Welcome back Friend! A while ago I was reflecting on the importance of validating information we receive before making any life altering decisions. Even in a workplace environment, when we don’t validate information, this can lead to making misinformed decisions that can have dangerous repercussions. In my line of work for instance, as a health and safety professional, validating what people say is a big must. For example, God forbid a critical incident happens or something is not reported to a government agency when it should have, this may expose the safety professional and/or the organization to grave consequences such as receiving warning letters, fines, stop-work orders, lead to permanent closure of the workplace and/or even work termination for some individuals. So, there’s huge value in validating any information we receive to ensure the next courses of actions taken head in the right direction, especially when making life altering decisions.

I find that for most of us it seems very easy to trust almost anything we receive from anyone that is part of our circle of “trusted source” e.g. a parent, spouse, boyfriend/girl, best or close friend, preacher or priest, other relatives, teacher, a mentor, government agencies, or even our own logic. Given the good rapport built over a certain period of time and/or the good intention exhibited towards us, we are often quick to blindly trust and action out any advice/directive/recommendation/suggestions or take to heart any news we receive from anyone that is part of our circle of “trusted source”. Don’t get me wrong, it is good to trust the information we receive from people. In fact, the Bible (Proverbs 11:14) says that ” in the multitude of counsel the people are safe..”. So seeking counsel or taking into respectful consideration information and/or advice from other people is noble and beneficial; however, when making life altering decisions, our counsel seeking should not stop at the people level e.g. people from our circle of ‘trusted source’ our own logic included. For one, as good as the intentions of our trusted source(s) might be, they are still humans and thus influenced by selfishness, fear, worry and other sinful inclinations due to the fallen world we live in. But exactly with whom should we validate information, directives, and advice to ensure the decisions and/or attitude we choose to adopt is sound and safe?

In my experience I’ve found how important and beneficial it is to validate every life altering advice or decisions with God. Unlike humans, God our Creator/Maker has perfect and pure intentions towards us as well as knows the future including what is best for us. Therefore, we can trust His judgement and plans for us. I’ve noticed that when we don’t validate things with God, we put ourselves (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) at risk of making the wrong move or head in a direction that will not result in ultimate fulfilment/satisfaction in the long run.

A couple of months back, I was in a situation where I needed to give a response to a text message, which was very critical. A response was suggested to me by someone in my personal “circle of trusted source”. I actually had originally planned to pray and ask God on how to respond to this very crucial message, however, since I trusted this person I didn’t give a second thought to praying and validating with God that the response being suggested to me was the correct one. Afterwards, I went back to re-read my response and realized that it was giving a misleading impression. This left me feeling guilty and realized the importance of trusting what’s suggested to me but always checking in or validating with God in prayer before acting on any suggestion. In other instances, my wrong decisions or move were influenced by my feelings and logic instead of checking with God to ensure that the decision would indeed be good and safe. In the end this resulted in wasted efforts/ time/ and money as well as unnecessary heartache. There’s also been instances when I’ve reaped the benefits of validating things with God first before making any big decisions.

So how do we validate things with God? The most common ways are through prayer (talking to God and directly asking His thoughts and plans about the decision or issue at hand), and on-going reading of God’s Word (the Bible), which provides both clear and general directives about almost every big life topics (relationships, work, spirituality etc.). God’s Word also outlines historical accounts of real people (both those who involved God in their decision making and those who did not) that we can learn from.

It’s important and good to trust information, advice or directives we receive from those in our circle of “trusted source”. However, let’s be encouraged to always look up to God, through His Son Jesus Christ, in Prayer and the reading of His Word, to validate things to ensure we are indeed headed in the right direction especially when it concerns life altering decisions. As the the Bible (in Jeremiah 17: 5 – 8) says, trusting only in mere humans can be very damaging while trusting in God leads to rewarding outcomes. Knowing that you are doing or heading in the right direction or on the best path God has designed for you is always the best feeling and a fulfilling way to live in both the short and long run.

What about you friend, what has been your experience when it comes to the topic of validating information or advice before making any big move?