Wise In Our Own Eyes
I recently had an argument with my eight year old son. He argued that our time goes from 11 AM to 12 AM. His siblings had kindly corrected him that we go from 11 AM to 12 PM and that 12 AM is at midnight. This child would not believe his siblings and had come to me for ‘the truth’, except when I gave him the truth, he still didn’t want to believe. I can understand his point of view, logically, why would we go from 11 AM to 12 PM. It kind of doesn’t make sense. I literally had to get a digital clock, set it to 11:59 AM and we sat there and watched the AM switch to PM when it hit noon.
This made me think of how many times in our Christian walks, our minds can deceive us into believing something that isn’t quite true. We can convince ourselves that we are heading down the right path. We may even credit God for directing our life down a certain path. How easily we can be fooled! It’s humbling when we realize that our wants and desires can lead us into rationalizing a choice and even declaring that it’s biblical. The funny thing about deception is the person being deceived doesn’t know it!
The Bible says in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
You may be facing a big decision in your life today. Maybe you’re not sure which way to go. Maybe you’re convincing yourself that a divorce for your marriage is the best option. Maybe you think going into debt to purchase a car is what God would want you to do. Maybe you think the relationship you are in was sent by God even though the person you’re dating isn’t a Christian.
On the surface, the decision you are leaning towards may seem like the right one, but the end will lead to trouble, to death, and destruction.
This is why we need the church. We need other believers to help strengthen and support us. This is why we need to be in His Word daily. We need to keep fresh in our hearts what His instructions are.
Surprisingly, this verse is repeated verbatim in Proverbs 16:25. When something is repeated, it stresses its importance. The verses preceding both of these verses talk about the prudent being wise. Chapter 16 talks about “giving heed to instruction” and “the wise in heart are discerning”.
I encourage you today to seek the council of other believers; not just any believers, but seasoned mature believers for direction. Listen to their council. Check what they say against the Word of God. Search the scriptures for answers, keeping an open heart that it may tell us the opposite of what we want to hear.
Proverbs has lots of instructions for us on making wise decisions.
Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.”
Proverbs 11:14 states, “Where there is no guidance the people fall, But in abundance of counselors there is victory[1].”
Make sure that your thought process is not like that of my 8 year old son, who although it seemed logical and right, was completely wrong! Search out wise biblical advice so that in the end you may have VICTORY!
[1] Lit deliverance
Autumn Rogers 2017