Discernment
Discernment
Like everyone else, I have been looking at the new year and I would like to share with you an observation or two that I have had and then my prayer for the people God has called me to serve. Many folks are struggling with a general lack of trust and respect for leadership. So many factors have attributed to this on a national level but when this happens it is difficult to stop it from evading all areas of our hearts and lives. A general lack of trust and respect allows our hearts to then begin to distrust all leadership that has been given in our lives. God has given us leadership and authority in our lives to protect us. We lose that protection when distrust creeps in.
Another observation is that we are tired. Covid brought into our lives a level of disagreement that we have rarely ever seen. It seemed that in every area of our lives we were disagreeing with someone. Those disagreements were not able to be kept private as there were visible signs of our disagreement everywhere. Masks or lack of masks. Distancing or not. Even in our Christian circles, it became acceptable to flaunt your disagreements. Looking down on your noses at those who chose differently than you became common place. As we moved on from Covid our disagreements continued as political differences became so polarized. For many, it was inconceivable how anyone could vote differently than what they were voting. With all of this disagreeing, we find ourselves weary of disagreeing and standing up against others. It turns us more and more inward.
The combination of those two observations will lead, in my opinion, to what the book of Judges described as “everyone doing what is right in their own eyes”. Lack of trust in leadership and a weariness of disagreeing leads us to doing what we believe is best. We do not want to discuss if we may be wrong and we do not trust the authorities in our lives to lead us correctly. This even includes the Word of God. When we allow a mistrust and disrespect to creep into our lives it often does not stop and, if we are not careful, we even begin to question the Word of God. Questioning and mistrusting authority just becomes the norm. We do not want to hear anything different than what we think. We tune out those who disagree. We even tune out the Word of God. Not wanting to disagree always with others just leads us to keep things inward. All of this leads to the idea that we are the final authority in our lives.
I do not believe that most of us will find ourselves in full rebellion but I do see that our desire to find peace and agreement often leads to a lack of discernment. That is my prayer this year for those that I serve. May they have Spirit led, Word of God inspired, discernment. May our desire to stop finding disagreement everywhere, be a Spirit led call for unity, and may we not grab on to things just because they look good. In just the past few weeks I have seen two or three formally solid ministries either publish or proclaim Biblically poor or Biblically untrue materials. It seems as if we will not only be disagreeing with culture but we will now need to stand firm in the middle of those we once trusted. Are we willing to stand in disagreement or will we love peace more than truth? Will we grab on to the little we agree on and ignore the untruth that is also there? Leaders who are given to help us discern these things, we find that we just don’t trust them as we used to. Little agreement seems to be better than no agreement and if we are not careful, we will find ourselves standing with untruth. Great discernment is needed.
Let me add one more observation. Politicians blow in the wind. Massively liberal ideas lost. Companies cannot drop their DEI programs fast enough. Is this move toward more conservative views a move that believers can really embrace? Are those “conservative” moves Biblically sound enough that we will find great agreement with them? Or will we still be forced to stand in disagreement? Something that we are growing weary of doing. Great discernment is needed.
In 2025, may we pursue peace and unity. But may we do so with great discernment that is Spirit led and Word of God inspired.
Like everyone else, I have been looking at the new year and I would like to share with you an observation or two that I have had and then my prayer for the people God has called me to serve. Many folks are struggling with a general lack of trust and respect for leadership. So many factors have attributed to this on a national level but when this happens it is difficult to stop it from evading all areas of our hearts and lives. A general lack of trust and respect allows our hearts to then begin to distrust all leadership that has been given in our lives. God has given us leadership and authority in our lives to protect us. We lose that protection when distrust creeps in.
Another observation is that we are tired. Covid brought into our lives a level of disagreement that we have rarely ever seen. It seemed that in every area of our lives we were disagreeing with someone. Those disagreements were not able to be kept private as there were visible signs of our disagreement everywhere. Masks or lack of masks. Distancing or not. Even in our Christian circles, it became acceptable to flaunt your disagreements. Looking down on your noses at those who chose differently than you became common place. As we moved on from Covid our disagreements continued as political differences became so polarized. For many, it was inconceivable how anyone could vote differently than what they were voting. With all of this disagreeing, we find ourselves weary of disagreeing and standing up against others. It turns us more and more inward.
The combination of those two observations will lead, in my opinion, to what the book of Judges described as “everyone doing what is right in their own eyes”. Lack of trust in leadership and a weariness of disagreeing leads us to doing what we believe is best. We do not want to discuss if we may be wrong and we do not trust the authorities in our lives to lead us correctly. This even includes the Word of God. When we allow a mistrust and disrespect to creep into our lives it often does not stop and, if we are not careful, we even begin to question the Word of God. Questioning and mistrusting authority just becomes the norm. We do not want to hear anything different than what we think. We tune out those who disagree. We even tune out the Word of God. Not wanting to disagree always with others just leads us to keep things inward. All of this leads to the idea that we are the final authority in our lives.
I do not believe that most of us will find ourselves in full rebellion but I do see that our desire to find peace and agreement often leads to a lack of discernment. That is my prayer this year for those that I serve. May they have Spirit led, Word of God inspired, discernment. May our desire to stop finding disagreement everywhere, be a Spirit led call for unity, and may we not grab on to things just because they look good. In just the past few weeks I have seen two or three formally solid ministries either publish or proclaim Biblically poor or Biblically untrue materials. It seems as if we will not only be disagreeing with culture but we will now need to stand firm in the middle of those we once trusted. Are we willing to stand in disagreement or will we love peace more than truth? Will we grab on to the little we agree on and ignore the untruth that is also there? Leaders who are given to help us discern these things, we find that we just don’t trust them as we used to. Little agreement seems to be better than no agreement and if we are not careful, we will find ourselves standing with untruth. Great discernment is needed.
Let me add one more observation. Politicians blow in the wind. Massively liberal ideas lost. Companies cannot drop their DEI programs fast enough. Is this move toward more conservative views a move that believers can really embrace? Are those “conservative” moves Biblically sound enough that we will find great agreement with them? Or will we still be forced to stand in disagreement? Something that we are growing weary of doing. Great discernment is needed.
In 2025, may we pursue peace and unity. But may we do so with great discernment that is Spirit led and Word of God inspired.
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