Under The Influence

Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. _{Proverbs 3:7,8}

Are you good at making wise choices? Do you think things through, dive straight in, or muddle your way along?

There are three influencers waiting to advise you in every decision – the world, the flesh and the spirit. The world has such a loud voice that it can often drown out the other two. It is pushy and indignant, and it can often bully you with what is socially acceptable and politically correct. The world is the dictator.

The flesh is our personal weakness and it will often leave us vulnerable to bad choices as it seeks to satisfy its own desires. We can be very good at justifying our choices and there are things we do that we don’t see any harm in. But just because we don’t see it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there, hence the warning – ‘be not wise in your own eyes’. The flesh is the Achilles’ heel.

The spirit is the quietest of the three influencers. It guides truthfully, without pressure and without agenda. It is the only one that is concerned with what is truly best for you, and the only one that is pure in motive. The spirit is the still small voice.

When is comes to being wise, we need to fear the Lord, and turn away from anything that is not of God. Ask yourself what is influencing you to do the things that you do – The Dictator, the Achilles’ heel, or the still small voice?

It will be hard work at times to battle against the world and the flesh in order for the Spirit to guide our decisions and influence our behaviour, but when we do, it will be healing and refreshing.