Biblical Counseling Manual

All that was done to us, what we have done to others, the failures, the ills, the violations of our persons, the brutalities, the perversions of life, rejections, death of loved ones, tragedies, loneliness, abandonment, Jesus paid the penalty for all these sins, and provided the means to handle the tragedies of life. We do not need to deal with these violations and tragedies on our own. Christ is in us to work out our salvation daily (Phil. 2:12-13; Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 6:3-6; Ezek. 18:20). Being in Christ, we are new creatures and we are to deal with life now from the biblical perspective. Our problem is not with Satan, not with people, not with the circumstances of life, but our problem lies in our relationship with God. Our focus is to change from a concern about self, to a concern about God's glory and that is accomplished by our godly responses to others and life in general (Rom. 5:17; Cor. 5:21). Thus, the answer to healing the soul lies here: loving God by obeying His commands (John 14:21), and dealing with unresolved actions of the past in a spirit of repentance and reconciliation (Matt. 7:5).