What am I supposed to do?
Nobody likes to be told what to do. At least that’s what we tell ourselves.
What am I supposed to do?
Nobody likes to be told what to do. At least that’s what we tell ourselves.
We congratulate ourselves on being independent thinkers. We bristle when someone pushes their opinion on us.
Most of the time we like free reign and room to run… that is until we hit our limitations.
Depending on our personalities we might take a while to admit we’re lost, but when we’re lost, we ask for directions. When we’re confused, we ask for guidance. When we’re hurting, we ask for counsel.
It’s a wise thing to ask for help. Only fools think they can do it on their own.
But I’ve noticed another danger…
When people finally ask for help, they ask for someone else to solve their problem. They reach the end of their rope and thoughtlessly grab on to the first rope offered to them. They avoid asking for help for so long that they gulp down advice and instructions without thinking.
Everybody hates a law that says, “you have to” until they’re so broken that they trust a law that says, “you have to.”
Friend, laws are not able to do what the Spirit does. You need a life of prayer in the Spirit. You can’t slap your friend’s instruction, even biblical instruction, onto your life like pushing enter on a calculator. You and I can’t depend on advice from a finite human with finite (and fallible) experiences. We must depend on God the Holy Spirit.
Do you need to seek advice? Yes! How should take advice? Prayerfully.
There are too many variables for you to blindly adhere to the first advice you hear. Your child is not their child. Your spouse is not their spouse. They’ve never lived with your parents or worked for your boss.
Does this mean you insulate yourself from advice altogether because “no one understands”? Please don’t do that!
What it means is you take the counsel of others which is situational and limited and you measure it by the Word of God which is timeless and eternal. With the Word of God in hand you’ll still have questions unanswered and fears unconquered… that’s the beauty of prayer! You need the Spirit to guide you in wisdom and insight so that you can live a life pleasing to the Lord.
You’ve understood the wise counsel of your friends aligns with the Word’s call to “speak the truth in love.” Still, you enter that hard conversation with your loved one in a dependence on the Spirit to help you live it out. Don’t wield your advice like a law that will certainly fix all problems and promote all good… laws can’t do what the Spirit does.
In prayer you trust the Spirit to help you wisely fit together the Word He gave with the situation He sent you into. “What am I supposed to do?” is a question we ask the Spirit in everything. The Word of God provides sufficient and powerful instruction for all of life–you have the light you need to live faithfully. But that faithful life by the Word is lived prayerfully.
The prayerful life kills independence. The prayerful life kills misuse of the Word in self-dependence. The prayerful life kills blind dependence on others. This prayerful life enables us to walk wisely by the Spirit in a way that pleases the Lord (cf. Colossians 1:9-14).
Jesus Over Everything!
David