One of the worst things you can do is make independent decisions. Independent decisions are a sure-fire way to end up living with regret. Proverbs 15:22 says “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” Groups provide the wise counsel, the outside input, the different perspective necessary to guard against bad decisions.
About a month ago I was at my Life Group and I shared that Kristin and I had been talking about whether we needed to buy a little more house (or not). I shared how when we moved into our home we had two kids and weren’t homeschooling. And some of you know that we struggled with secondary infertility (which is when you have some kids but then have trouble having anymore). We had a dry spell of five years and thought we might be done. Well, the dry spell ended, we had two more kids and decided to homeschool. So now we’re wondering if the house we bought is going to work or not. So I brought it up in my group. Turns out, someone else in my group was thinking about buying a little more house too. We ended up talking about it at length. We discussed the relevant biblical principles and I don’t know about the other person, but it was really helpful to me! We basically concluded that God wants us to give generously towards his work and to save (like the ant who stores up in summer what he knows he’ll need in winter). And that we shouldn’t ever put ourselves in a position where finances are so tight that we’ll constantly be stressed out over money issues. It was just such a good and helpful conversation.
People make poor financial moves, poor marital moves, poor career moves all the time. And it’s such a shame, because 9x out of 10, these disasters could’ve been avoided simply by tapping into the wisdom of others. A group guards you from bad decisions by providing you with the perspective, insight and wisdom you need to make good decisions.
- Paul writes to the Colossian Christians “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom…” (Colossians 3:16) Admonish means to warn. Whatever it is you’re considering doing – getting a divorce, relocating to another part of the country, quitting your job, buying a new home, etc – it might be a foolish decision. If you’ll humble yourself enough to let others speak to the issue, they might warn you of some danger that could end up saving you a lot of heartache.
- The apostle Paul says of the Christians at Rome “…you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another” (Romans 15:14) Part of living together in Christian community is instructing one another when we have to make important life decisions (decisions about finances, decisions about career, decisions about marriage, decisions about child-rearing, etc. etc. etc.)
God gave us the gift of a group to help us so that we don’t make decisions now that we’ll regret later. The question is: Are we taking advantage of this gift from God?
To sign up for a growth group visit www.newdaychurch.cc/groups