Effective Biblical Counseling
Summary
Primary Goal
The primary goal of counseling should not be to “make the client happier” but rather to get one to a point where the client wants instead to do God’s will. This is the Christian approach to counseling that often goes missed and it is a goal that many people seeking counseling often forget they should be trying for, even though they are Christian. They imagine that if they do everything right they should be rewarded with peace and happiness—and yet the Christian’s life is only peaceful and happy when it is lived in accordance with God’s will, and that is the point that Crabb (1977) makes here. The goal of counseling should be to get the patient to see how he or she could be more in line with God’s will because that is where peace is to be found.
Development of Problems and Personal Need
The personal need that people have to feel some satisfaction, some freedom, to fill some hole in their lives all stems back to pride—the pride of Mr. A who cannot afford a new home but loves receiving compliments from people so buys one anyway; the pride of Mrs. B who likes the idea of having a lover on the side because she doesn’t owe him anything; the pride of Mr. C who lies to avoid facing the truth about his own shortcomings…all these people have a personal need to feel bigger or better than they actually are. Crabb refers to it as “security and significance” (p. 80), but ultimately it is rooted in a desire to find that in ourselves, which really only comes from God. They are all affected with the sin of pride because they do not want to give up that portion of the self that is preventing them from being united wholly to God. Pride is at the root of all the troubles that people have.
Biblical Integration
Biblical integration refers to the use of Scripture as the guiding point for this intervention. When people see that all the direction they need is available within Scripture itself, they realize that they are trying to put their own direction on life without referring to the Word of God. The Word of God is there to be...
Some defect, some flaw, some shortcoming is preventing the patient from realizing his potential as a Christian. He is confusing the Christian life with the secular life that the world wants him to live. Instead of living for Christ, he is living like he thinks the Declaration of Independence is his guide—as though life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were what mattered most. The Declaration of Independence has little to do with Christ. Christ made no such promises and He Himself suffered crucifixion and many martyrs suffered death for their faith. Change that is focused on simply becoming “happy”...…embraces a wave by diving into it so as not to be crushed by it in an attempt to get away. The Christian life is about embracing what God sends our way and accepting it happily because it is from God and is proof of God’s will. When we try to flee God’s will and assert our own, that is when we become unhappy and end up needing counseling. This theory therefore can be used by me to counsel my people and help them get back to seeking God in their lives rather than their own selves.
Example
For example, if I have a husband come to me and he says he wants to leave his wife because she does not appreciate him, nags him all the time, will not listen to him, and will not let him make any decisions in the relationship, the human side of me might say I fully understand, you are right, go ahead and leave her—find someone new, be happy. However, the Christian side of me sees a higher path—the path to God—and that path is defined by duties that one owes. In this case, the Biblical duty is clear: husbands must love their wives. They owe it to them. That is the lesson I would have to convey to this husband, even if it meant suffering for the rest of his days. However, I would point out that when we follow Christ we find that the burden is light and not as heavy as we feared.
References
Crabb, L.…
