Getting another person’s opinion is sometimes the best avenue we can take when starting out in a new endeavor. The key to finding someone who can give us good advice is to locate a mentor with experience. Find a professional who’s been there, and ask her how it’s done. What are the pitfalls? How do we make the most of every opportunity? Don’t trust the newbie. Run from the “expert” who’s never set up a business of his own. If someone offers us words that sound too pleasing, then perhaps all they intend is to please us, not start us on the road to eventual success.
King Rehoboam in 1 Kings 12:6 made a good initial showing:
“And [he] consulted with the old men, who [had] stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do you advise that I may answer to this people?”
The king started off well. He gathered the people with experience, the men who had been there, his father’s trusted advisors. They knew the ropes, how to achieve success, and what would satisfy the demands of the people. They advised him to become a servant to his people, and the people, in turn, would be the king’s servants forever.
It was smart advice, but Rehoboam turned aside to his high school chums and said, “Now, party dudes, tell me what you think. Are these old fossils right, or are they blowing smoke?”
In that moment, the tables turned on Rehoboam. His friends were clueless, and they gave their king advice that stroked his newly acquired crown and fed his desire for power. In the doing, ten tribes of the kingdom revolted, and Israel was split into the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel.
Rehoboam should have taken the better advice.
Who do we listen to when we want direction on our path toward heaven, the expert or the usurper? Do we turn to Christ, who has been there and done that, or do we look to the wannabes who would like to say they know of heaven and the path thereof, but who have only gone there in their imagination?
The Bible is our guide, our only source for spiritual truth. Our church leaders have experience we can trust. Prayer gives us a connection to the Father in heaven, and in him, we can find our firm direction. That’s our best advice, to follow closely after God, and to listen to him when he speaks.
There is no shadow of misdirection, when we let God be our guide.
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Code: FGO.E.04.16b.vp.kjv