February 13th

Refined

Woe to the rebellious children,’ says the LORD, Who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who walk to go down to Egypt, and have not asked My advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!’ Isaiah 30:1-2

When you need advice, whom do you ask for help? When your marriage is in trouble, who is the first person you go to for counsel? When you have children and don’t know how to raise them, where do you go to learn?

I hope that your answer to these questions is God, that you ask God what He thinks about these things before you turn to anyone else. And that having turned to God, you have no need to ask anyone else, because God gives you everything you need for all the questions we face in life.

What I often find as a pastor, however, is that people come to me as a last resort to ask how God could help them. Or one spouse will come to me and tell me all the things their partner hears from their counselor, which usually, of course, has nothing to do with God.

All this makes no sense to me. I mean, as Christians we have a direct connection with the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us, the Spirit who searches the deep things of God and reveals them to us, the Spirit by whom we can say that we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:7-16).

We also have the Word of God, His counsel written down for us from ages past that addresses every difficulty that we might face. In this Word, we have whole books dedicated entirely to wisdom, which teaches us what to do in every situation. This Word teaches us how to pray, and in so doing obtain help from God for our every need.

And all of this is from God Himself, the One who created the universe, the One who existed before all things, the One who is sovereign over all things, the One who holds the entire world together by the power of His word.

When I consider all this, I wonder why on earth Christians would turn to the counselors of the world or the worldly counsel of friends before they think to ask God His opinion.

God is our answer and our hope. He is our wisdom that meets our every need. Let’s forget the wisdom of this world and start asking God what He thinks.

Prayer Lord God,

I’m sorry for turning to worldly counselors for advice when I didn’t know what to do. Now I know that the first thing to do is ask You what You think. Please surround me with wise, godly counselors and help me to follow You in everything I do!

Amen