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Welcome to SayItAgain Saturday, where we replay popular episodes from the previous season! This episode first aired in January 2022, and we can tell by the downloads that it hit a nerve. After all, giving advice can lead to unexpected drama.

Are you able to listen to someone sharing a problem without trying to fix it? In other words, can you just listen, or are you formulating a solution as you listen, waiting to blurt it out as soon as the other person stops talking?

Listening to someone tell you that they’re about to make an unwise decision is really hard. We may want to try to talk the person out of their plans, but we know that by inserting ourselves like this, we could end up creating tension in the relationship. By saying nothing, it may seem like we’re agreeing, but if we speak the truth in love, we may get slapped into submission by a verbal rejection. Unsolicited advice is a field of land mines.

We can usually sense when a conversation is taking a sharp turn, and this can easily happen if we swerve into giving advice without having been asked. Unsolicited advice is easy to give but hard to take. If you've ever had someone deliver an analysis about your life that you never requested, you know how this lands on the ears.

What happens if we say something that then things blow up and we get chewed out? How can we sit by and watch someone running straight for the edge of an unseen cliff that we have in full view? Giving advice is tricky terrain. Let’s consider three things to keep in mind when we’re trying to discern when to speak and when to be silent.

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Build Your Bible Habit with the popular daily Proverb system. Read one Proverb daily, corresponding with the day of the month (chapter 4 on the 4th etc.).  Here's a verse from chapter 4, reminding us that wisdom is the "principle thing," which is another way of saying, "first things first":

"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding." (Proverbs 4:7)

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Build Your Bible Habit with the popular daily Proverb system. Read one Proverb daily, corresponding with the day of the month (chapter 3 on the 3rd etc.).  Here's a familiar passage from chapter 3, with instructions both to trust the Lord for direction and to avoid running ahead of God with our own agendas:

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

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Proverbs LibraryBuild Your Bible Habit with the popular daily Proverb system. Read one Proverb daily, corresponding with the day of the month (chapter 1 on the 1st etc.).  Here's a verse from chapter 1, reminding us that following God's Word brings peace and quiet even in the midst of difficult times:

"But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil." (Proverbs 1:33)

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Welcome to the first segment of Psalm 119 on Build Your Bible Habit. This is the longest chapter in the Bible, so we’ll divide it into seven episodes. Psalm 119 is loaded with thoughts, instructions, and observations written to turn our hearts to a closeness with God. This chapter is written in twenty-two parts, following the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and each part consists of eight verses for a total of 176 verses. This episode begins with verses 1-24.

Build Your Bible Habit was launched as a special bonus segment Keep the Heart Podcast in 2022 with Proverbs, and now we're expanding it to include Psalm 119. The more we're in the Word, the greater we comprehend how to live. Psalm 119:18 makes a great theme verse for the week, and also makes a great prayer request: "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." 

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Build Your Bible Habit with the popular daily Proverb system. Read one Proverb daily, corresponding with the day of the month (chapter 30 on the 30th etc.).  Here's a verse from chapter 30, teaching us that God is a protector to those who trust Him.

"Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him." (Proverbs 30:5)

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Build Your Bible Habit with the popular daily Proverb system. Read one Proverb daily, corresponding with the day of the month (chapter 28 on the 28th etc.).  Here's a verse from chapter 28, teaching us that "following your heart" is an unwise practice:

"He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered." (Proverbs 28:26)

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Build Your Bible Habit with the popular daily Proverb system. Read one Proverb daily, corresponding with the day of the month (chapter 27 on the 27th etc.).  Here's a verse from chapter 27, instructing us that it is better to have someone else sing our praises than for us to boast about ourselves:

"Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips." (Proverbs 27:2)

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Build Your Bible Habit with the popular daily Proverb system. Read one Proverb daily, corresponding with the day of the month (chapter 25 on the 25th etc.).  Here's a verse from chapter 25, teaching us that we need to keep our debates and disagreements between us and the person directly involved:

"Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself; and discover not a secret to another: Lest he that heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy turn not away." (Proverbs 25:9-10)

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Have you ever listened to someone who was trying to sound like they knew what they were talking about, but you could tell that they were bluffing? That’s what’s going on today as people have coined the phrase, “I am speaking my truth.” When did it become possible to create new truth, as if we were just changing ingredients in a recipe?

Pretending to be an authority is as old as the Old Testament. What’s at the root of this is a desire to have our own way, hence, the creation of our own version of the truth. God’s Word is truth, but even the ruler Pilate in the New Testament didn’t recognize the truth. He was the one who asked Jesus, “What is truth?” And today, we can tell that many have the same question, and the answer is hiding in plain sight.

Jesus said this plain statement to His disciples in John 14:6: "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Are we becoming confused because we’re overfed on cultural information and preferences but starving spiritually? Let’s look at three things you can do to protect yourself from deception.

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