More of the Word

 In a blog article I wrote in August on Revelation 2:12-17, I asked these three questions and made this one statement:

1. So, counselors how do you get your counselees into the Word more and more of the Word into your counselees?

2. Counselors, how will you encourage your counselees in the midst of their struggles and trials to hold fast to the name of Jesus?

3. Counselors, how will you help your counselees see idols in their lives? How will you help them repent and turn from their idols to the one true God?

4. Counselors, encourage your counselees with eternal reward – life with Christ. Help them to see that faithfulness to Christ in the here and nowmeans they get Christ in the there and then.

Here’s an answer to the first question with four practical things you can do to get your counselees into the Word more and more of the Word into your counselees.

1. A church that believes it

One of the first things we can do to help our counselees get into the Word more and more of the Word into them is to encourage them to join and participate in a Bible believing, Bible preaching, Bible practicing local church. Hopefully, many will already be in such churches and will only need to engage in the life of the church.  Our counselees need to sit under the faithful teaching of the Bible and live life with other Christians who are seeking to obey Christ. They need to hear the Bible accurately explained and to hear implications of the text. They need to sit under expositional preaching and teaching.

2. Model how to study it

 Another thing we can do as counselors is to model how to study the Bible during counseling sessions.  It will serve our counselees well to demonstrate how to read the text looking for application, looking for what the text demands of them.  We want to teach them to ask two questions of the text,

What does it say?

How do I obey?

Part of our counseling will involve hermeneutics, the science of interpretation. We must help our counselees learn how to rightly interpret the text so that they can faithfully obey it.

3. Homework that elevates it

 Another thing we can do to help our counselees get into the Word more and more of the Word into our counselees is assign homework that involves daily bible reading, bible memorization, and meditation on the bible. Daily bible reading would involve passages that pertain to the counselee’s particular problem with questions to ask of the text.  Bible memorization would include texts that speak to the particular problem and the expectation is for the counselee to memorize them word for word and perhaps to write them out on notecards and strategically place them throughout their home. Meditating on Scripture requires the counselee to mull over a verse or passage throughout the week. You may have the counselee read a passage at least one time every day noting what sticks out to them each time they read it. You may assign 2-3 questions for the counselee to answer each day about the same passage. The point is that you have the counselee repeatedly reading and thinking about the same passage for the purpose of understanding it and applying it.

4. Demonstrate how to obey it

One final way you can help get your counselee into the Word more and more of the Word into your counselee is to help them see the day to day implications of the text. After you have worked with them to determine what the text says, you will then have to work with them to help them see what that text looks like throughout the week.  How will the counselee put into practice what he has learned?  As the counselee practices what has been learned, it gets more deeply imprinted in his soul, it gets “into” him. So, help your counselees draw implications from the text that they can implement starting right now. It will help plant the word deeply into their souls.  

In review

What we must keep in mind is that we not only want our counselees to hear the word. We also want them to do the word.  We want them to have in their minds those same two questions,

 What does the text say?

How do I obey?

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (Matt. 7:24 ESV)

 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (Jas. 1:22 ESV)

By His Grace Alone,

Josh