Biblical Counseling: Where Scripture Meets Real Life

The God of the Bible is the God who has much to say about your life because He knows why He created you. Often, the first thought we have about God and the Bible are the rules and laws to be obeyed, when the true message of the Bible conveys the reality that God has reached down into our human condition and circumstances and offers to bind up the wounds of the afflicted and heal broken hearts. The very reason Jesus came was to offer us hope and to rescue us.

What to expect

When you come for biblical counseling, you can expect to be treated with respect, kindness, compassion and integrity. Your biblical counselor approaches all people with the understanding that all of us are in need of the grace of God that offers forgiveness, hope, and transformation.

Because our hearts can distort how we see ourselves, our circumstances, our relationships with others, and the character of God and His promises, we sometimes need the help and loving care of another who can provide wisdom and guidance to fully see the One who rescues us from what can seem too difficult or even hopeless.

What is biblical counseling?

Biblical counseling (sometimes referred to as pastoral counseling) holds to the truths that:

· Both body and soul affect the way we live our lives and influence how we interpret and live through the challenges and struggles of life.

· All people are created in the image of God and have intrinsic value.

· We live in God’s perfectly created world, which has been corrupted by darkness and evil that often afflict us.

· God knows us and sees all things.

· God desires for us to find our hope, refuge, and strength in Him as we reach out to Him in our pain, confusion, and struggles with sin.

· God equips men and women through life experiences, special training, and spiritual gifting to provide wise counsel for others in the midst of their struggles.

How is biblical counseling different from secular and Christian counseling?

Secular psychology can provide helpful insights and true observations about the struggles of our humanity, but because it looks at our humanity through a humanistic and narrow horizontal window, it completely ignores our vertical relationship with God and His promises to help us at the core of our struggles. Secular psychology is based on the ideas that man is basically good and that the answer to his problems lies within himself. Secular psychology promotes mankind as the highest standard of truth and morality.

Christian counseling acknowledges our vertical relationship with God but integrates secular solutions and methods for fixing problems that are less about God—His comfort, refuge and rescue—and more about human-centered solutions or about learning to manage your behavior.

Biblical counseling is not about finding solutions or refuge within yourself, in other people, or in getting all the right circumstances in place. It is about finding Christ, the only Savior able to deliver you from what’s really wrong with you and your world.