Ask It (5) – Time to Listen

Welcome to CROLCC and Happy Chinese New Year, we are so glad you are here worshiping with us. We are at the tail end of our series Ask It and we have been asking all of you to ask yourself this question in every opportunity, every invitation, every decision, and you should probably remember it by now. If not, you have one more week to remember it – What’s the wise thing to do? Not what is the right thing to do, not what is the legal thing to do, not what can I get by with, but what’s the wise thing for me to do? In light of your past experience, current circumstances, future hopes and dreams, what’s the wise thing for you to do?

Today we are going to talk about what happens when you try to make a decision. Did you know that you always have something working against you when making personal decisions? Personal decisions are emotional, and emotionally charged environments aren’t ideal for decision-making. Your emotions make the obvious less obvious. It’s why you know exactly what your neighbor needs to do about his marriage, but have no clue how to improve your own. It’s why your kids baffle you, while a complete stranger’s kids just need a good spanking. So what do we do when it’s next to impossible to hear the voice of wisdom when emotions are raging? The answer might be simpler than you think.

Moving Forward

Wise people seek counsel. That’s why they are wise. Wise people know they don’t know all they need to know. So, they find people who know. Wisdom isn’t knowing everything. It’s knowing what you don’t know and going to those in the know for the input you need.

Changing Your Mind

Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.
Proverbs 19:20

Discussion Questions

1. Do you tend to be decisive or indecisive? How has that served you throughout your life? How has it let you down?

2. Talk about a time when you witnessed someone makes a decision you knew was unwise. What prevented you from offering that person your wisdom?

3. Read Proverbs 13:10. In what ways has pride—yours or others’—created strife in your life?

4. Talk about a decision you’ve made—large or small—about which you’d like to go back in time and take a do-over. How do you think your life would be different now if you’d sought wise counsel before making that decision?

5. To whom do you look for wisdom? What qualities do those people possess that cause you to trust their advice?

6. What is one area of your life where you need to pause and seek wise counsel before making a decision? Whose advice should you seek? What can this group do to help you follow through?