Finding God’s Will Series (1)
Godly Advise: Finding God’s Will (1)
Advise is very influential in shaping our view of how
to make godly decisions - to find God’s will.
Unfortunately, not many of us are aware that not all
advise is biblical. Ungodly advise is very
subjective. To make thing worse, since usually we
‘listen’ to this type of advise from our ‘inner
circle’- people who are close to us -, we tend to
blindly accept their advise. Ironically, if the
advisors are also ‘believers’, we tend to assume that
they are always right. On the other hand, if they are
not in the same faith, their advise cannot be
trustworthy; they are always wrong. Is that the right
practice? How should we treat advise anyhow?
There is no doubt that we should listen to godly
people carefully. They are placed by God in our life
to help us grow in faith. Bible shows us many
examples such as Moses-Joshua, Elijah-Elisha,
Samuel-David, Paul-Timothy, and many others. However,
the concern here is that sometimes because these godly
people "care" us so much that they sometimes become
subjective. Let’s read what happened with Jesus &
Peter.
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Matthew 16:21-23:
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his
disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many
things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and
teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on
the third day be raised to life.
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never,
Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!"
Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!
You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in
mind the things of God, but the things of men."
——————————————————-
Peter’s advise to Jesus was out of love and care. But
it’s wrong!! God’s will for Christ is to die at
Calvary to redeem the world. Peter didn’t know God’s
will for his teacher. He should not have given such
advise. This case happens a lot in modern world. Our
godly friends sometimes become unwise in giving us
advise because they care about us. They become
subjective and emotional. Let’s face the fact, which
one is easier to let somebody know that he (or she)
will not get what he desires or to let he knows that
God will fulfill his dream? It is very hard to advise
a person to redirect his path to do the right thing,
especially if the right path is not the pleasant one.
It’s a lot easier to please somebody by giving him a
pleasing advise. But again that’s wrong. Godly
advise is able to help a person grow in faith so that
he can see clearer his purpose on life regardless of
his feeling and emotion. It’s NOT what we think is
right, but what God thinks is right.
Therefore, we should not blindly accept what our godly
friends suggest us to do. We need to treat their
advises as second opinions and run them through the
truth. In other words, advises from bro and sis in
Christ (even our spiritual leaders) are not the final
words, but The word of God is (yhs)
