Praying for Spiritual Discernment

Philippians 1:9-11 "And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God".

Do you note Paul's primary threefold cord of requests in prayer for this church at Philippi? He prays for:

Love
Knowledge
And Discernment

It is the need for spiritual discernment that I want to emphasise. It is the great need for spiritual; discernment that I want to urge us auto pray for as individuals, families and also congregations/denominations. Do you pray for this and how often? If you do not then we can be assured that your spiritual discernment will be weaker than the Lord intends it to be.

There are many spiritual snares, temptations and pitfalls and the church desperately needs an increase in spiritual discernment. Philippians 1:10 "... so that you may approve what is excellent ...". This means to know the difference between what is spiritually right and what is spiritually wrong!

Discernment means a "capacity to understand". A capacity to understand is vital to the spiritual life and witness of the church. We need discernment regarding doctrine, Christian morals, what should and should not take place in public worship and so forth. Perhaps someone should write a good book on discernment from an Evangelical and Reformed perspective.

I hope that this blog post exhorts us to action to pray for spiritual discernment on a regular basis.