“DISCERNMENT!”

Philippians 1:8-11                                         (ESV)

“8 For GOD is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of CHRIST JESUS.

9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with KNOWLEDGE and ALL “DISCERNMENT”,

10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of CHRIST,

11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through JESUS CHRIST, to the Glory and praise of GOD.”

DISCERNMENT 

Definition of discernment

1  : the quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure : skill in discerning

2  : an act of perceiving or discerning something

Maybe one of the most challenging things in my life since the Brain Hemorrhage has been not being able to express my thoughts through WORDS.  Because of the inability to select WORDS as well as before, my self-confidence (some say cockiness!) has been replaced with not being quite sure that what I am thinking is what needs to be said.  Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person”, has TRUE MEANING to me now.  

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 says “but test everything; hold fast what is good.  Abstain from every form of evil.”.  Now do I abstain from every form of evil?  Absolutely not.  But Scripture instructs me to, so why don’t I yield?  The sin nature that we all have still has a grip on me, and everyone who has breath.  The ability to SEE what is driving our ship called LIFE is a word called “DISCERNMENT”!  

One commentary says it like this:

In its simplest definition, DISCERNMENT is nothing more than the ability to decide between truth and error, right and wrong. DISCERNMENT is the process of making careful distinctions in our thinking about truth. In other words, the ability to think with DISCERNMENT is synonymous with an ability to THINK BIBLICALLY.

We can memorize the entire BIBLE, but until we have “DISCERNMENT” we will not have the ability to SEE what the SPIRIT is saying to us.  Maybe that is why the Apostle Paul wrote “it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with KNOWLEDGE and ALL “DISCERNMENT””?  Being able to say exactly what we are thinking can be a great tool for the KINGDOM.  Displaying “DISCERNMENT” is being able to THINK BIBLICALLY!  FATHER, cause me to display “DISCERNMENT” in all my actions.