Morning Moments

"His name shall be called...Counselor" Isa 9:6.

Several years ago I was going through one of those difficult times we all go through at one time or another. It seemed for some reason that my emotions were raw. Everything seemed to bring me to tears whether good or bad. These times do not necessarily have anything to do with personal sin, but may be the result of a burden, a battle, or a blessing.

The fact is that some of the most creative times in my life have been times of depression (vexation of spirit). Jesus faced those times too, so we are in good company. The key to such times is to allow God to use those feelings for His glory.

Don't you just get disgusted with "supersaints" who want to lead you to believe that the walk of faith is always a happy time? Those who carelessly and calously, flipantly and faithlessly say, "Mona Lisa lost her smile," or "What's WRONG with you? It may not be what's wrong but what's right with you.

In any event, I stood in the pulpit on Sunday morning and for no apparently reason began to weep uncontrolably. I could not stop sobbing. No one knew what to do. Then my dear wife walked up to the pulpit and placed her hand on my shoulder. Immediately I stopped weeping. She never said a word, but her touch is all it took to calm me and console me. Without one word, she at that moment was use by our loving Father as my counselor. Sometimes I wish I could re-capture that moment, but it is gone.

Sometimes it is as though He places a warm blanket around me as on a cold rainey day. Other times it is a though He brings a cool breeze on a hot day. It may be through an unsuspecting person who does not realize that through their lips He is speaking to my heart. There are lots of Bibllical examples for all this, but the point is that HE is my counselor, even though there are times He uses others to comfort me with the comfort with which they themselves have been comforted.

To conclude my story, I was sitting in my study one day just praying and weeping when the phone rang and a counselor friend was on the line. "Oh," he said, "I can tell you are going through depression. Why don't you come in for counsel? "Thank you, my friend, but I am getting counsel right now from the WONDERFUL COUNSELOR Isaiah wrote about."

Don't be mistaken, I am not being critical of those who have given their lives to help us through difficult times in the name of Jesus, but I am saying that if you and I expect to find solutions rather than solace, closure rather than human counselor, we must ultimately face the WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, Jesus. God uses mortals to help and encourage us, but ONLY Jesus can solve our problems and satisfy our deepest needs.

A deacon's wife came to me for "pastoral counsel". I referred her to a female Christian counselor for a couple of obvious reasons. She came to me one Sunday morning and said, "You help me more in one session than the counelor does it three." I replied, "I will take longer if you will pay me what you are paying her." The bottom line is that if the counselor doesn't sit at the feet of The Counselor, I don't want the counsel.

JESUS is the Wonderful Counselor, so if you need a mortal, seek one who seeks from HIM in order to help you.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Help us to come to YOU first and not last. It is so clear that there are times that we feel we need someone with skin, but lead us to the someone with skin who is merely a vessel through which the SOMEONE without skin can comfort. Thank You.