In all the ways I share Christ, this one is the most intimate, and I am incredibly honored to do. Trust me when I tell you that it never gets easier to see how sin and brokenness affect the human heart, life, and relationships. However, when those I counsel receive the living hope of Jesus Christ and embrace the Truth that God is not wasting this pain or circumstance which brought them to me, it sets all our hearts aflame with the love of God. When they leave with the assurance that Jesus has given them everything they need for the situation they are facing in their life at that moment, His Spirit bears witness with my spirit that the same is true in my messy mundane life as well.
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.” Col.3:12-16
What Paul exhorts the Colossians to put on in their new identity in Christ is what takes place every time the door to the counseling room opens, and someone walks in. We yield our hearts to the Wonderful Counselor, and we become transformed. There is a spiritual exercise in dying to self and living for righteousness that takes place. The problem may remain, but the hope is that hearts are no longer the same to the praise of His glory.
In the future, I may post a helpful book review or write some thoughts on a particular counseling topic.
Please visit The Jonathan Project website for more information
