...On Words of Counsel

Experience shows that we often have a tough time accepting counsel or advice. It offends our pride. We also live in a culture flattered and lured by the subjective. “I did it my way,” goes the song. “If it feels good do it!” “What’s true for you may be different than what’s true for me.” Too often we ride the winds of subjective opinion or the popular. We cry for freedom without responsibility and without restraint. But without objective counsel and restraint, “everyone does what is right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6) These are not words of freedom but words of judgment. We need objective counsel. We need restraints to keep us on the straight and narrow and to dampen the cycles of opinion and fad. “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.” (Proverbs 29:18) A primary source of counsel and restraint is the written word. Written history—history of the world, our country, of nations rising and falling, of leaders good and bad—provides insight and perspective. Biography provides example. The Bible reveals who we are, who God is and what he has done for us, and—for the Christian—is to be our delight (Psalm 1). So let us seek objective truth. Let us set aside our pride and the subjective and be open to counsel and guidance for living. Let us grow in the counsel of a good book and in the Good Book. Let us take up and read!