Discernment Training (Notes on Discernment)

We “discern” all the time.  We decide which food in the fridge needs to be thrown out, and which is still good.  You might decide whether or not to buy flowers for your wife, and if so what kind.  Someone might think about what a passage of Scripture means, or whether a political policy is just.

Biblically speaking, we have a lot of freedom when it comes to most decisions.  But even when it comes to decisions that are very important or morally significant, we rarely have the time to go through an in-depth decision-making process.

So in daily life, maybe the most important part of discernment is the daily discipline of learning wisdom.

I was thinking about how this is like the preparation for a sports event.  Being in Mexico, I used soccer (football) as an example – maybe at this time of year I should switch to hockey!  Well, I’ll keep it vague and you can just imagine the team sport you prefer. 🙂

Discernment Training

1) Exercise  Meditating on God’s Word  The discipline of meditating on the Scriptures – at the expense of focusing on the many distractions of our day – is poetically conveyed in the first Psalm:

Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 1:1-2

2) A Healthy Diet  Prayer  Of course these illustrations are a bit arbitrary, but I chose healthy eating because it has to do with taking something in from outside of us that sustains us and helps us develop.  Prayer is just that – recognizing our dependence on the Spirit, seeking His guidance and his light.  Praying with our Bibles open, to let that light shine on His Word.

As Paul said simply, pray without ceasing (1Thessalonians 5:17).

3) Know the rules  Using creeds, doctrinal statements, catechisms, rules of faith  This is one we don’t often think of, and yet the people of God have done this all throughout history.  A creed is just a short way of remembering truths from Scripture.  These kinds of things were often written to counter a specific false teaching.

One of the earliest and most famous – Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the Lord is one (Deuteronomy 6:4), which differentiated the One God of the universe from the gods of the nations.  Another inspired creed is in 1Corinthians 15:3-5.  Other examples, from the Nicene Creed to your church’s statement of faith are not inspired but still give us a quick way to think about deeper truths.

Even certain words we use summarize biblical truths.  For example, the words “Trinity” and “Incarnation” are nowhere found in the Scriptures – and yet they describe a certain biblical concepts.

Just like the rules of a sport, these tend to be “simplistic” and don’t give the full story – but they are helpful and can be a starting point for our study.

4) Working as a team  Interaction with God’s people  This one is pretty obvious – we need to spend time with the community of believers.  This is seen in its most obvious state when we just talk with believers we know and trust.  But it can also include learning from believers around the world and throughout history.

As the author of Hebrews wrote,

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:23-25

5) Drills  Special study on a topic  Just like players do drills to build certain skills and muscles, we put effort into understanding a certain topic or knowing how to approach a certain decision.  This is of course the one we often think about when we talk about “discernment”.  What should I do if my parents don’t think I should get this job?  How should I love my children?  How should I pray?

But #5 really isn’t even possible if you haven’t been doing #1-#4.

If we have been doing regular training, we will grow more and more into a life of wisdom, a life of discernment.  As Paul told the Thessalonian church, Test everything; hold fast what is good.  Abstain from every form of evil. (1Thessalonians 5:21-22)