Discernment is the skill of seeing what is right from almost right. It’s the ability to recognize the truth about God and the gospel and recognize when it’s skewed. It’s one thing to do that for ourselves, it’s another to guide our children through it as well. It doesn’t need to be burdensome and fearful—rather, it can be rewarding and restful for the believer.

As believers, we often give ourselves to things that can’t change us. Too often, we mix up the tender relationship between the law and the gospel. And just like my failed attempt at mastering water intake, when we confuse law and gospel it leads to frustration as well as discouragement.

We often struggle in our relationships with believers we disagree with. What if it’s because we’re hanging on so tightly to our disagreements that we are unwilling to find a peaceful place to stand together? How do we learn to stand on the peaceful grounds of the gospel together despite our differences?

Rich theology with it’s complex history has been abridged to memes, social media captions, and slogans. What was once discussed and believed from thorough exegesis and study can be summed up in pithy sentences on graphics. What took some years of study, question-asking, and many books from a variety of libraries to understand, others today can learn in thirty minutes listening to a podcast or two minutes scanning an article. While there are good things to be taken from these, I wonder if we’ve forsaken anything for them.

False teachers are everywhere. How do we grow in discernment to know truth from error? First we must lay a foundation. Here’s how.

Just as the Old Testament saints and the Early Church had to watch closely for false teachers among them, so we still do today. We can’t rely on our pastors, mentors, teachers, or favorite bloggers to tell us who is false and who isn’t. We need to be equipped to discern for ourselves. Here’s how.

Discernment is good. Desiring to see God’s name honoured and his Word rightly divided is a righteous desire. But there’s a type of hunting goes beyond loving and gentle discernment. Like Miss. Morton from Northanger Abbey, they enjoy the adrenaline of the hunt.

In the same way that you shouldn’t diagnose yourself with Google, I don’t want you to learn your theology from me. I don’t mind being your starting point or launching pad, but don’t make me your final authority. There are better sources out there than me.

Most of us have learned to be careful with the term “heretic”, reserving it for those who are far from orthodoxy, but perhaps some of us (myself included) are still a bit too quick to stick the label “false teacher” on others’ backs. Can you relate? How do you know when to call someone a false teacher?

Does sanctification ever feel too slow for you? Haven’t I gone to war with enough sins? Haven’t I reached a decent level of holiness? Shouldn’t I be immune to the devil’s temptations now? Sanctification may be slow, but God remains steadfast.

We’re all going to face suffering in this life—it’s sadly inevitable. Yet, what is also inevitable are the lies. In the midst of suffering, we can set our minds on truth, what the Bible actually says about our pain. Here are five misconceptions about suffering and the truth to which we can cling.

Burdened brothers and sisters, we can’t sanctify ourselves. Along with the apostle Paul, I gently ask you (and myself): having begun by the Spirit, do we believe we’re now being perfected by our own strength (Gal. 3:3). While it is good to pursue holiness, at the end of the day we must know that it is the Spirit—not our plans, works, obedience, or Bible memorization—who sanctifies us.

Theology is easier to articulate in articles, books, and journals than it is lived out. It’s one thing to claim that God is sovereign, and it’s another to see him take away and find a way to praise his name. Learning theology comes in two parts. There’s the time in the classroom (or on the couch with a good book) and there’s the time of living it out.

Discernment is like examining a well-done counterfeit painting—we need an expert, well-trained eye to see the tiny detail differences between the genuine and the fake. But how is this eye for detail trained? How do we strengthen our discernment muscles?

Maybe you have felt that too, that grasping in the air for faith while your hope is depleted. If your faith is weak and you’re stumbling through a barren land in search of something to strengthen you, there is one who loves you, who supplies your every ounce of faith, even when you feel faithless.

In the Fall, both soul and body were broken by sin. Our bodies were then plagued by sicknesses and diseases, and ultimately death. But before this, when God formed us, he declared the whole of us as good—not just the soul. Both are created by God, both are created to glorify him, and both will be redeemed by God.

Perhaps you’ve heard this variation: “Depression, anxiety, heartbreak—you are not bound to living that way. You don’t have to suffer anymore. Freedom exists in Jesus. Come to him and find freedom.” This is a false gospel.

Decision-making can fill us with anxiety. What if I make the wrong choice? Sometimes we extend the necessary time to make a decision out of fear. What if I told you that as believers we have God’s Word as a perfect standard to bring our questions to? What if I told you that despite what you choose, it is still entirely in God’s hands?

My dear sister who loves theology, I must ask: Has this knowledge and theology changed you yet? Has your abounding comprehensionfound its way to your heart so as to shape your life? Do the words you speak, the thoughts you think, the actions you commit represent the information in your mind?

As well as we know the sting of the unfaithfulness of others to us, we also know of our own unfaithfulness. Who can be trusted? If even those who love us most will still be unfaithful due to their sin, and we ourselves cannot be trusted because of our sin, is there anyone who we can look to that will be steadfast?