BIBLICAL COUNSELING AND TRUST IN GOD

 

 

As Biblical counselors and friends, our first goal must be to help others to connect effectively to our Savior. After the Lord took hold of me, my parents insisted that I go see the rabbi. We had many in our family. I remember only one thing that the rabbi had told me. He pointed to the electric socket and said, “If you connect to the socket, you will find all the power you need. This also applies to God! When you connect to God, you find all the strength you will need.”

He was right! Connecting to God is our only hope. Why? We cannot do anything without Jesus:

·       Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4–5; 2 Corinthians 3:5)

I am still learning this lesson. Although I teach about knowing God, waiting for Him, resisting satanic attacks, taking all our thoughts captive according to the Gospel (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)…, sometimes we are incapable of applying these many sound principles. We cannot even control our thoughts.

Often, I awake terrified, fearful that I cannot fulfill even my slightest responsibilities. Everything represents a monumental challenge to me, a mountain I cannot climb. Most mornings I am so distraught that I simply weep before the Lord. However, this torment and my inability has taught me that there is no substitute for trusting in the Lord—“Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46). Why? While we can do nothing, He can do everything! There is no burden He cannot remove from our shoulders.

A dear friend in Sarasota, Fla. just sent out memo. She and her mother were singing of the Lord’s faithfulness as Ian’s 150 mph winds howled outside, bringing down trees onto neighboring houses and removing roofs. However, they were entirely spared—no damage!

We too experience hurricanes, but they are in our minds and hearts. There are times when there is nothing we can do to control the winds threatening to destroy us but to cry out, “Help me, Jesus” and to commit ourselves to trust in Him without trying to figure everything out, at least during the storm:

·       Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. (Proverbs 3:5–8)

Sometimes, trying to figure out the behavior and the cause of the hurricane is utterly fruitless, and the only thing that we can do is to trust in the Lord as we weather the storm. Committing to trust in Him is our only hope and joy:

·       Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. (Psalm 33:18–21)

Our Lord wants to give us the world once we are emptied sufficiently to receive the abundance of His blessings without becoming proud and thinking that we are self-sufficient. The logic of the Cross proves this. If He gave His Son for us while we were His enemies (Romans 5:8-10), He will not withhold any good thing from those who are His children through Jesus, those who trust in Him:

·       …If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31–32)

How then do we connect to the mercies of God? By trusting in Him according to His Word!