Like the posts on leadership, this mini-series offers a great variety of topical videos and a few consistent questions to prompt your reflection and discussion.  Here I encourage you to consider three key layers in counseling:  the visible cycles of behavior, emotions and their underlying beliefs, and the desires of the spirit.  Below the video I briefly explain how I identified these three elements of counseling from Jesus’ sermon on the mount.

As you watch this particular video, consider the following that I will pose throughout this miniseries:

• Solely because of the specific topic In the video below, which is/would be your most natural focus on counseling a peer:  noting their cycle of behavior,  discerning their emotion and underlying beliefs, or ?  Elaborate.
• Which would be most difficult for you?  Elaborate.
• Based on the demographic where you currently live, which element of leadership would most of the people likely emphasize: vision, influence, or planning/mission?  Explain.
• Which element would most people likely overlook or resist?  Again, elaborate.
• With which few people – by name or position – would you need to collaborate to begin making progress in a godly direction?
• What gaps or hurdles would the team need to address first, and why?
• And, lastly, what realistic changes would you seek to last beyond your time with these people?

Good counselors always address at least three questions:  where are they going, why should we trust them, and how should we follow them?

In fact, those are the very questions God begins to answer in the Ten Commandments.  In Exodus 20:1-2, the Lord introduces the Law by reminding the Israelites that He was leading them away from their former life of bondage to be His people.  Then He gives the first four commands implying basic reasons to trust Him.

• There is only one true God.
• He has revealed Himself by His prophets.
• He is infinitely, eternally, and unchangeable glorious.
• And He has given His people all we need to follow Him.

The last six imply basics ways to follow Him.

• Submit to the authorities He’s given over you.
• Bless the lives of the people He’s given around you.
• Devote yourself to those He’s given only to you.
• Protect the property He’s given to others.
• Tell the truth for the justice He will give to each person accordingly..
• And rejoice in what He give to you today.

The implied problems that all of us share is that our human nature tends to rest in other people or things and to serve ourselves.  Our only hope and certain joy is the supernatural gift of God’s Son, Jesus, dying in our place and God’s Spirit changing us from the inside-out.  Only then can we lead others as He leads: with love for His glory.

To view more posts like this one, click on “Service Saturdays” in the menu above and click on the link at the bottom.

God’s Word often reveals the need for and goodness of godly peer counseling:  seeking or receiving a wise friend for insights, comfort, honest feedback, or simply someone to sit with us when neither of us know what to do next.  The videos in this miniseries address some general principles and practices for peer counseling.  But, like medicine, real healing power comes in specific helps to specific problems.  We find that kind of power we find only in the Bible.  I invite you to watch the video and then consider the related Scriptures and discussion questions.

If you found this video to be helpful, you might also benefit from my article, 4 Areas of Counseling in Christ, and some devotional thoughts on the 12 times the book of Proverbs refers to a “person of understanding” in the series similarly named, Counseling as a Person of Understanding.

If you’d like to know more about who publishes the articles, videos, and other materials on tools4trenches, you can click on the picture of me and my wife.