Wonderful Counselor
| We’re midway through the last month of the year. I hope your season has been filled with festive fun and peace. Personally, our little family has been soaking up all the Christmas things that we said were important to us. We watched Santa movies, we did some Christmas shopping and crafting for each other, and we’ve had some Christmas parties. This week we’re hoping to get to bake some cookies. God has been speaking to my soul the words Wonderful Counselor over the last few weeks. I have been seeing Him as a counselor and it has brought me so much comfort! I’ve had moments of anxiety or feeling like I’m behind. December 1 we got out our Christmas bins and put up our tree. The whole day I felt like we were so behind! I had seen so many families and friends on social media have their homes decorated and crafts started. It gave me feelings of missing out, being behind, and anxiety that I haven’t even started and I’m already falling apart. Throughout the day I reminded myself that I actually can control my thoughts. I can control what I think next. I can take that thought and see the lie in it. I only feel behind because I’m comparing myself to other people. I keep hearing Isaiah 9:6 and I keep going back to Jesus being my wonderful counselor. I spent a little time digging into that particular phrase. The word wonderful can be defined as literally incomprehensible or full of wonder. Today we use the word so casually but that word isn’t used casually in Isaiah 9:6. Wonderful describes the type of counselor that Jesus is. Jesus is beyond comprehension in His ability to counsel us. The word counselor can be defined as a trained and knowledgeable guide. In this context Jesus is our trained and knowledgeable guide. Seems so appropriate doesn’t it? The idea of Jesus being trained reminds me of a passage in Hebrews. Chapter four tells us that Jesus is our High Priest, able to counsel us because He was fully human, feeling human pain and emotions, and also fully God, being perfectly qualified to counsel us. He allows us to approach the throne of God to receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need. |
| To put these two words together, He is incomprehensibly qualified to guide us in life. If you’re anything like me, this idea had me processing and thinking for days, seeing this beautiful truth ring true in my life and in Scripture. I remembered that I had set goals to feel calm and peaceful for the season and ways I was going to be doing that throughout the month. I have been reminded that Jesus can comfort me if I let him. If I go to him with my thoughts and feelings of hurt or pain. He can and wants to guide me and lead me through the pain and the troubles that I have been feeling. He also guides me to the places I need to repent. I have been struggling in a particular area for months. I have been praying and asking God to fix it and give me answers. I have been trying to figure it out and wrap my mind around it. This past week, I was stung by the truth that Jesus was trying to guide me and I wasn’t letting Him. God can and does speak to us, but I wasn’t willing to let myself listen, patiently wait for an answer, and humble accept the answer that I got rather than the one I wanted. I repented of my sin, asked for forgiveness to God and to my husband (poor guy was blamed on multiple occasions for my suffering) and let Jesus counsel me. A literal weight was lifted and my spirit and body felt the peace that I had been craving and striving for. Isaiah Isaiah 57 in MSG translation says: A Message from the high and towering God, who lives in Eternity, whose name is Holy: “I live in the high and holy places, but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed, and what I do is put a new spirit in them, get them up on their feet again.” I hope this encourages you if you’re struggling. That God wants to put a new spirit in you, to get you up on your feet again. The Christmas season isn’t almost over, you aren’t behind. There is time to rest and pay attention to how Jesus is counseling you, guiding you to live in these next few weeks leading up to Christmas. My question for you is will you listen? Will you be patient and wait for His answer? Will you be humble and accept His answer? Finally, will you take a step into what He’s asking you to do? I pray you will! |
This year Isaac and I created affirmation cards for the kids. We’re going to put them in their stockings. We have found ourselves speaking phrases over the kids and teaching them to speak them over themselves to. As we created them though, we realized that we needed to hear them too! I’m including the PDF file if you’re interest. Download, print them out, and let God’s truth speak life over you every day. Download the file here.
I had access to an advanced reader copy of this book and it was so good! It sparked a lot of conversations and processing. I love reading books that make me think and examen why I believe what I believe. Nijay has so many resources and research to make you think through and question how our Western modern culture plays into our understanding of scripture. There were two specific women that I’ve never given thought to and now I can say inspire me in a whole new way. Find the book here.
“Give God the opportunity to show you what it’s like to be nourished by God and God alone.” Priscilla Shirer This quote has been encouraging me this week. God wants to sustain and comfort us. What’s one way way I could quit sustaining myself and give God the opportunity to nourish me?
Abigail Denton 