Wise Counsel is the Difference Between Life and Death

We talked about how reckless advice hurts others.

We saw how God holds you accountable for failing to provide wise counsel to others.

On the other hand, we saw how wisdom doesn’t come easily.  What the world considers as wisdom is actually foolish.  And we mistakenly see as foolish what God deems to be wise.

It’s enough to make one raise up their hands whenever someone comes seeking wise counsel and brush them off with a facile offer to pray for them.

But that’s what Jonah tried to do.  And God chastised him.

Why do people seek wise counsel from someone else?

Because they are making a decision.

If someone has no choice before them, why would they bother to seek guidance?

This is why wise counsel shapes someone‘s decision-making.

Those may not always be apparently life or death decisions.  In fact, they can sometimes appear trivial.

But if you are unable to give wise counsel in the everyday choices, what makes you think you can give wise counsel in a true life or death scenario?

Let’s put it another way: if you were to go to someone for advice several times, and each time they gave reckless, rash, and absent advice — would you return to that person for a serious decision?

After all, if you can’t be trusted with little, why would you be trusted with much?




But let’s raise the stakes: which decisions are life or death decisions?

I would argue that any meaningful decision can be a choice between life or death because any meaningful decision can reveal God’s commands if given the right guidance.

“No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws;  Deuteronomy‬ ‭30:14-16‬ ‭NIV‬‬

If you have an opportunity to counsel someone to follow God’s commands and don’t do so, you lead them to death and destruction.

If you can help them decide in a way that keeps God’s laws, you lead them to life and prosperity.

This is not the same as casting them off and saying, “Go, God,” and praying for them!  

Let‘s next look at some common ways that unwise counsel looks, so you can avoid falling into those pitfalls.

Questions  

1. How intentional have you been with the little decisions others have come to you about?       
2. What do you think about the statement that “any meaningful decision can be a choice between life or death?”