Do You Listen to Advice?
I once knew a man who used to ask his father for advice. He mainly wanted to know his opinion on some matters. One day he asked his father about something, and the father told him, “I’m not going to give you any advice on this because you never listen to me anyway.” He answered him, “I always listen to your advice and then make up my mind as to what I think will be best. But I always listen and want to hear what you have to say.”
While reading in the book of 1 Kings last week, I read where the nation of Israel had divided. King Solomon has died, and his son Rehoboam will be the next king. The people come to him asking him to relax the things his father had done. He told them to come back in three days and he would give them an answer. During this time, he spoke to the wise men who advised his father. They told him, “...If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them and grant them their petition, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever." 1 Kings 12:7 (NASB)
However, Rehoboam called the young men who grew up with him together to give him counsel and they told him to make life even harder on the people than his father had. He listened to the young men and rejected the counsel of the wise men and the kingdom was divided to Israel (northern ten tribes) and Judah (southern tribe). Rehoboam ruled over Judah and Jereboam ruled over Israel.
If he had listened to the wise counselors perhaps this division would not have occurred. The nation of Israel could have been united as one instead of the division that ultimately came.
Today we need to heed the advice we receive. When it comes to spiritual matters, we need to make sure we are listening to God. We must make sure that we are following His Word; for nothing else matters. Just because we feel something should be different is not enough. Just because we may believe something is correct does not make it so. We need to heed the Word of God and allow it to be the guiding force that sees us through the troubles we face each and every day.
The Bible is the only book that gives us wisdom on every matter that will come before us. Instead of rushing in to make a hasty decision we need to heed the message God has given us. When we do this, we can make better decisions. Of course, we also need to pray and ask God’s guidance as we are doing this. If we do, it could prevent a lot of division and heartache.