How to Give Good Advice
Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me.” ~ Nehemiah 2:17 - 18
Do you make a habit of praying first, assessing the reality of a situation second, and only then offering advice on a course of action? In our fast-paced world most of us who advise professionally are in too big of a hurry, or too over-confident in our own wisdom, or most likely both, to follow Nehemiah’s example.
In the 5th Century BC Nehemiah served as cupbearer to the Persian King Artaxerxes. One day a report came to him about the plight of a group of Jews who’d returned to Jerusalem but failed in their attempt to rebuild the city. How did he respond? He wept, and fasted, and “prayed before the God of heaven” for several days. Rather than completing a SWOT analysis, he stood still and cried out to God. Convicting, isn’t it?
After this period of waiting on God in prayer, he felt prompted to approach the king and request permission to travel to Jerusalem to help. (Which meant he literally risked his life - that just wasn’t done, ever.) It was only the courage he derived after pouring out his complaint to God that emboldened him to take this chance.
The king approved his trip to Jerusalem and the first thing Nehemiah did after arriving was inspect the damaged walls. He didn’t hold a meeting, he didn’t make a funding request, and he didn’t advertise his wall-rebuilding campaign to the influential. He quietly inspected the walls, probably asked a lot of questions, and gathered data. In other words, he took time to personally assess the situation.
To recap, here are the steps Nehemiah took:
Stop and pray (we must hear from God before we can take courageous action)
Assess the situation (we must first understand what’s really going on and the context and history that made it all possible before we can offer the right advice)
Make recommendations (if our recommendations come from a place of God-dependent humility and informed insight, people will respond to them differently)