What We Can Learn From Other Biblical Counselors...

“How come you have been so successful at this business of counseling,” he asked?

I responded something like this. “Dave, all I can tell you is that I work with Divine authority. I listen to what people tell me about their lives and then I engage them with the Word of God. As they respond positively to the Lord, I coach them in the implementation of the Word to bring course correction and work hard at training them to walk in His way.”  - Dr. Howard Eyrich (Biblical Counselor for over 40 years)

Biblical counseling can be seen as a daunting task.  Daunting because we (the church who are all called to be counselors) can buy in to the notion that it is up to us to fix other's problems.  When we begin to think that, we remove the power of God's Word in the hearts of other's lives and rob Him of glory.  It is not up to us, we are the messengers whom God called and promises to equip.  He is the one who is at work in the hearts and lives of His children.  In His grace and mercy, He chooses to use broken people to help other broken people.  Praise God!  Much like evangelism, we are called to proclaim God's Word, the Gospel, to a dying world and it is up to the Lord to draw and save.  God owns the results of salvation and of helping hurting people in the midst of their problems.  When we can have this right perspective, helping others isn't so daunting after all.  It is exciting to see what God is going to do next!  To get to see Him work in front of our fallen eyes is a blessing.  We can then engage hurting people, get messy with them because we want to see the glory of God work mightily in our own lives and in the lives of those we are trying to help.  What a great God we serve!

The Biblical Counseling Coalition's blog, Grace and Truth, has been posting a series going of lessons learned from biblical counselors.  From two years into their ministries to 40 years.  Great lessons that all lead to the grace of God and His work in the lives of others.  I recommend them if you are wanting to get some helpful tips and some great encouragement from them.  You can find them at: Grace and Truth Blog  There are also other posts that are super helpful and I hope that you are encouraged by the variety of counselors that have contributed to this blog.