Discernment is often a battlefield—we throw grenades of insults, snide remarks, and sarcastic comments. When dealing with true false teachers, we should separate ourselves. But what about a fellow believer who perhaps misspoke or is still learning how to teach and share about their faith?

Right biblical doctrine shouldn’t make us feel angst; rather, when theology causes us distress, we should get curious. How can we go about investigating doctrines that make us uncomfortable?

Is love always welcoming to everyone? What if sometimes loving those most precious to us means driving away those who seek to harm them?

If the gospel is the most important issue, does that mean secondary and tertiary theological issues don’t matter at all? Should we still invest in learning them and understanding them?

The spiritual gift of discernment shows up twice in the Bible and with very little for a working definition. This has left a lot of room for people to interpret and put their own experiences into what this gift could be.

Can I trust my favourite Bible teacher? Perhaps a friend of yours has questioned your favourite Bible teacher. How do you move forward? With three simple steps.

Getting seasick is truly a miserable experience. How can Christians avoid “spiritual seasickness”—being thrown about by every wind of doctrine?

As believers, we may feel the pressure to only ever read Christian nonfiction. Yet God, in his grace, has provided more than just that: He’s provided fiction and poetry as well. Perhaps you feel weary and burnt out from all the Christian nonfiction you’ve been reading, and the joy of reading at all has dissipated. Based on my own journey, here’s how I renewed the joy of reading from all kinds of genres.

We know that we’re supposed to discern the words of the world we absorb and make sure they’re in line with Scripture. But what about the thoughts that rattle around in our own minds? Do we ever take stock of the ideas swirling around our minds and hold them up to God’s Word? Or have we become so used to hearing them that we’ve attributed them to ourselves—or even God himself?

With the gospel as our backdrop, we need to engage discernment as whole people. God created us with minds, souls, and bodies. When we only engage one of these, our discernment is lacking. It’s weakened because we’re only engaging part of us, rather than our entire selves.

We’re exhorted to seek solitude, journal towards holiness, go on nature walks to connect with God, and take extended periods of silence to listen and clear our minds. Do all these practices and more, they say, to grow closer to God and be holy. Dear reader, do all these checklist items miss the theological and even practical mark that the Bible lays out for us?

Searching for “peace” about a decision. Listening for God’s direction. Following the leading of the Holy Spirit. Waiting for a word from the Lord. All of these and more often lead to Christian Decision Paralysis. What if we could make decisions without Christian Decision Paralysis taking a hold of us? What if discovering God’s will wasn’t such a mystical, mysterious hunt?

In Christian spheres, people paint curiosity a few different ways. In some circles, it’s praised almost as a spiritual discipline that we should partake in if we wish to know God and grow in holiness. In other circles it’s a dangerous practice. But what if the faithful Christian can be both curious and discerning?

I say my husband and I found healing in an unexpected place to us—because in our pride, we assumed real healing could only come from those who agreed with us.

Have you ever sat across from a friend and felt your theological disagreements strike up between you like a jagged fence? Perhaps it felt like a crack in the foundation of your friendship, and your heart ached a little—from wonder at how she disagreed with you to fears of losing your friend. How do we move forward?

False teaching should make us mad. It should make us indignant for God’s glory and the souls of the lost. But does it ever cause us to mourn? If we felt this kind of grief, how would that change our words and actions towards false teachers? Perhaps we’d be better proclaimers of the truth they need.

Each of us is faced with decisions in life, and the hardest ones often involve people we love and know to be faithful. But have you ever felt this tension between Bible teachers you know and love? How do we discern what’s true even among the best of Bible teachers?

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.

I often bristle at corrections from fellow believers who point out point out my faults, failures, or sins. My natural tendency (and probably yours too) is to be defensive. However, this doesn’t need to be our only reaction. God’s Word shows us another way.

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