Lesson Four

Our ways are immeasurably different than God’s ways. 

I find that both comforting and disturbing.

This week as we contrasted man’s ways and God’s ways in regards to solving problems, I found myself annoyed and slightly put-off.  I have spent a couple years of my life working towards a Masters degree in marriage and family counseling, so when this study compared and contrasted worldly counseling is from Biblical counseling, I felt upset…as though I needed to defend how valuable professional counseling is or something.

I’m not sure why.

Even when I was in grad school, I felt as though counseling apart from the Bible was insufficient.  There was something lacking in all the strategies and techniques, and I knew that I could never be a professional counselor in a practice that forbid me from pointing my clients to Jesus.   So, you would think that as I read the Bible Study this week, it would have resonated with me, but it left me kind of confused.  Isn’t there ANYTHING we can glean from professional counseling?  Are you trying to tell me it is ALL useless junk?

I appreciated the clarification from page 49 of the student workbook,

“Sometimes, without knowing it, man discovers portions of God’s truth (even a broken clock is right twice a day).  However, they are based on an incorrect understanding of the very core of how people behave, and they are practiced with a totally unbiblical focus.  And even if worldly counselors discover a truth, they either do not recognize, or they deny the source of that truth, which is God Himself.”

Our Bible study leader says that we’ll explore this more in lessons to come, so it’s best that I don’t get offended and throw in the towel, thinking that I have this issue figured out.  That would be esteeming my way as superior, and as we read all week long, that is one of our main issues as humans.

*Sigh*  I don’t think this study is getting any easier…

CLICK HERE to listen to the Lesson Four teaching (just type in SELF-CONFRONTATION…don’t forget that hyphen…in the search box at the bottom of Sermon Audio section).