How do you coach someone who exhibits a troubled soul?
While the following is far from an exhaustive
list, we offer four suggestions today, and four more tomorrow, for you to pass
on to those who souls are troubled:
1. Renew your mind with prolonged Scripture reading. Church leaders need to stop treating God’s Word as a piece of literature. One of the first and most basic steps to take is to reaffirm that your reading of Scripture is time spent with a loving God who is speaking to you personally. The psalmist David wrote, “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure” (Psalm 16:8-9). The apostle Paul encouraged the church at Corinth, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). Personal renewal comes through both reading and heeding God’s Word.
2. Pray with an unhurried heart. Pray without rushing through a list or a formula for praying. Let God speak slowly to your heart. Allow yourself to sit quietly beside the still waters. Stop your perpetual motion, and just sit with God and talk. He might have something to say to you if you stop long enough to listen. You might find you are even more inclined to pray to God, not just about God when you are hurting.
3. Confess the hidden sins of your heart. God is after your heart, your thoughts, and your deepest desires. Peter writes, “Let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious” (I Peter3:4). You may be troubled because your heart is full of unconfessed sin. Spend some time in honest reflection, asking the Holy Spirit to bring conviction to your heart and reveal unconfessed sin. Then acknowledge your sin and confirm your identify in Christ by declaring the gospel, preaching it to yourself.
4. Live in true community with others, and allow them to truly know you. How many people actually know you—the private person, not the public person? Do they know about your finances, your marriage, your anger, and your sins? You need others to help you in your battle against sin. (Hebrews 3:12-13). Paul David Tripp said that without a community, we are prone to listen to our own lies and buy into our own delusions. Find trusted friends who can listen to your struggles."
Watch for more suggestions tomorrow.
Taken from: Gospel Coach
Shepherding Leaders To Glorify God
by Scott Thomas and Tom Wood
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