Proverbs 11:14
Without guidance, people fall, but with many counselors there is deliverance.
Who is...your mentor? ...your coach? ...your most trusted adviser?
If you don't have one, or several, you are setting yourself up for a fall. Notice that Solomon recommends that you have "many". None is a long way from many, but in all fairness, if you aren't planning on accomplishing anything in life you don't need much guidance. If you don't plan on going anywhere, then wherever you end up is just as good as anywhere else. Right?
Sadly, most people don't plan their life or live it intentionally, but where you end up matters. It matters a lot. This needs to be looked at in the two aspects of your life: temporal and eternal.
If you don't have one, or several, you are setting yourself up for a fall. Notice that Solomon recommends that you have "many". None is a long way from many, but in all fairness, if you aren't planning on accomplishing anything in life you don't need much guidance. If you don't plan on going anywhere, then wherever you end up is just as good as anywhere else. Right?
Sadly, most people don't plan their life or live it intentionally, but where you end up matters. It matters a lot. This needs to be looked at in the two aspects of your life: temporal and eternal.
Your Temporal Life
Your temporal life is the here and now. Your time of grace. Your time here on earth, in the flesh. Ephesians 2:10 tells us that God has prepared in advance works for each of us to do. How we use this life that He has gifted us matters to God.
In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, the master entrusts a number of talents to three of his servants- "each according to his ability." (Matthew 25:15)
The point of the parable is that God gives talents and abilities to everyone of us. He expects us to use what He has given us to the best of our abilities. The gifts and abilities He gives each of us are not for our own pleasure and enjoyment. We are to invest them into the world. We are supposed to use our talents to bless others. We are to use our talents "to be the salt and light of the world".
In the parable, the master is overjoyed with the two faithful servants who wisely invest their talents and get a return on them. He says, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master's joy!"
With the wicked servant who lazily buried his talent in the ground, the master is angry:
"You evil, lazy servant! ...you should have deposited my money with the bankers. And when I returned I would have received my money back with interest.
So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has 10 talents.
And throw this good-for-nothing servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Clearly what we do with our lives matters to God. We are to develop and use the talents he has given to each of us. We are not to sit around on our butts wasting and killing all of the talents and abilities that He has given us. We cannot earn our way into heaven with works of any kind, but we will be called to account for our lives on our last day.
This brings us back to Solomon's advice: get guidance in your life from many wise counselors. These counselors can come in different forms:
- A coach or mentor.
- Books
- Audios
- A Pastor.
- An accountability partner.
- A parent.
- Your spouse.
The reality is that you don't know everything. You have blind spots. You need to utilize the perspective and wisdom of people who aren't you. They can see things about your life that you are blinded to. They aren't emotionally hijacked by your challenges so they can be objective.
The caveat here is that if you aren't doing anything with your life, you don't need any guidance. You can accomplish nothing just fine on your own, you don't need to waste anybody else's time if you are lazy and apathetic.
You only need the guidance of many counselors if you want to use all of your gifts to the best of your ability, if you want to avoid the fall. What is your mission in life? What can you be the best in the world at?
It is okay if you don't know the answer to these questions. That's where the wise counselors come in; they can help you identify your mission and life's purpose, as well as helping you to recognize and develop the gifts and abilities that you have been given. You have been given gifts that you are probably unaware of, and the only way you will ever utilize these is if somebody points them out and pushes you to develop them. Because notice from the parable, we can waste our gifts and never use them.
This is the temporal deliverance that we get from wise counselors. Instead of wasting our gifts and abilities we can use them to live a meaningful and purposeful life of service.
However, the important implications (what this verse is actually speaking to) of this verse is what it means to our eternal life.
Your Eternal Life
Real success isn't all the goals you hit, or your net worth, or all the stuff you accumulate over the course of your life. Real success is measured by one parameter: how well did you use your life in service to Christ's Church?
This is the real point of the Proverb above. "Without guidance, people fall..."
Left to our own thinking and actions we will always come up short in life. No matter what our earthly life of "success" might look like, without Jesus it will be empty and meaningless. This is why we need guidance. On our own, we are acutely aware of the need for a Savior, but without someone sharing God's Word with us we will never know that Savior. We all have a natural knowledge of God and His Law. We don't have a natural knowledge of Jesus and everything that He has done for us to earn our salvation. In fact, everything that Jesus has done for us is counter-intuitive to human "wisdom" and logic. It just doesn't make sense and we can never come to it on our own. That is the fall that this Proverb is referring to, the fall into hell- eternal damnation.
That is the fate of everyone who rejects the guidance of God's Word and chooses to live life by their own rules. God has given us His Word for exactly this reason. He doesn't want anyone to perish. He wants everyone to come to repentance and be saved. It is only in God's Word that we find out just how much He loves us.
Do you want the counsel of many qualified men? God used over 3 dozen men, over the course of about 1600 years to give us the Bible as we have it today. The Bible has endured in its current form for about 1900 years. The greatest thing about these "many counselors" is that all of them were guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit. How's that for wise counsel? With these "many counselors there is deliverance". That's because all of these counselors constantly point to Jesus. They show us our need for Jesus. They tell us everything He has done for us:
This is the real point of the Proverb above. "Without guidance, people fall..."
Left to our own thinking and actions we will always come up short in life. No matter what our earthly life of "success" might look like, without Jesus it will be empty and meaningless. This is why we need guidance. On our own, we are acutely aware of the need for a Savior, but without someone sharing God's Word with us we will never know that Savior. We all have a natural knowledge of God and His Law. We don't have a natural knowledge of Jesus and everything that He has done for us to earn our salvation. In fact, everything that Jesus has done for us is counter-intuitive to human "wisdom" and logic. It just doesn't make sense and we can never come to it on our own. That is the fall that this Proverb is referring to, the fall into hell- eternal damnation.
That is the fate of everyone who rejects the guidance of God's Word and chooses to live life by their own rules. God has given us His Word for exactly this reason. He doesn't want anyone to perish. He wants everyone to come to repentance and be saved. It is only in God's Word that we find out just how much He loves us.
Do you want the counsel of many qualified men? God used over 3 dozen men, over the course of about 1600 years to give us the Bible as we have it today. The Bible has endured in its current form for about 1900 years. The greatest thing about these "many counselors" is that all of them were guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit. How's that for wise counsel? With these "many counselors there is deliverance". That's because all of these counselors constantly point to Jesus. They show us our need for Jesus. They tell us everything He has done for us:
How He humbled Himself to be born as a human (becoming true God and true man).
How He lived a perfect sinless life. Something none of us is capable of doing.
How He took all the punishment for every sin for us, despite being innocent and blameless of any sin Himself.
How He was raised from the dead, in the flesh, on the third day to defeat sin, death, and the devil so that they no longer have any hold on us.
How he ascended into heaven to take His place at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
How He will come again to judge the world one final time. Damning the unbelievers to hell, and rewarding the faithful believers with eternal life in heaven.
This is the deliverance that is offered by the wise counsel of God's Word, because through His Word the Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts which empowers us to believe in Jesus as our Savior. Always remember: God does not want anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). That is true success. That is why we need many wise counselors to help us stay on the narrow path. Thankfully, God provides us with those counselors. We just need to listen.
God bless
Jason Fredrick
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