Wisdomfied part 6- Advice

 Prepare Your Heart:  Read Ephesians 4:14-15.  Reflect on where you turn to for advice.  Is it God’s word?  A Christian friend?  A talk show?  Articles in the latest women’s magazine? Ask God to show you the places in your life He wants you to turn to for wisdom and that using today’s study would mold you to share truth with others.

About a year ago, one of my best friends came to me with difficult words.  She had noticed some inconsistencies between my faith and how I was living.  My faults dwelt with works of the tongue; she noticed when I seemed insecure I would brag or exaggerate to make myself look better.  When people were around that I didn’t trust, I might make remarks that had a slight edge to them.  This was devastating to me; I felt terrible that I was living that way and that others could see that.  In listening to Matt Chandler’s podcast on gospel community, he defined  these sinful habits we are unaware of as “blindspots” and described the necessity of having other people around you to gently show you the areas where you are weak.  Not to judge and condemn, as we’ve all fallen short, but because all of us need people who love us enough to tell us the truth as we aren’t objective about ourselves.  My bible study mentioned the show American Idol as an example of this situation at our group last night.  During try outs, a lot of those individuals don’t have people in their life to be honest enough to mention: you really can’t sing! Today we will study the value of truthful advisors.  Let this be a chance for us to analyze where we go for feedback and how we treat others in our lives when they come to us for wisdom.  

Look up each passage in the book of Proverbs and take notes on what you learn on each theme:

Advice and rebuke:

·         3:1,2

·         9:7-9

·         10:8

·         12:15

·         13:1,13

·         15:31

·         17:10

·         19:16, 20, 25, 27

·         23:9

·         25:12

·         27:5,6

·         27:17

·         29:1

Value of advisors

·         11:14

·         15:22

·         20:18

·         24:5,6

As with the example I shared above, verse 27:5-6 seems to sum up my experience in accepting feedback from my friend: Better is open rebuke than hidden love.  Wounds from a  friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.  Do you have a reoccurring problem that you don’t know what do to about?  Who do you know in your life that is living well in this area?  Talk to them about what to do.  Give them permission to be honest with you about your problem and ways they see that might be able to help.  What if you are the one who needs to give advice?  How does the Bible say you should talk to people about sensitive issues?  Here are some passages to read that share God’s guidelines for maintaining healthy relationships while confronting someone in your family of faith on sin: Hebrews 5:1-1, Galatians 6:1, Matthew 7: 3-5, 18:21, 1 John 5:16

-Rayna