How often do we give advice that it equivalent to adding EQUAL to cow manure to try to make it easier to swallow for the recipient of our advice? I don’t know about you all out there in ministry world, but for me I struggle with giving the 100% accurate, God-fearing guidance when people come to me with their problem.
But to all the readers and mostly to myself, WE MUST STOP ADDING the EQUAL and deal with and the call the situations that come our way, exactly what it is, MANURE.
I want to remind us all that Jesus doesn’t play in bad advice or advice that does not stay true to the Scriptures that we live by.
This really came to light in my life through the following situation:
I just sent a girl off to college. Within college comes the freedom to make all types of choices. This particular girl decided to get a nose stud and her mom found out about it. Her mom was irate at her daughter, so ticked that she said that she was going to cut off support. I must admit it was a bit of an overreaction , but it was something that we had to deal with.
I told the girl the she either needed to decide that this was a battle worth fighting and look for a part-time job or take the stud out. She quickly decided that the nose stud was not worth it and she was content with taking it out.
The very next day I received a call back from the girl saying that she had talked to someone close to her mom, that told her that her mom was known for overreactions and that she should just take it out when she was around her mom. Right away the Holy Spirit welled up in me through conviction and told me to speak the following.
I told her that being a follower of Christ, she COULD NOT DO THAT! Why? If she did she was putting herself in an area that was out of Jesus’ playground. What do I mean by that…
If she was going to deceive her mom and tell her that she had taken it out but still wear it while she was not around her mom, that would be a complete lie. With Jesus being all truth and no deception, she was setting herself up for lie after lie after lie. The danger of this would be the quenching of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) and opening herself up for all kinds of apathy toward other sins.
When we choose to start justifying our advice to help make things easier to digest we are not only sinning (James 4:17), but we are leading the ones we should be shepherding into complete rebellion.
I want to leave you with a few verses that may help us all in standing the ground we need to stand when giving advice that is true to Scripture!
“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7
“For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10