The Mystery of Counsel • Deshen Daily

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel. (Proverbs 12:15)

Beneath the surface of al almost all, if not all, of our human problems, is a wisdom deficiency. If only we knew what works in the circumstances of life, we will thrive in every one of them.Wisdom is the principal thing.

Counsel is leveraging or making use of the wisdom of someone else. It is wisdom in itself to recognize you do not have the wisdom required in a circumstance of life and therefore seek to obtain it from someone else. This is what counsel is all about. One of the greatest forms of blindness I have seen is one’s blindness to his or her own errors or faults. A fool is right in his own eyes. He might be heading to a ditch, but he neither knows it nor accepts the wisdom of those who see the ditch. He is blind.

Our inability to listen or reject counsel will cost us money, time, resources, relationships, and joy.

Imagine having Einstein by your side while you are struggling to figure out a physics assignment. And now imagine having the wisdom of life besides you while you are trying to figure out the events of your life. The greatest counselor we have as believers is not another man, but God Himself. His Word and His Spirit are our Counsellors (Psalms 119:24, John 16:10). But He also uses godly men and women around us to give us good counsel.

I cannot end this devotional without mentioning the dangers of the other side of godly counsel, that is, ungodly or bad advice. Just as godly advice be change your world entirely, so ungodly advice from the wrong source can have a significant impact on your life—for the worse. So choose carefully the voices that speak into your life.

Flee the temptation of being right in your own eyes, and be sensitive to pick up bad counsel. Be wise enough to seek and listen to godly counsel.

MEDITATE

Meditate on the words of the scripture above. Think of them, again and again. Think, and say them to yourself…. Pondering and muttering God’s word causes it to take root in your heart.

APPLY THE WORD

Want to put to work the devotional above today? Do you have any “to do” planned? Why don’t you start by consulting God’s wisdom? Do you have any scriptures in mind to guide you in those decisions? Did you have time to seek the guidance of the Spirit? If not, do not be a fool!

PRAY

Ask God for the wisdom to seek and listen to godly counsel. Ask Him especially for the grace to escape the folly of the foolish, which to be wise in your own eyes and refuse to listen to others.

Pray that the Lord will also keep you from ungodly counsel, which is destructive as godly counsel is productive.