Counsel

“May He grant you your heart’s desire and fulfill all your counsel!”  Psalm 20:4

Counsel – “Free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it.”  How often have you heard someone belittle your counsel because you didn’t charge him for it?  That, by the way, is the secret of consulting.  Give advice and charge a lot.  Then people will value it. 

God is the best consultant in the universe.  But He offers His advice for free.  So human beings systematically disregard His advice because they do not perceive its value.  God recognizes this little bit of human insanity.  He is patient.  He adjusts life so that we learn the value of His advice in moments of great need and suffering.  But He doesn’t want us to go through the same devaluation of our insights.  He wants to back us up.

Here the Psalmist comments on God’s interest in the results of our consulting.  The Hebrew word eshah covers what’s important on the outside.  My heart’s desire is God’s view of the inside – my emotions, thoughts and will.  But the outside matters too.  May God bring about all those things that you offered as advice to others.  In other words, the Psalmist wants you to know that God is ready to confirm your advice. 

In the same way that my inner desires need to match God’s purposes; my outer advice needs to be aligned with God’s counsel.  I certainly do not want God to bring about ungodly things for others.  My consulting advice needs to be in line with God’s view of the world.  If it isn’t, then it really is worthless.   Give advice to others that God can underwrite.  Then your counsel will be fulfilled.

Do you offer advice to others?  Are you trying to influence someone else?  Do people come to you to seek counsel?  God will back up what you say if what you say is what honors Him.  That puts the responsibility on you.  Want to be a great counselor?  Get on track with God.