Seeking Counsel from others can have true and bless benefits. However, choosing to counsel with ungodly people or people with motives can be harmful.
Christian growth network states: �Two things the Bible makes very clear are the benefit of godly counsel and the detriment of ungodly counsel. �The thoughts of the righteous are right: but the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.� Proverbs 12:5. Therefore it is IMPERATIVE when seeking counsel that we examine the character and values of the person(s) of whom we received advice. Not only are one�s character and values of utmost importance, we must also factor in a person�s motives when evaluating the merit of their advice. Receiving advice from a person who has a vested interest or potential gain from the decision we make can lead us astray. The more subtle, but equally misleading advice can come from people who care about us, but give advice based on their own fears, insecurities or expectations.�
When seeking counsel, we need to check our own motives too!
I believe that the people we ask for counsel can either be a blessing or a curse in the advice we follow. Often our flesh dictates who we ask for counsel. Not only do we have to watch the motives of others but we have to watch our own motives. It is an easy flesh thing to do when we have a problem with someone to ask advice from someone who will "take our side" instead of looking at things from a Godly perspective. Especially if we feel we have been "wronged" by someone and have feelings of self righteousness or anger - often, I see (and have done so myself in the past) pick people to talk to about the situation or person that will feed that self righteousness and anger because we think it will make us feel better. But things NOT of God do NOT get better. Remember the Devil is here to destroy and kill... that means your godly friendships, marriages and relationships, too. Often when we seek this kind of advice (from people that tell us what we want to hear instead of what we need to hear / and what the Bible says about it) we get more indignant and a once solvable problem snowballs into something that spirals out of control. I've seen this done in many friendships and have experienced it myself. Instead of seeking godly advice, we seek people to join us in our justification of outrage. It becomes about flesh - I'm a saint and they are a sinner! Instead of seeking solutions we seek to justify ourselves and we harden our hearts blindly. Pick your counsel from people who strongly refer to the Bible for all guidance, pick from people who have no ulterior motives and honestly & prayfully examine your motives in who you choose to ask for counsel.
And lastly, we should test everything with the Bible. Christian Growth Network suggests this: �Therefore as we weigh out the counsel we receive from others we need to ask ourselves the question, �Does this advice fit the character and nature of God as portrayed in the Bible?� We should test to see whether the counsel we receive is true and honest, just, pure, loving, of good report and would glorify God. (Philippians 4:8)
God Bless.
*(ps. sorry, I posted early this morning and put this under the wrong topic)
