Attributes of God in Counseling2021 Pacific Northwest Biblical Counseling Conference

Wendy Wood

Goals: 1. To glorify God - I want you to come away from this session excited about

who God is and giving him the worship and praise he is due 2. I want you to come away with really practical things on God’s attributes you

can talk about and use on Monday in your counseling cases

Lens of Life diagram: Adapted from Stuart Scott’s diagram present at a Faith Conference.

God chose to write a book. God chose to reveal himself through written word.

Knowing God’s attributes changes the focus. Knowing God’s attributes changes the purpose of their circumstances. Knowing God’s attributes changes their hope for their circumstances. Knowing God’s attributes changes where they place their hope.

The attributes of God in no way replaces the gospel. Our counselees need a SAVIOR.1

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But knowing and understanding God also drives the change process in changing their thinking or renewing their minds.Definition of Attributes of God: AW Tozer in Knowledge of the Holy

“The doctrine of the divine unity means not only that there is but one God; it means also that God is simple, uncomplex, one with Himself. The harmony of His being is the result not of a perfect balance of parts but of the absence of parts. Between His attributes no contradiction can exist. He need not suspend one to exercise another, for in Him all His attributes are one. All of God does all that God does; He does not divide himself to perform a work, but works in the total unity of His being.

The divine attributes are what we know to be true of God. He does not possess them as qualities; they are how God is as He reveals Himself to His creatures. Love, for instance, is not something God has and which may grow or diminish or cease to be. His love is the way God is, and when He loves He is simply being Himself. And so with the other attributes.” (chapter 3, Knowledge of the Holy)

Why Study the Attributes of God?

“The church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men. This she has not done deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge, and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic. The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us…. With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence.” (A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy preface)

Our beliefs about God affect every single aspect of life. Wrong ideas about God affect our motives, thoughts, words and actions. Wrong thinking about God is idolatrous. We cease to worship the One True God when we think inaccurately about Him. Therefore, we need to help our counselees know God better.

1. HOPE: Your Counselee needs to see the vast difference between Creator and creature.

John 17:3 says, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent”.

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2. RELATIONSHIP: God has chosen to reveal Himself in Scripture so that He is known.

“If we know anything about God, it is because he has chosen to make it known; revelation is a gift. In that light, our task cannot be speculation. Our response to his revelation concerning himself is not to demand knowledge of that which he has chosen to conceal”

Matthew Barrett, “None Greater”

James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”

Psalm 73:28 says “But for me it is good to be near God”

3. SANCTIFICATION: Knowing more about God is one avenue of change.

2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is Spirit.”

AW Tozer says, “A right conception of God is basic not only to systematic theology but to

practical Christian living as well. It is to worship what the foundation is to the temple; where it is inadequate or out of plum the whole structure must sooner or later collapse. I believe there is scarcely an error in doctrine or a failure in applying Christian ethics that cannot be traced finally to imperfect and ignoble thoughts about God.”

(Knowledge of the Holy page 2)

Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of the law.”What God reveals to us gives us reason to obey. He says “but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children, THAT we may do all the words of the law.”

Knowing more about God leads to more obedience. There is hope in that!

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4. JOY: God invites us to see him and know him because it is the best way to live.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me”

David knew the importance of gazing, or looking intently at God.

Psalm 27:4 “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple”

And then verse 8 “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me.”

God’s beauty is his Holiness. God’s beauty is the totality of who he is. When we gaze upon God, we grow in joy and trust in him.

Who (which counselee) needs the attributes of God?AngerAnxietyFearSadness/depressionLonelinessGuiltyAshamed

RC Sproul says,

“I’ve often made this distinction: it is one thing to believe in God, and it is another thing to believe God. In our struggle with sin, one of our deepest problems is that we fundamentally do not believe God. In our basic, fleshly nature, we do not trust Him. We may say we believe God, but we don’t believe Him. If we really believed God, why would we ever sin?

