While out with a friend yesterday morning and listening to her advice on something I recently asked for her input about, she briefly mentioned a passage of scripture about the abundance of wise counselors – how it’s something that is good and necessary for wisdom and direction. Throughout the rest of the day… literally, the entire rest of the day, I couldn’t get that phrase about wise counselors to leave my mind, and it ended up leading me on a little bit of a journey.
I had a lot going on yesterday. It ended up being much busier than anticipated, but I kept finding myself stealing little moments to get away from everyone and what was going on to search online and in my Bible app for everything I could find about wise counsel, godly counsel, the abundance of counselors… like seriously, everything I could find. And you know what I found in my research? I found that God apparently has a lot to say about listening to counsel.
A theme that God and I have been on for a pretty long while now is pride and humility. He keeps asking me to do things I don’t want to do – like writing these blogs, for example – because He says these things will keep me humble, and my pride in check. Trust me, I have no desire to throw my garbage out for the world to see like in the recent post titled Still Broken, Still Beautiful, but listening to Him and His guidance always brings peace and freedom afterward. It’s as though my obedience to His counsel, even though I generally fight it, especially the hard things, always brings about the reward of breakthrough. It’s a wonder I still question and argue with Him, right? Yeah… I know. That’s my pride. Lol.
Going along with this theme of pride and humility, though, as I was reading everything I could find about counsel and wisdom and godly advice, I began to think about all of the people God has placed in my life right now who can provide godly counsel when I need it, and how thankful I should be for it.
It would be super easy for me to sit back and try to forget about these individuals, and even neglect their wisdom and advice. I like to feel like I’ve got a handle on things by myself, and that I don’t need any help from others. But the truth is, I DO need help from others, and it’s even encouraged biblically. My pride is what makes me want to do it all on my own. If you’re like me, a Christian who sometimes finds it hard to listen to, or even seek out counsel from godly, wise friends God has likely intentionally placed in your life, let me share a little bit of what my research yesterday threw my way.
Initially, I thought God and I were going to be talking about just any kind of counsel. But as I was getting deeper into my study, I was led to a passage from Psalm 1:1 that reads:
“How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked…”
Some versions translate that last word, wicked, as “ungodly”. So, that led me to be confident that He and I were specifically talking about godly counsel. Not just any random advisor.
This is slightly off the point I want to make with this blog, but I feel like this is something I need to share to explain what I mean by “not just any random advisor”. I went out with another friend during lunch time yesterday and was talking with her about some these things as I was trying to process and piece them together. During the conversation I said something along the lines of “I think you have to actually get to know people in order to truly know whether their counsel is godly or not.” We were discussing community, and the importance of being around and with people, and how this is something the body of Christ needs. This, meshed with the discussion about advisors made me think about how lots of people may try to give us advice, even random strangers, but how do we know whether their counsel is godly or not? I mean, God can certainly use people and situations where the counsel or advice is given by people we don’t know, but the majority of the time we should be seeking counsel from people we already know. People we are certain are running after God.
Back to the main point I want to make, something else He was pointing out that links heavily back to the pride issue and not wanting to take advice from others or allow them to give it to me comes from Proverbs 12:15. The NLT translation reads it like this:
“Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others.”
Check out how the Amplified translates this same passage, though:
“The way of the [arrogant] fool [who rejects God’s wisdom] is right in his own eyes, but a wise and prudent man is he who listens to counsel.”
EEEsh! That’s a hardcore hit. It’s arrogant and foolish of us to just go about our lives with our eyes only; to reject God’s wisdom which tells us that there is safety [sometimes translated “victory” or “deliverance”] in the abundance of counselors (Proverbs 11:14)
Here are some other verses He led me to for confirmation of this:
“By pride comes nothing but strife, but with the well-advised is wisdom.” Proverbs 13:10
“Wise instruction is a fountain of life, turning one away from snares of death.” Proverbs 13:14
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Proverbs 1:7
“Listen to counsel and receive instruction, that you may be wise in your latter days.” Proverbs 19:20
I don’t know about you all, but I don’t want to be foolish OR arrogant before my God. I want to heed His advice, which is the best advice, of course, and sometimes that advice comes through His servants… some amazing friends and people He has placed in my life who I know (because I know them) are trying to live godly lives.
That thought right up there is what made this next verse I’m going to share stand out so much when I read it yesterday…
“Oil and perfume make the heart glad; so does the sweetness of a friend’s counsel that comes from the heart.” Proverbs 27:9
Truthfully, God really has blessed me with some amazing people right now, in this present moment. I want to be able to see their hearts when we discuss things, and to hear the things that God may be trying to tell me through them… all of them. I don’t ever want to let my pride keep me from hearing what He wants to say to me. I also don’t want to be so arrogant that I refuse to actually SEEK wise counsel simply because I might not want to look weak. Because honestly, when I think about it, if He’s surrounding me so many awesome, godly, wise people right now… it’s pretty probable that it’s for a reason, wouldn’t you say?
