Counsel Within

A few years ago, I started dating a man whom I had met at an event.  During our first date, I started asking the important questions, which are really my litmus test: Where do you go to church? Who is Jesus to you?  How do you live out each day with God?

It quickly became apparent that he was at best a marginal Christian.  It also became apparent that he was willing to promise to change for me and do whatever I wanted.  If I wanted him to go to church, he would - where ever I told him to go.  If I wanted him to believe in Jesus, he'd believe in Jesus.

On the second date, I got similar answers.  When I was describing his answers to a friend of mine, she commented "I think you know what you need to do."  And I did.  There were no further dates.

Proverbs 20:5 says, "Knowing what is right is like deep water in the heart; a wise person draws from the well within." (The Message).

While the answer to the situation I was in was already within me, my wise friend was able to articulate and reflect that answer to me.

God provides us his Holy Spirit and the Bible to answer our questions.  Often, the answers are already there inside, waiting.  I sometimes don't want the answer that I know is right.  I'd rather do my own thing than listen to the voice calling me away from my rebellion.

A ship was being guided into the harbor.  The harbor had a tricky entry.  On one side, the water was so shallow that the ship would run aground if the ship did not remain within the narrow channel.  On the other side were rocks that would cause damage to the ship's hull.  If the ship was not kept within the channel, disaster would occur.  The harbor had its own harbor master who would come onto the ship and guide it into the harbor.

The captain asked the harbor master how he knew where to guide the ship.  He replied, "Do you see the lighthouse and those two lights?  Until those three lights line up, I am not in the channel.  But once they line up, then I know it is safe to proceed."

True wisdom is listening.  Listening to God's voice in our hearts, in scripture and in the counsel of others.  We need to "line up" those three lights in our lives before we proceed.

For more on this topic on Women of Faith blog, click here.