What is it about sin that entices us to risk the displeasure of Ged - to act against Him by choosing it? You might say, ‘We simply desire sin. We have such a desire for sin that

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we get caught up in it, and so we choose sin”. But why do we desire it? Why does sin have such an appeal to us? … We reason (wrongly), “If I do it the way God says, I am going to somehow be cheated or deprived of personal happiness”

There is a gap between our knowledge level of theology and our functional theology.

Probably none of your counselees would actually say “God is not good” but that is what they are doing when they complain about their children, the weather, their computer, etc.

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None of them would say “God is not wise” but that is what we do when we grumble at our circumstances and get angry with our spouse or child over the situation that we are in.

Counseling specifics with attributesAs we go through these, think about your current situations in life or your counselees situations. Which of these truths do you or your counselee need to remember and trust?

Sovereignty: Having complete, supreme power and authority. It is the application of God’s perfect and complete power and perfect and complete knowledge. God is in control of everything.

Wisdom: The ability to discern the best possible outcome using the best possible means. This means God never makes a mistake. He knows what is best.

Holiness: His holiness is the definition of that which is pure and righteous in all the universe. It refers to His majesty and His perfect moral purity. There is absolutely no sin or evil thought in God at all.

Goodness: The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men.” God’s actions define what goodness is, and we can easily see it in the way Jesus related to the people around Him.

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Faithfulness: Everything that God has promised will come to pass. His faithfulness guarantees this fact. He does not lie. What He has said in the Bible about Himself is true. Jesus even said that He is the Truth. This is extremely important for the followers of Jesus because it is on His faithfulness that our hope of eternal life rests. He will honor His promise that our sins will be forgiven and that we will live forever with Him.

LOVE: This means that God holds the well-being of others as His primary concern. To see love in action, study the life of Jesus. His sacrifice on the cross for the sins of others is the ultimate act of love. God’s love is not a love of emotion but of action. His love gives freely to the object of its affection, those who choose to follow His son Jesus.

Justice: God is the very definition of what is just. Being just brings moral equity to everyone. When there are evil acts, justice demands there be a penalty. Since God is perfect and has never done evil, no penalty would ever be necessary; however, because of His love, God paid the penalty for our evil deeds by going to the cross Himself. His justice needed to be satisfied, but He took care of it for all who will believe in Jesus.

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Meditation on Attributes

The use of meditation is key to the sanctification process. God has ordained that the renewing of the mind is the way the Holy Spirit will work in our hearts.

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Ephesians 4:23 - the verse in the “put off and put on” sequence tells us that we need to “be renewed in the spirit of your minds”

For each scripture about an attribute of God, your counselee can evaluate 3 areas of the verse.

1. Affection2. Consideration3. Resolution

Thomas White: “Divine meditation is a serious, solemn thinking and considering of the things of God, to the end we might understand how much they concern us, and that our hearts thereby may be raised to some holy affections and resolutions.”

Thomas Hooker: “It’s one thing in our diet to take a snatch and away, and another thing to make a meal, and sit at it on purpose until we have seen all set before us and we have taken our fill of all. So we must not cast a glimpse at the truth… but we must make a meal of musing.”

Thomas Watson: “Meditation without reading [the bible] is erroneous; reading without meditation is barren. The bee sucks the flower and then works it into the hive, and so turns it into honey. By reading we suck the flower of the Word, by meditation we work it into the hive of our mind, and so it turns to profit…. The reason we come away so cold from the reading of the Word is because we do not warm ourselves at the fire of meditation….without meditation the truth of God will not stay with us; the heart is hard, and the memory slippery, and without meditation, all is lost.”

Affection: Goal is to love God, be excited about him, delight in him!

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What do I learn about God in this scripture?What is God revealing about his nature?How do I appreciate this attribute of God? Why is this a fantastic truth about God?Why am I thankful this is true about God?

Consideration: Self assessment

What in my life shows that I am not believing and trusting this attribute of God?How have my responses show I am doubting God in this area?What have I been thinking that shows my doubt?What needs to change in the way I am thinking about my circumstances?

Resolution: Specific changes that need to be made

Write out 3 truths about God in my circumstances relating to this attribute.What new thoughts do I need to think when I am tempted to be anxious or angry or _____________.What changes in your words and actions will take place as you trust God?Pray for this change to take place in your life.

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