Wise Counsel

Do you go with your gut (what you think is right) or seek out wise advise and counsel from others? Check out Esther 2:8-16. #YFA #iDevo #WiseCounsel

As you read chapter 2, we finally meet Esther, who is a young Jewish girl that is in exile in a foreign nation. During the chapter she receives advice from 2 people, Mordecai, her Uncle, and Hegai, the king’s Eunuch. For most of us the first person is easy to get advise from. Mordecai was family and most of us understand that people who are older and wiser can give us counsel from their experiences. Sometimes God does have us do something different but in a lot of cases God has placed them in our lives to help us avoid the pitfalls and traps of life. Hegai is a little different. He was not family, ultimately if Esther became queen he would not be over her and even if she did not become queen he still would not have been in charge of her. There was no reason to seek out or listen to his advise except one. He was the King’s eunuch or servant, so if anyone knew the king’s heart and what he desired the most it was Hegai. Conventional wisdom would have been to get noticed but Hegai gave different advice based on his personal knowledge of the king and a way to stand out by not standing out which Esther took.

In life it can be the same way for us, conventional wisdom or our own thoughts can be one thing but we do not operate as the world operates. God challenges us to be different and sometimes by choosing not to be like the world we end up standing out even more because of Christ being in us. God though normally sends us wise counsel to help us in not being conformed to the patterns of this world. Whether through His Word, the Holy Spirit, prayer, or Godly men and women we have the ability to receive advice that is greater than earthly wisdom and that divine wisdom and counsel is what we all need.

Ask yourself this, who do you turn to for Godly wisdom and advice? If the answer is no one, take some time to pray and examine who can be wise counsel in your life. Just remember as believers we can not rely on our flesh or what we or the world thinks is best but instead we have to trust God’s wisdom to see and understand what we really need.