Today I was reading in the book of 1 Kings where Rehoboam succeeded Solomon as king of Israel. Rehoboam had a choice to relieve the burden that his father had placed on Jeroboam and he got advice from two sets of counselors. The older guys that had advised Solomon said sure, ease their burden and they will be your servants for life. His buddies that ha grown up with him said, nah, you gotta show them who's boss (MAJOR paraphrasing). He went with his buddies instead of the advice from the elders. Thus the kingdom was rent in two. He made a pretty bad choice. (1 Kings Chapter 12).
The point? We have to be careful who we take our advice from. In life there are numerous pundits that spout off advice to tell you how you should proceed. Not every one of them has our best interest at heart and not every one of them has a clue about what what they are giving advice about. How do you choose who to listen to? (Careful - I may be one of those who knows not a thing about what he is talking about!)
Some things I try to do:
1) Pray - go to God first for guidance. It can come from a person being inspired by the Lord or from God's word directly. He should always be our first source.
2) Look at the track record of the advisor. - I have 2 people whose health and workout advice I listen to without question or reservation. One is a personal trainer with a proven track record of helping people reach their weight loss goals and the other is a personal fitness coach who has personally lost weight and gotten into shape and earns a living helping others do the same thing. I know they know what they are talking about because they live it and I can see the results. For spiritual advice, I look for those I know are well versed in God's word and who are living by the principles of the Lord. Praying the whole time is good too, because not everyone who professes to know the Lord give godly advice all the time.
3) Research - Looking back at history, we can see others that have been in the situation we are in and see what steps they took. Learning from history can help us keep from repeating mistakes that have already been made. As an example, I have a friend that didn't wait on the Lord to lead him to the wife he chose. His choice ended in divorce and custody battles and serves as a reminder to me to wait until God puts me together with Ms. Right and not to trust my first urge.
So there you have it, the thought for the day: Be careful who you choose to listen to for advice. Pray hard!
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