It’s NOT what we think is right, but what God thinks is right
(Hanny Setiawan)
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.
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 inmind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Mat 16:21-13)
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 brothers and sisters in Christ (even our spiritual leaders) are not the final words, but The word of God is.
RELATED:
Godly Advise: Finding God’s Will (1)
Brokenness: Finding God’s Will (2)
Writing His-Story : Finding God’s Will (3)
Don’t Try, But Walk In Faith : Finding God’s Will (4)
Hanny Setiawan - Indonesia
Chairman of Kingdom Family Network that envisions New Indonesia. In literatur ministry, his desires is to "translate prophetic messages" into natural language of politic, social, economy, business, IT, education, music, etc in a view of "reformed charismatic theology"
