“Anxiety weighs down the human heart,
but a good word cheers it up.
The righteous gives good advice to friends,
but the way of the wicked leads astray.
In the path of righteousness there is life,
in walking its path there is no death.”
Have you ever participated in a gripe session? or a gossip session? Bad words build upon bad words, and usually we compete for who has the “baddest” of them all. There’s always a tendency, in trying to sympathize or empathize, to share our experience that was just a little worse, just a little more painful, just a little more hopeless.
Why is that? Why do we try to one up each other in how miserable life is when, as Christians, we have the ultimate hope? And how does sharing a horrible experience that we had encourage the person who is going through their own difficult experience?
The righteous give good advice. And what is good advice? Seen in contrast here is “the way of the wicked.” In other words, the opposite of “good advice” isn’t “bad advice,” but is rather sin. Good advice, then, is the word that turns our friend toward God; bad advice is what turns them into themselves, turns them to self-pity, to depression, to a sense of hopelessness.
There is never hopelessness with God!
“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28 NRSV).
All things! Not just some things . . . or the things that seem good . . . or the things we can control, but all things! Our Father is working all things together for our good! If that is the case, then the advice that we give to our troubled, hurting friend is to turn to the Lord for He will make it work for our good!
Trouble, adversity, horrible circumstances . . . they all seem like they lead to death, if not physical death, then death of a dream, death of possibilities, death of hope. And yet, there is never death in the life of the believer. Even physical death–which we must face unless we are taken in the rapture–is only a doorway to heaven, to an eternity of joy with our Father. “In the path of righteousness there is life, in walking its path there is no death.” Is this what we communicate to our hurting friends?
I think that we are too taken with the Hollywood mentality that says that the problems with this life can be solved to a happily-ever-after conclusion in thirty minutes (including commercials). In fact, the problems with this life were already solved to a happily-ever-after conclusion but that solution is in heaven, not here. In other words, we should expect the circumstances in this life to be awful. This world is weighed down with sin and its effects. There is no way that a good solution can come from living here. But our Father takes these horrible circumstances, makes them work for our good, and ultimately has prepared an eternal, permanent home for us where sin can no longer have effect. The good advice that we should always give is to trust the Lord, to look to His provision, and to know that even in the darkness He is working to make provision for us.
© 2008 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. International copyright reserved. This study may be copied for nonprofit and/or church purposes only without permission when copied in its entirety (including this notice).
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