Wise Counsel: Applying God’s Word to Life’s Problems

Every Christian needs counseling. Not everyone needs formal, weekly sessions with a professional counselor, but all of us need exhortation, encouragement, comfort, rebuke, instruction, warning, and wise advice.

Additionally, every Christian is a counselor. Whether you think of yourself that way or not, the fact is, when you talk to your friends about their struggles or sins or suffering, or when you give advice, you are counseling. That is God’s design. The biblical commands to exhort, encourage, comfort, rebuke, instruct, warn, and offer wise advice are directed to all believers.

Sadly, in most of what is being written about counseling today, whether it be in biblical counseling circles or in the world of psychology, the emphasis is on training certified counselors or therapists. There is certainly nothing wrong with highly trained counselors functioning in an official capacity. But there is a lack of instruction designed for the average Christian—the person who has neither the time nor the inclination to pursue a degree or intensive certification, but who has friends and family members who need help in the course of everyday life.

Any Christian with a reasonable ability to understand God’s Word can be a good counselor. God requires that we let the Word dwell in us richly enough that we can teach and admonish in all wisdom (Col.3:16). That does not mean we all have to be in a formal teaching role in a Bible study. Teaching is simply explaining to a person how to apply relevant principles from Scripture. We do that in informal ways all the time. All counseling is teaching. It is a Bible study with just one student. And you can do it!

Romans 15:14 I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.

The goal of this book is not to give detailed instruction on what to say in every counseling situation. It is rather to introduce you to a way of thinking about problems in relation to God’s Word that will enable you to offer wise counsel in any circumstance, and to serve as a reference to help you find a starting point in helping those who seek counsel.