Hold Tight

Proverbs 4:13 (MSG)
Hold tight to good advice; don't relax your grip.  Guard it well--your life is at stake!!

Hmmm....then the opposite would be true, right?  Let go of bad advice; let it fall from your hands. 


I've been given some really bad advice before, haven't you?  There has been a time or two...or three or four...where I followed that direction and wished I wouldn't have.  Sort of relates to last night's post about passing things by the Lord before I go running ahead of Him!  The trick is....what is "good advice"?  You know how I love the Webster's Dictionary, but this time "good advice" isn't listed in it.  The word "good" is defined as: beneficial, healthy, sound,  honorable, excellent, virtuous, proper, correct, skilled, and a host of other words.  The word "advice" is defined as: what to do or counsel.

However, as clearly marvelous as those words are, the truth is , that one person's "beneficial counsel" is not always right for the person for whom it is being directed at.  There are so many books, DVDs, speakers, web sites, and a plethora of  other advice giving domains that it is hard to clearly determine "good advice". 

But, alas....there is one book where volumes of excellent advice can be found and grasped onto with all of your strength and in fact we must for our life truly depends on our ability to heed it's words.  The following is just a tiny portion of the advice that can be found within it's pages:

1 Thessalonians 5:16 (MSG)~Be cheerful no matter what!

1 Thessalonians 5:17 (MSG)~Pray all the time!

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (MSG)~Thank God no matter what happens.  This is the way God 
                                                    wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live.

Philippians 2:14-15 (MSG)~Do everything readily and cheerfully--no bickering, no second-
                                                  guessing allowed!  Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath
                                                  of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society.  Provide people
                                                  with a glimpse of good living and of the living God!

Ok....now that is some good advice!!  The beauty of this is that the Word of God is filled with pages upon pages of more direction just like this!  Is it always easy to follow through?  Nope!  Does it take discipline?  Yeap!  Is it always popular?  Nope!  Does it guarantee me a trouble free life?  Not a chance!  Does my very life depend on it?  Yeap!!

Thanking God tonight for the instruction that is chiseled out so clearly in His Word!  Praying to have a  vicelike hold of each piece of advice that God has so graciously laid out before me in the Bible.  Continuing to lift up the people of Japan for safety and restoration.