I am thankful to the Lord for introducing me to biblical counseling! Personally, I have struggled with intrusive thoughts, anxiety, and sin for most of my life. As I have served in various areas of ministry over the past decade, I have sought to help others in their suffering and sin struggles. When I first became a lay-elder at my local church, I quickly became burdened for church members whose marriages were crumbling, for parents whose kids were struggling with self-harm, for men who were addicted to pornography, and for people who experienced crippling anxiety. I remember asking how we, as a church, could best care for these needs. It was then that I began to look into biblical counseling. I quickly realized that this help called biblical counseling was actually discipleship. It was intense discipleship for people who were experiencing a difficult season of life. It was discipleship that was aimed at helping people to grow in their hope, trust, love, and obedience to the Lord. Biblical counseling was real help for people in the midst of crisis, difficult circumstances, battles with sin, and broken relationships. 

 

It was at that time that I began to study biblical counseling through the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. During my studies, I began to see how this form of discipleship would not only benefit me as a pastor and future counselor, but as an individual Christ follower, church member, husband, father, and friend to others. The Lord used what I was learning to help me observe my own life through the lens of Scripture and to apply what God’s Word says to my own life. 

 

Over the past several years as a pastor and biblical counselor, I have had the joy of watching the Lord do incredible work in the lives of counselees who have grown in their trust in the Lord while navigating through difficult life circumstances. I have seen anxiety-sufferers grow in entrusting their concerns to the Lord. I have seen broken marriages restored in ways that reflect the gospel. I have seen people who have been freed from the bondage of pornography addiction. These counseling successes have all taken place because the Lord has done a mighty work in the lives of these counselees, and as a counselor I got to have a front seat in seeing these lives transformed. 

 

This is why I am thankful and excited for biblical counseling!