Counseling the Hard Cases by Stuart Scott & Heath Lambert & John MacArthur

Author:Stuart Scott & Heath Lambert & John MacArthur
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Christian Ministry, Counseling & Recovery, Counseling and Recovery, Ministry & Evangelism, Religion & Spirituality, Christian Books & Bibles
ISBN: 9781433677465
Publisher: B&H Academic
Published: 2012-04-28T22:00:00+00:00

Everyone is watching me. Why can’t they leave me alone?

If I eat what my mother cooks, I will be fat!

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be healthy.

This makes me so angry!

I hate being home!

I don’t feel like eating.

It was not surprising that Ashley refused to face reality. Her sinful, habitual obsession with food and her body was deeply entrenched in her heart. Her unopposed thoughts and unchecked actions had formed deep ruts. Her self-image had become her god, and she was willing to fight to the death to keep this destructive god at the center of her life and happiness. Her self-consuming pride was blinding her to the reality of her situation and even to the obvious love that her parents were showing her.

Remembering the Big Picture

During the second meeting with Ashley, I concentrated on two main biblical principles. First, I wanted Ashley to focus on the big picture. This meant cultivating an abiding sense of gratitude for Jesus Christ, who had sacrificed himself on the cross to suffer the punishment for her sins so that she could be forgiven by God. When her heart was filled with this gratitude, Ashley would find it much more natural to honor God by doing what was right regardless of her feelings. Remembering the big picture also meant turning to Jesus as a sympathetic high priest who had experienced temptation as a human being and who was eager and kind in helping everyone who would ask him. Hebrews 4:14–16 states:

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to the confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.

As Ashley grew in her willingness to seek Jesus for mercy, grace, and help in her struggles, she would also learn to let him shoulder her burdens instead of bearing them herself. “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your care on him, because He cares about you” (1 Pet 5:5–7).

Unlike the enslaving, burdensome, miserable bondage of anorexia and the condemning feeling that she could never be thin or pretty enough, Ashley needed to lift her eyes to the kind face of Jesus and open her ears to his gentle offer of grace. Instead of viewing every act of obedience as an impossible task, Ashley could grow into seeing Jesus’ commands as gentle, kind, and helpful:

“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.

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