Advice, Advice, and More Advice - Martin Wiles

The plans of the godly are just; the advice of the wicked is treacherous. Proverbs 12:15 NLT

Advice is like armpits. Some smell good while some plain stinks.

I’ve received good and bad advice. And given some of both, too. Organize your debts. Pay off the smaller amounts first, and then take what I was paying to the smaller debtor and combine it with the payment I made to the next larger debtor. Debts disappear quicker and more efficiently, leading to a debt-free existence. Good advice.

Get married before you have sex. Good advice too. It aligns with the Bible’s teaching that sexual relationships are for married persons. God forbids sex before marriage—and sex with someone other than one’s spouse. Not advice anyone could follow without help from God, but good advice, nevertheless.

True love waits. I remember when my denomination promoted a campaign entitled, “True Love Waits.” Teachers taught students in a six- to eight-week course why they should wait until marriage to have sexual relationships. Good advice … especially in today’s world when this doesn’t appear as the norm.

Try this. It won’t hurt you. Bad advice given by a friend—one of my father’s deacon’s sons who wanted me to join him in smoking marijuana. He also wanted me to join him on a regular basis for some heavy drinking. Then, he threw in a little bit of cutting school. Bad advice. Unfortunately, I listened.

Disrespect your parents. After all, what do they know? They just want to make your life miserable. Bad advice. But I did a lot of following that bad advice too. Now, I wish I could take back all of what I thought and said, but I can’t.

The wise king said bad advice comes from wicked people and provides treachery for our souls. He was right when he wrote the advice, and he’s right now.

When seeking advice—or just listening to advice we haven’t asked for—we should ensure it aligns with scripture before considering it. Anything that contradicts scripture constitutes bad advice that will ruin our souls and steal our peace.

Getting biblical advice means hanging around godly people. They are the only ones who’ll give us principles from God’s Word.

Sometimes, others’ advice is good, but not timely. When this is true, we need to wait until another time to consider it.

I’ve also discovered good advice usually comes from experienced people—and that means older people. King Solomon’s son once took advice from the younger crowd as opposed to listening to the older folk’s advice. Doing so led to a rebellion in the ranks and eventually cost him the kingdom. People who’ve been around for a while have a lot of good stuff worth listening to.

I reminded a middle schooler of this once when I said, “I’m sorry my 59 years of experience is interfering with your 12 years of knowledge.” She took my advice, stopped talking, and listened.

Be careful where you get your advice from.

Prayer: Father, give us the wisdom to know which advice to listen to and which to reject.

Tweetable: What advice are you giving...or taking? 

Thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts! We also invite you to follow and like us on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram. Help us spread God's encouragement through His Love Lines.