TODAY'S DEVOTIONAL
Prayer: Let us ask the Lord to give us His great wisdom in our hearts and let us thank Him for always gently leading us in His ways.
Learn to Discern
Scripture: Then I sent {a message} to him saying, "Such things as you are saying have not been done, but you are inventing them in your own mind." For all of them were {trying} to frighten us, thinking, "They will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done." But now, O God, strengthen my hands. Nehemiah 6:9-10 NAS
As Nehemiah worked to rebuild the wall, he faced many obstacles. Three such obstacles were Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem. They plotted to harm Nehemiah and stop the rebuilding of the wall, so they sent false messages to him and tried to pull him away from his work to meet with them so they could carry out their destructive plans.
Each time, Nehemiah discerned that the message and messenger were not of God. Many enemies wanted to discourage, distract, and even destroy Nehemiah as he followed God’s call to finish the work he set in his heart.
It is important to learn to discern the voice of God and godly counsel verses worldly advice full of selfish motives and destructive criticism.
Ask yourself the following questions:
* Is there unresolved sin in my life that I need to deal with?
If the answer is yes, then confess and repent swiftly. If not, then know that Satan is the accuser, he loves to point fingers and heap guilt where there has already been forgiveness granted.
* Is their advice Biblical?
Can they show you Scripture in context to back up their advice? If not, look for Scriptures to confirm your decisions.
* Is their motive or yours glorifying to God or self-gratifying.
The world will try to stop you any way it can from glorifying God – from going out on a godly limb and from doing something that is a threat to its own agenda. Beware! Have you ever had a friend or someone you respected, give you bad counsel? What did you do?
Learn to discern. God says, “All things are possible with Christ, trust me, persevere, press on,” and much more. God encourages; Satan discourages. God gives us strength; the world will drain you. God sets dreams in your heart; evil sets doubt in your mind. God promises to protect you; the enemy will try to fill you with fear. Bad counsel will try to justify sin and may lead you to “bend the rules just a bit.”
God will NEVER tell you to sin. Listen to the words – do they sound like God speaking to you? My prayer for you this week is that you will learn to discern.
Copyright Kathy Branzell. Email kbranzell@ceai.org
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