Discerning Good

I strive to find a balance between doing good on my own accord, doing good based on Spiritual promptings, and ignoring temptations from the adversary. It’s a hard and confusing battle at times, because both sides fight equally hard to be heard. The trouble is, they all sound like me. The Lord speaks to us in our own language and temptations come through our thoughts. Funny huh? It’s hard to discern voices at times. Sometimes it affects the way others look at me I swear. If I get a small prompting to take an alternative route when driving, I will often war with myself if it was a real prompting and will spend some time pulling “U-es” until I finally get frustrated and just move on. I wish I could tell in an instant what I need to do. This is my first step in learning how to discern inspiration better.

It starts with a scripture I read in Moroni. “The Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.”

This scripture is simple, yet incredibly helpful. It confirms first that there are really only two outside influences vying for our attention. The first is God, and he will only tell you to do things that persuade you to do good, or believe in Christ. The second is the adversary, and he pretty much covers everything else. The trick is, when an idea comes, we need to be able to recognize what influence that idea has over us. Will it entice us to do what we know is right? Or will it entice us to do evil? (or are we not sure). The best way to know in these circumstances is to have a firm testimony of the gospel combined with intelligent scripture study.

With a testimony, you can feel the influence of the Spirit stronger in your life. He is more recognizable to you because you are familiar with his presence.

With intelligent scripture study—by that I mean scripture study where you actually pay attention with a desire to learn—you get to know God, and everything he expects from you. When you clearly understand what he expects from you, you can discern more quickly the Spirit’s guiding hand over Satan’s.

Could I have helped someone out if I had just followed the prompting? Yes, I very well could have. I didn’t though, so I’ll never know. The only thing I can do now is put those experiences behind me and move on.

Often we want to remember the pain of missed opportunities in the vein of reminding ourselves to never do that again. If you do this though, you end up beating yourself up so much that you become helpless when you are needed to help someone else the most. Trust me, you won’t forget your mistakes, let them go when you can and prepare yourself for the next opportunity. It’s the only way to truly learn from them.