Counseling Begins with God
by Joe Leavell
Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Biblical counseling begins right here with this very first verse of the Bible. Not only counseling but the foundation of our faith and all our meaning to life begins right here in this exact spot.
Our perspective on counseling individuals does not begin with human knowledge. It begins with God. This means that when we meet with people, we begin from the fundamental framework of God’s existence, that He is our Creator, and that we are accountable to this God. While this may seem obvious, our premise for counseling beginning with God is vital to giving good counsel. Let’s look for a moment into Scripture’s first verse that informs everything a biblical counselor says and does.
In the beginning, God…
These very first words begin a book of 50 chapters. The book of Genesis is the first in a larger book compiled of 66 different books written by at least 40 different authors over the span of 1,500 plus years. Notice it does not say, “In the beginning, mankind.” Is that significant? This may come as a shock to some. The story of the universe is not about you.
The first words of Scripture begin the unfolding of the true story of the world…God’s story. You are not the main character in this story. You didn’t come along for eons. This truth is fundamental to biblical counseling and Christianity itself because it means that rather than merely helping you make sense of the story that is you, we want to help you make sense of the story of the Universe where God is in the leading role. This Divine Character that reveals Himself was already existing in the beginning. As Scripture lays out through its pages, He has existed from eternity past, will always exist in eternity future, knows all there is to know, holds all of the power, exists outside of our understanding of space so that He is in all places at once, is never tired, and is truly complete in and of Himself.
The Bible does not even attempt to prove the point that God exists. It merely records God’s actions with the assumption that we are not willfully ignorant of the truth of His existence that is engrained on our very souls. One reason that the concept of God’s existence should be so blatantly obvious to us is because God created us with the ability to grasp His eternality and His power simply from observation of this marvelous world that we inhabit (Rom. 1:20). Scripture is so strong on insisting that God exists that it calls the darkened hearts of those who deny His existence, “foolish” (Rom. 1:21). People must deny reality and must lie to their own consciences in order to believe that there is no God.
…created the heavens and the earth.
God is the Master builder of the most amazing Universe that man could behold in wonder in the night sky! He is the unrivaled and matchless King of the Universe. He is good. He is love. He is just, righteous, and holy.
While the story of God is a celebration of His glory rather than ours, mankind is privileged to play a very important part in His narrative. God formed our ancestors, Adam and Eve, placed them in the Garden of Eden, and gave them instruction for how to live in this world He made. He created them to reflect His own image, to live in complete harmony and peace with God. The first humans talked with Him and communed with Him because they reflected their created purpose.
Adam and Eve chose to question God’s character, disobey Him, and chose to believe that they could find fulfillment in something apart from Him. Yet God loved mankind to the extent that He chose to redeem mankind with His own blood. God sent the Son to die so that we might have redemption and be restored to the creative purpose in which He made us in the first place. Jesus Christ, the Hero of the story, is the One who will one day make every wrong right and will rule and reign as the completely Sovereign King of the Universe.
This same God rightly knows that He is the most powerful and most beautiful thing in the universe and that to ascribe that kind of worth to some other creature would be a lie. Because He correctly understands that He alone is the supreme good that He alone could give us, for His glory and for our own health He commands us to worship and honor Him truthfully…as our God. Why? Because life is about Him! He invites us to join Him in the story that has been going on from the very beginning where He was already there.
“If you do not start with “In the Beginning God” as the main foundation in counseling, you’ve already started with the wrong premise.. Rather than God, you will inevitably be the center hero of your own story.”
Someone or something else and something less will be a lesser type of deity that you live for. You will, like Adam and Eve, trade in the true story of the Universe for a lie. But God went to great lengths to buy you back from this lie, securing it in the blood of His dear Son, Jesus Christ. Why? So that you might draw near to Him in a real relationship full of peace, love, and great joy that cannot be found anywhere apart from Him.
A biblical counselor’s job then is to present this true story of the world and ask…will you believe in this God? Will you trade in your story in order to place your faith in the God who exists and who desires you to draw near to Him?
“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him”
