are called to be in the world and not of it. That requires looking at the issues that are clearly of the world with a set of lenses that are not judgmental, but instead with lenses which allow our hearts to break when our eyes are opened to things we know are not from God.
You may call me close-minded for writing about a book I haven’t even read, but I can’t bring myself to do it.
Just think…would you feel comfortable reading this book to your kids? To your mom? During your prayer time with God?
The main character is apparently a controlling narcissist who epitomizes they type of jerk I would never want my daughter, friends, or myself to seek in a man. Sounds like my ex. And I thank God, quite literally, that he is my ex.
He understands all the nitty-gritty of our lives, and we do not have to go before Him as perfect angels who have our acts together. He knows we don’t. He knows we are broken, bruised and tainted. Even if the rest of the world thinks we have it together, God knows the truth. And He still loves us. That’s grace.
We all know it’s wrong to take advantage of people, children, or widows. These things upset us, and we even rally together around missions and social justice projects to make things better.
Somehow, though, we completely miss the evil that is sneaking into our souls from more subtle influences. Putting poison like this into our minds, things you know aren’t pleasing to God, will most assuredly start to take your life.
Things rarely start full-force. Affairs start with a glass of wine after work. Innocence is given away to the boyfriend who was deemed marriage material from the first conversation.
Everything people regret in life has a starting point. If you reflect on things you wish had gone differently in your own life, I bet you can pinpoint some of yours.
Don’t let this book be a starting point to the deterioration of a relationship in your life. Whether that relationship is with your boyfriend, husband, or most importantly, God.
I feel so adamantly about this I decided to share my thoughts with everyone online. But it got me thinking: if I feel so strongly about something others seem so apathetic about, what am I being apathetic towards that other Christians feel strongly about?
What are my own blind spots? Where am I ignoring God and settling to be of the world and not in it?
It’s a harrowing thought, but one I consider worth the discomfort.
What about you? What are your blind spots?
Share in the comments.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble,
whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable –
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy –
think about such things.”
Do you feel like a passive participant in the media and information that comes your way? What is a Christian to make of the news and culture around them? Is there just too much to keep up with?
It sure seems that way.
But it doesn’t have to.
By learning to be more discerning, we can overcome drowning in poor quality information.
We can learn to mentally sort through the barrage of information and emerge with understanding.
Discernment is simply the ability to judge well. It means you can analyze information and make an informed decision based on insight. It doesn’t mean you have all the answers, but it does mean you know how to decide if an answer you’ve been given is correct.
As a Christian, discernment means you have the ability to judge if something is of God or not.
This is crucial.
Imagine a scenario where you think God has spoken to you. How can you be sure? As Richard Peace notes in his new book, Noticing God,
“How do we know that it is God whom we are meeting and not just our fanciful imagination?”
There are millions of networks and organizations vying for your attention, trying to tell you what’s important. As James Emery White has noted,
“Howard K. Smith, a news icon in a previous era, once quipped that the media may not tell you what to think, but they most certainly tell you what to think about.”
And that’s the case isn’t it?
But if we let our opinions be informed by various outlets in the world, we will end up mindless beings on our way to Hell. That might sound harsh, but I don’t think it’s untrue.
Accepting what we are given at face value would leave us thinking sex outside of marriage is acceptable, cheating at school and work is the status quo, and Los Angeles is the center of the universe. Just because these things are said over and over does not make them true. Especially not in God’s economy.
Here are 5 ways you can be more discerning:
Photo courtesy: http://static.tvfanatic.com
example, CNN is liberal and FOX is conservative. That’s no secret. But knowing this and applying that knowledge to how you receive the news from these sources makes a big difference.
All of these will help you be a more discerning person.
The real challenge is laid down by John 13:17:
Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
Will you work on becoming more discerning in your life?
Be sure to share in the comments.
