But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
-2 Corinthians 3:18
One thing I’ve learned in Developmental Psychology, besides that life consists of stages, is that life will not wait for anyone to be ready for the next. We will be pushed to the next stage of life whether we are prepared for it or not.
This is what the Christian life is all about. It is about growing, it is about maturing to the next stage of life until we reach the ultimate Life which is The Lord Jesus Christ. The problem we face is that our current situation may be too comfortable for us to move on from; either that, or that the next stage appears to be too threatening (or too dull) that we decide to plant ourselves to where we are.
Christian Counselling, in this sense, is about setting Christians free from the current bondage that is holding us back and preventing us from moving towards God’s plan in our lives.
It is not God’s way to have us dwell on one stage forever. To hide in a lief-stage out of fear of the next is called stagnation. In this state, we have no direction to go to and we are left with one option which is to rot in the false pretense that we are ‘contented’ with our current state. So, we cower in our comfortable caves and decide to no longer move on and grow. Like stagnant waters that refuse to flow out, it doesn’t stay the way it is forever. It ends up producing flies, diseases, and other horrors.
Our job as Christians is to move and grow from glory to glory but fear keeps us planted in bondage to where we are. Once our foot is caught in that trap, we become victims to the downward spiral that goes with stagnation.
In the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25), we see at least 2 types of Christians. The first type are the ones who carried out God’s will for their lives by using their God given gifts to benefit people and to glorify The Kingdom. The second type are the ones who respond to fear (rather than faith) and choose to bury away their gifts in fear of failure.
“No one lights a candle and hides it under the bed”, says The Lord Jesus. We are here to face the risks in life as we choose to live it fully.
Christian Counselling will help propel people to conquer their fears and rise above their comfort zones. This is the way to live the abundant life and go closer to what God has planned for us. Like the hermit crab and the chick who had to leave their old shells behind, Christians are designed to live life growing from glory to glory.