"...a wise man listens to advice"

I've been reading a book call Chazown by Craig Groeschel. The subtitle is "A different way to see your life." For several years now, I have been undergoing a great deal of introspection. This is one of several books I have read, hoping to find a little more clarity, a higher purpose, a God given direction for my life.

On page 85 there is a heading, "Of course I know where I'M going!" At least for me, that is a BIG part of the problem!! I have a plan. I have goals and objectives. I know what I want to do. The root of the problem is, if my plans aren't consistent with God's plans for my life, the outcome is generally not good.

This is the time of year when many people consider their plans for the coming year. For business owners like myself, we look at Business Plans, Marketing Plans, Life Plans or any number of other "plans." For the rest of you, there are career plans, education plans, savings plans, vacation plans and countless others.

My buddy, and fellow HTG Peer group member Karl Palachuk has a nice piece on Business Plan in a Month - Final Thoughts . Another HTG member and brother in Christ, Stuart Crawford has a nice ebook called Goal Setting for IT Professionals. These are kinds of things I am typically reviewing this time of year. Many of us on Arlin Sorensen's email devotional list, about 30 at last count have "planned" on reading the entire Bible in 2009. Yes, we need to make plans in our spiritual life too.

Now to the heart of the message tonight, Proverbs 12:15 tells us "The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice." In his book, Craig give us some practical pointers on how to be "wise" men and women.

The first and foremost is seek God's plan for you life in the Bible. The Bible is the TRUTH. It is the owner's manual for the human being, created in God's image. Craig is partial to the book of Proverbs because it is full of wisdom and very practical advice, even today, thousands of years after it was written. For me, I am "in the word" by various means each day. I find that the "truth" that I need seems to come to me. It may be a devotional. It may be a book. It comes directly from the Bible and sometimes it shows up in a song on Christian radio.

The next source for salient advice is our godly friends. These are folks that we attend church with. They may be people that we "serve" with or perhaps, simply people that we "serve." If you are in a small group or have an accountability partner, these are the folks that you should be sharing your "plans" with. Ask them if they feel like God is in your plans.

Finally, seek advice from those in a community with a history of success in the area you are seeking advice. In my case that might be my HTG Peer group. These guys are not all Christians, but they are all committed to one-another. We have a stated goal of HELPING each other. We do it willingly. We do it enthusiastically. We do is with a mutual commitment to the success of each member in the group. Ask those whom you trust as respected authorities within your community.

A wise man is a man who KNOWS his ignorance. He accepts that what he really knows is only a fraction of what he thinks he knows. A truly wise man surrenders ALL he knows to the wisdom of God. For God has a plan for each of us, one that we could never imagine. Subjecting our plan to His is just about the wisest thing that we can do.