Hey there, friends,
Why do I involve faith in my counseling?
While traditional counseling can get you a great deal of relief from symptoms, I have always found that I hit a ceiling when God is not part of the picture. He is the One who made us and the Great Physician; connection with Him is the biggest agent for change that you can possibly have! As we walk through the research-backed treatment methods that the counseling field has found effective, we will also turn to the God who designed the world and the people who live here. When we live in God’s world, God’s way; we find flourishing and fullness of life. But how do we connect with God?
God is the One who made us, and He made us for relationship with Him. He wants to talk with us! But our sins caused a disconnection between us and God. God is perfect and just. Because of this, He cannot tolerate sins or wrongdoings. Lying, stealing, cheating, wishing ill upon others or feeling jealous of others’ lives or things- these are all sins. We are stuck in our sin, and we don’t have the solution to it. The Bible tells us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Unfortunately, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and we can’t repay that debt ourselves. If we could have fixed this problem, surely we would have found the solution by now…however many thousands of years of human civilization have only continued to replay the same old patterns of pettiness, injustice, anger, etc. that are in the hearts of all humans. And God knew that we didn’t have the resources to solve this problem ourselves.
“But God didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented Himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him” (Romans 5:6-8). “God so loved (all people, including you) that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life”. (John 3:16). Jesus, the perfect son of God, lived a life as a man, but without sin. He then died in our place, paying the penalty for our sins that we couldn’t repay. God then raised him from the dead three days later, in victory over death itself. “If you say with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and have faith in your heart that God has made him come back from the dead, you will have salvation”. This was God’s plan to provide a means of reconnection and relationship with us again. “His purpose [in making the world ] was for [people] to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and exist.” (Acts 17:27-28.) He wants us to be direct with Him and ask Him for what we need- “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” His free gift of connection stands. He loves you massively, and is overjoyed to live in connection and relationship with you, if that is what you want.
He loves us, friends,
Rachel
Fox Family Counseling 