Filter Peoples Advice...

Day 3

Have you notice that everyone seems to think they have the answers for your life? When you share your problem or even when you don't there is often a line of people who are prepared to tell you what you need to do and how you need to do it! One comment I hear often that drives me crazy is, "I know exactly how you feel!", or "I went through that exact same thing!" When someone says that to me it makes me want to grab them around the neck and say, "No you don't!!! Your situation may have been similar but not exactly the same!" For those of you who've caught yourself saying that to someone, let me tell you what the listener hears when you speak. "What you're going through is common. Why are you being such a whiner? It's just life!" In essence, you are disregarding something that is huge to them at the moment and in effect devaluing them and their feelings.

I can't tell you how many comments I got about how I should "do" this sabbatical. What to do and how to do it, what course to take and how it should look in the end. Now to be clear, I do believe that we should have people in our lives to speak into us, hold us accountable, and verbally invest in us. But there comes at time when the best person to do that is God. Even the best people will sometimes give you only advice filled with worldly logic instead of divine revelation.

When someone advises you, qualify their words through this filter. 1) Are they someone who reads their Bible regularly? 2) Are they someone who you know to wholeheartedly seek God in prayer. 3) Have you seen their personal decisions produce spiritual fruit? 4) Are the humble with you and with others? 5) Do they regularly exhibit a servants heart to others? 6) Does their advice COMPLETELY line up with God's Word and what God has already spoken to you through prayer? If you can't answer these questions with a "yes" be careful!

Matthew 23:8-10 (The Message Bible)
Don't set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of 'Father'; you have only one Father, and he's in heaven. And don't let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.