Think about it: what is in your heart right now that you are convinced is God’s will for your life?
Have you talked to anyone about it?
What do they say?
Are you ticked?
“They just don’t understand. How can they know God’s will for my life? This is between me and God.”
True, but is that how God operates?
You may be surprised, but the answer is: No, He does not. God births His will in our hearts through a meeting of our minds and His Word, but God always confirms His will through the counsel of others.
Chapter and verse? Excellent question. Here you go:
“The reflections of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD” (Proverbs 16:1).
What is floating around in our hearts is ours, but the Lord confirms His will through the lips of others. Why? Read on:
“All a man’s ways seem right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the motives” (Proverbs 16:2).
Can we trust our hearts? We think we know God’s will—we are convinced a thing is God’s will for our lives. But can’t our thinking be influenced by our desires. We want it so bad that we convince ourselves it is God’s will. Happens all the time—even in the best of Believers! Consider this:
“A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9).
We make our plans, but the LORD always reserves the right to interrupt them... and He does so very often. He allows us to plan and act to get us sailing, and then He changes the wind to His direction. When God changes the wind you can pout, doubt, or move out.
This is an excellent principle to follow. We would save ourselves a lot of grief if we would always listen to godly counsel before acting. I know, if I believe God is telling me one thing and all my Christian friends and family say the opposite, I'd better examine my heart again!
ReplyDeleteA couple of additional thoughts on the subject...
It matters who our counselors are. Job's friends certainly gave him some bad advice, even though a lot of truth is mixed in with what they said. But I believe they were counseling him from a human perspective and were, themselves, not close enough to God to discern His will. We should be choosy about our advisors.
Even godly counselors can be wrong about what we should do. Paul's companions urged him not to go to Jerusalem. (Acts 21) But Paul understood God's call on a deeper level. I don't think this is the norm, but once in awhile God may direct us such that we have to ignore others and listen to Him alone. We should be REALLY careful about this.
Sometimes we must listen to a counselor, even if they're wrong... because they're in a position of godly authority in our lives. I may feel God calling me to a particular action. And yet, if I can't convince my husband it's the right thing, I must submit to his authority over me. This much is clear in the Bible. (Colossians 3:18 "Wives submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.") I've discovered something interesting about this in my own life. God honors my obedience to authority. As you noted, Proverbs 16:2 says that "the Lord weighs the * motives *." There have been times when I honestly believe I was prevented from answering a real call from God because I yielded to rightful authority. But the cool thing I've noticed is that often God brings these same opportunities around again, only in a better way. I think it's important to always obey God's clear word in scripture first - for He will never ask us to violate that by His (more subjective) call on our hearts.
P.S. I like the sailing analogy. Isn't that the way He so often works?!