Your Biggest Problem

"What Is Your Biggest Problem?

When we rightly identify the source of our problem, we are on our way to a solution that celebrates the grace of Christ. But we must first acknowledge that the problem is us! It is inside us, deep in the recesses of our hearts. How do you react to this news? Are you shocked?

Disappointed? Offended? Angry? It’s certainly not what we want to hear. When I am impatient with my children, the last thing I want to admit is that it is my fault. I want to blame my child and justify my sin! But if we don’t face our own sins, we will never get to the real solution. We will minimize the redeeming love of Father, Son, and Spirit or bypass it completely. This is deadly.

There is nothing more serious!

The Bible says that my real problem is not psychological (low self-esteem or unmet needs), social (bad relationships and influences), historical (my past), or physiological (my body). They are significant influences, but my real problem is spiritual (my straying heart and my need for Christ). I have replaced Christ with something else, and as a consequence, my heart is hopeless and powerless. Its responses reflect its bondage to whatever it is serving instead of Christ. Ultimately, my real problem is a worship disorder."

-Paul Tripp and Timothy Lane, How People Change

Fear and Anger

"Scripture says this about anger: "What causes fights and quarrels among you? You want something but don’t get it" (James 4:1—2). You want power, love, the TV remote, perfect children, but you don’t get them. Fear and anxiety say this: "You want something, and you might not get it." You want power, love, the TV remote, perfect children, but you might not get them. You want financial security, health for yourself and those you love, safe passage to work, and you know you can’t presume any of it. Fear and anger can be the same words spoken with a different attitude."

Edward T. Welch,  Running Scared: Fear, Worry & the God of Rest 

God's Most Frequent Command

Edward Welch is a counselor and faculty member at Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF), along with people like David Powlison and Tim Lane. If you like this excerpt, he has written several helpful books, which are generally available from people in the church, including When People are Big and God is Small, Depression: A Stubborn Darkness, and Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave.

 

"Quick. What is, by far, God’s most frequent command?

The usual suspects include "Do not commit adultery," "Have no other gods before me," and "Love one another." The next group includes whatever commands you know you have violated, in which case they only feel as if they appear on every page of Scripture.

The actual answer is "Do not be afraid..."

"Don’t be afraid." "Don’t worry." They can be said so casually. I have said them to my wife when we have been on airplanes together and her palms were sweating before takeoff. My words, of course, were meaningless. They veered off into self-serving platitudes because I didn’t really want to hear about her fears. Already engrossed in the flight magazine’s crossword puzzle, I didn’t want to be bothered. But God’s words are nothing like my own.

Think about them. God never says anything just to get you off his back. The sheer number of times he speaks to your fears says that he cares much more than you know. He is not so busy that he attends only to macro-level concerns. Instead, he is close and speaks to the details of your troubles.

Do your troubles seem trivial, at least when compared to the dangers other people face? He knows you and has compassion. He does not compare your worries to those of others, decide which ones get priority, and then give everyone a number based on need. The way he repeats himself suggests that he understands how intractable fears and anxieties can be. He knows that a simple word will not banish our fears. He knows that our worries aren’t patiently waiting for permission to leave."

Edward T. Welch, Running Scared: Fear, Worry & the God of Rest (p. 62). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition. 

 

Both Sinners and Sufferers

"In attacking notions of ‘man as victim,’ biblical counseling has reaffirmed the biblical notion of human responsibility. In most graphic terms, on the day of judgment God will ask, “What did you do?” He will not ask, “What happened to you?” Nouthetic counseling has gone on to deal forthrightly with the omnipresent human tendency to rationalize, to portray oneself as a victim whose problems and sins are someone or something else’s fault. Victim theories ground our sins in our pain and our ‘needs.’ Let sins be derivative, and some other problem primary, people will not need Jesus Christ. In Christian guise Jesus becomes a need-meeter who makes victims feel better, not a Savior who purchases sinful men for God with His own blood.

We have been wary of any emphasis on man as victim, for every version around is tainted by sin’s aversion to acknowledging sin. All this said, we still need to appreciate and clarify the many ways people are sufferers and fully responsible if we are to be faithful to the perfect fit between the Bible and human life. We have made a strong affirmation of human responsibility: the role of ‘the flesh.’ We have not discussed as fully the impact of the world and the devil as they master and shape human life. We have mined and processed certain biblical riches; there are other riches which we have not scrutinized as closely. There is a biblical view of man as a sufferer. We can say it even more plainly: there is a biblical view of man as a victim. Biblical counseling has been misunderstood repeatedly to say that all problems are a result of personal sin...

The biblical notion of man as victim is, after all, the source of much of the compassion with which our Deliverer approaches His groaning people. Our God has compassion on sufferers - who are also sinners responsible for their responses to suffering and even may have brought suffering on themselves."

David Powlison, "Crucial Issues in Contemporary Biblical Counseling" (1988 A.D.)