Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor. That means that when we’re in pain or when we’re tempted, Jesus listens sympathetically, because there is no suffering or pain or confusion we go through that he himself has not gone through, and he guides us with expert advice.
Hebrews 4:15-16 says,
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (ESV)
Maybe you’re in a time of great need. The good news is there is One who is able to help, standing at the ready to strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Whatever you are facing today, here are the three ways you must approach the Wonderful Counselor to ask for his help.
1. You have to be completely honest with Jesus.
We all share a tendency to want to keep the truth about our problems concealed. Maybe that’s because we feel shame admitting the full extent of the issue. For some of us, we don’t like to even acknowledge our problems to ourselves.
But until we are fully open and honest with Jesus about our problems, we can’t get help for them.
Being changed by Jesus is not like passing the keys of your car to some kid at a car wash and saying, “Clean her up,” then running some errands and coming back 30 minutes later and it’s all done. When God changes your life, you have to be very active in the details. And if you’re going to be active in the details, you have to face those details—however messy—head on. Until you’re honest about your problems, you can’t really fix them.
Jesus was once talking with a woman who had a string of broken marriages and was in the midst of an adulterous relationship at the time (John 4:1-26). She was deeply unhappy. But she kept trying to hide all that from Jesus. “Surely,” she thought, “if he found out all that about me, he’d walk away.” But Jesus finally said, “Look, I know you have had five husbands and are currently living in adultery. I know you’re unsatisfied. I knew all that when I started this conversation, and still I came after you.”
Jesus knew everything about you when he came to you. There is nothing about you that could be revealed that will surprise him, nothing that is not already covered by his blood.
The Wonderful Counselor has power so great that there is no problem he can’t transform and heal, and he has love for you so deep that he’ll never turn you away.
2. You have to want to be healed.
In John 5, Jesus comes upon a lame man who had been paralyzed for 38 years and asks him, “Do you want to be healed?” It’s an odd question, and it’s puzzled students of the Bible for centuries. Why ask it at all? Who wouldn’t want to be healed?
But here’s what Jesus was getting at: While many people want to experience the benefits of healing, they don’t want to go through the painful choices that must accompany healing.
We usually want God to clean up the mess of our lives without dealing with the choices and patterns that got us into that mess. In fact, we have mixed feelings about the changes we are asking God to make. We like the concept of change, but we’re not really sure we want to do the hard work of change. It makes me think of Augustine, who in his Confessions described himself as praying, “God, make me pure … just not yet.”
If you really want God to change your life, you have to be willing to deal with the things Jesus tells you that you must deal with. You have to want to be healed.
3. You have to do whatever Jesus says.
Have you ever noticed as you read the Gospels that Jesus often asked people to do some crazy things?
Once, in healing a blind man (John 9:6), Jesus spit on the ground and made mud-pies to cake on the blind man’s eyes and then told him to go wash off in a specific pool. Across town. Why not just snap his fingers and heal him?
When Peter needed money to pay a bill, Jesus said, “Go catch a fish, and in the fish’s mouth will be a gold coin with the exact amount to pay the bill” (cf. Matthew 17:24-27). If he’s going to make the money magically appear, why not just pull it out from behind Peter’s ear?
These seemingly random requests are designed to teach us something: Jesus is demonstrating that sometimes obedience doesn’t make sense to us.
He tells you to extend forgiveness, but then who will avenge you?
He tells you to end the relationship, but you are scared of being alone.
He tells you to give sacrificially, but how will you afford it?
He tells you to make the move, but you are comfortable right where you are.
When Christ’s word comes to you in a specific situation, you have to decide: Do you really trust him enough to do what he says? In order to get help from the Wonderful Counselor, you have to put your “yes” on the table before you even ask the question. You have to lay down all your prerogative to choose and say, “Jesus, I’m ready to follow you anywhere!”
Jesus doesn’t negotiate on our terms. The only deal that he will make is this: He will give us all of himself, all of heaven, all of eternity, all of the wisdom and counsel of God. But what he requires is that we surrender all of ourselves to him.
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