As a pastor I have the opportunity to do a lot of different kinds of counselling. I counsel with husbands and wives who are struggling with their marriage. I struggle with parents who are struggling with their children I counsel with children striving to make the right decisions. I counsel with the grieving. I counsel with the recovering. I counsel with the addict. I counsel with the offended. I counsel with the offender. All of these situations, and the many specific situations that arise, are so varied and different that each case must be handled carefully and individually. No pat answer is a one size fits all answer. I have noticed one theme that runs throughout each of these situations however. Before I can tell you what it is I have to give a little ground work.
I may meet with an unbeliever, in fact I often do. I can not do Biblical counseling with someone though, who has rejected or remains undecided about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I will meet again and again and again with an unbeliever, but it will always be to seek their salvation in Jesus Christ. I will always seek to evangelize that person. I can't move on to tell someone how to live who has no life. It is hard to "pretty up" a corpse. The Bible describes our condition before Christ as "dead in our trespasses and sins."
So that said, know that whether I am counselling a husband, wife, parent, child, offender, offended, or anybody else, I am counselling someone who has acknowledged that they are alive in Christ and that they are seeking do walk obediently with Him. When we look at the scriptures in their very different situations, the common thread is revealed by the common response..."but that is hard." I hear these words in almost every counselling session.
It is hard to forgive. It is hard to love sacrificially. It is hard to submit. It is hard to seek forgiveness. It is hard to... fill in the blank. Often this is an excuse leveled against me in our discussion as to why the counselee could never be expected to do what I am describing to them the Bible says. In all honesty, I too seem to lean on the excuse "it is hard" as a reason why God would not really expect me to do the things He makes clear in His word.
Here's the shocker. God often times calls us to do hard things. In fact it is rare that doing the right, God honoring thing, is easy. This does not excuse us from doing it though. Hear the promise:
Deu 30:9-14 The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, (10) when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (11) "For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. (12) It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' (13) Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' (14) But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
I may meet with an unbeliever, in fact I often do. I can not do Biblical counseling with someone though, who has rejected or remains undecided about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I will meet again and again and again with an unbeliever, but it will always be to seek their salvation in Jesus Christ. I will always seek to evangelize that person. I can't move on to tell someone how to live who has no life. It is hard to "pretty up" a corpse. The Bible describes our condition before Christ as "dead in our trespasses and sins."
So that said, know that whether I am counselling a husband, wife, parent, child, offender, offended, or anybody else, I am counselling someone who has acknowledged that they are alive in Christ and that they are seeking do walk obediently with Him. When we look at the scriptures in their very different situations, the common thread is revealed by the common response..."but that is hard." I hear these words in almost every counselling session.
It is hard to forgive. It is hard to love sacrificially. It is hard to submit. It is hard to seek forgiveness. It is hard to... fill in the blank. Often this is an excuse leveled against me in our discussion as to why the counselee could never be expected to do what I am describing to them the Bible says. In all honesty, I too seem to lean on the excuse "it is hard" as a reason why God would not really expect me to do the things He makes clear in His word.
Here's the shocker. God often times calls us to do hard things. In fact it is rare that doing the right, God honoring thing, is easy. This does not excuse us from doing it though. Hear the promise:
Deu 30:9-14 The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, (10) when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (11) "For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. (12) It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' (13) Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' (14) But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
Did you hear that promise? Believer, you are a new creation. You are a child of God walking in the newness of life. The Holy Spirit is with you. Do not believe the lie that would say "obedience to God is too hard." The life of blessing is near to you today! Take hold of it. Do the hard thing God is setting before you!
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