Refusal to admit being wrong is a real concern if someone claims to be a Christian. Humility is a mark of a saved person. There is no shame in not getting something right, but there is shame in the refusal to acknowledge it. People see when we are too prideful and insecure to say we were wrong.
Acting like taking bad advice is anyone's fault but our own is also a problem. This can happen on occasion, but a steady practice of this reveals a bigger issue to correct. We must choose wise counselors.
Do your own research and heed the following:
54 Bible Verses about Wise Counsel
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.
Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future. Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the
Lord that will stand.
Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the
Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.
My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the
Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war.
Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs.
Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.
The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance,
The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
By insolence comes nothing but strife, but with those who take advice is wisdom.
For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
And the Spirit of the
Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the
Lord.
The
Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the
Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the
Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! The
Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
You are wearied with your many counsels; let them stand forth and save you, those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons make known what shall come upon you.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
Who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.
Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.
And the advice seemed right in the eyes of Absalom and all the elders of Israel.
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
“When you come into the land that the
Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the
Lord. And because of these abominations the
Lord your God is driving them out before you.
But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.
And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
There is gold and abundance of costly stones, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—
O
Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud: “To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the children of man. O simple ones, learn prudence; O fools, learn sense.
As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him,
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
Trusting in a treacherous man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips.
The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death. The
Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked. A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame.
The counsel of the
Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.
Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah. Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite. David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David sent ten young men. And David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, “We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
The path of life leads upward for the prudent, that he may turn away from Sheol beneath.
Photo Courtesy of M. Bragan, Maine
