“O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.
You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.” Psalm 139: 1-3, 5-6
Powerful, powerful words that speak volumes about the Sovereingty of our amazing God! I’ve said it before… that whenever I am put in situation that stretches me and requires me to walk out of my comfort zone, it’s usually God gently nudging me forward, pushing me towards something only He can teach me. I’m talking about the course I’m currently taking – Biblical Counseling. There are 3 other semesters that are necessary to complete before getting certified as a lay counselor. As far as going all the way with this curriculum- only God knows, He’s in charge. I know the only thing I can do is to just go with His flow…
“This is way too much work, too much homework. I am not willing to become a college student again,” I blurted out to my friend, Nancy (More of Thee…and Less of Me, Someone Who Truly “Get’s It,” Wow… Praise Report). “I don’t want to be a counselor. I just want to be able to help friends out with their problems based on what the Bible says, that’s all.” I was seriously thinking about dropping out. But that’s when God showed up.
“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.” Luke 6: 42
BC-1 (Biblical Counseling 1) is all about Self-Confrontation. We must learn how to work on ourselves and our own issues before we can attempt to help anyone else. So the first thing required of everyone in the class was to write down one of our issues – only for our eyes and our teacher’s eyes. Throughout the 14 weeks of BC-1 we do Bible study after Bible study on this issue… this would teach us how to get down to the root of the problem, dig it out, and learn how to replace it with a godly conduct and behavior. It’s all about learning how to “put off” the certain behaviors causing your problem, and then learning how to replace that root or ungodly behavior (“put off” and “put on”). God sheds some light on an area of your life that is in darkness and is keeping you imprisoned.
Through circumstances (God reveals things to us and teaches us through our circumstances), it was made crystal clear to me what my real issue is. The issue I originally wrote down is not my real issue. And I know THAT’S THE REASON I fought against and resisted doing all the work, all because it was not the issue God wanted to free me from. Wow, so here I am… now knowing what the root of my real issue is. There’s still much work to be done (I’m only half way through the class), but now I am open AND WILLING-so willing to dig out this root and learn how to replace it God’s way!
So that’s why things are slow here. And this just came to my mind… Do you remember the movie Chariots of Fire? The main character was a runner and said, I feel God’s pleasure when I run. Just like him I can say, I feel God’s pleasure when I write 🙂