How to Get Good Godly AdviceНамуна

Day Four - How to Ask

I have learned the hard way that there’s a right way and wrong way to ask for godly advice. When I was 37 years old my first husband (a pastor) died, and I took over pastoring our church in Boise, Idaho. God provided me with a wonderful pastor-mentor and his wife. They’d been pastors for years, and they helped my staff and me in more ways than I can tell you. What a blessing they were! Anytime I needed pastoral advice they were on hand to help.

But one time I went to that pastor and said, “God told me to do such and such, so I’m going to do it.” He just nodded and said, “OK.” But when I did it, it turned out badly.

Later when he and I talked about it, he said, “Yeah, I figured that would happen.” Sort of miffed, I asked him, “Why in the world didn’t you tell me not to do it?”

I’ll never forget his answer. He said, “Because you didn’t ask me. You came and said, ‘God told me, so I’m going to do it.’ What could I say to that?”

Lesson learned: when asking someone for advice, don’t lead with “God told me…!” That leaves your adviser no room to give their opinion or help you in any way.

Instead, I should’ve said something like: “I feel like God might be leading me to do this. What do you think?” That’s why I was bringing the idea to him anyway, right? I wanted to know what he thought about it! I wanted to involve his insight and experience to help me determine whether it was a God-idea or not.

Don’t do what I did! Be humble and allow your adviser to give input. Approach them with humility and a desire to hear what they have to say.

Proverbs 24:6 says, “By wise counsel, you will wage your own war.” The Bible says you do have to wage your own war—no one else is going to do it for you. The purpose of a godly advisor is not for them to tell you what to do. But there is safety in getting the wisdom of others before you go off to fight the good fight of faith. Just be sure to ask the right way.