In my notes about biblical counseling in my last class, the instructor talks about the question of how a Christian can counsel unbelievers. He said that you really can’t counsel unbelievers, because they have a different world view, and they worship the world, and what mankind tells them.
I do know that talking about our problems with a kind, good listener can help the soul, and it really can help us get through a day where we’ve become stressed by life. However, the root cause of a anyone’s issues is truly found in the soul. They are saved, or they are not saved. That makes the difference in counseling by a biblical counselor.
If you go to a spiritual counselor whose soul is not with the “living” souls saved by Christ, you won’t understand a biblical counselor who talks about sin and how it may be a root cause of their troubles. God can only work so much through the life of a sinner, who is unrepentant, and who is not seeking Christ. The instructor said, “The mind set on the flesh is dead”.
Instead of counseling unbelievers, Christian counselors provide more evangelizing. Unbelievers may take it or leave it, but it may have planted a seed they find useful later on down the road. It is offered, Christ as the solution to their problems. God changes the heart to cause the inner, personal transformation.
Our souls must be washed, and we must leave lives of sin once we have become saved. Our viewpoint about what we should do in our problems must become Christ-centered. An unsaved person will have the opportunity to seek Christ’s counsel in the bible, through prayer, and through the wise counseling of other believers. They will want to find answers in worldly ways yet not find our Blessed Hope, with the hope for eternity that gives us such joy.
They might find temporary helps but the nagging knowing that something keeps going wrong in their lives will always dog them, it seems. In my life it did.
Know the bible well enough to counsel others and let God do the rest. He may operate in someone’s life to soften their heart – and then they may come to Christ – but what good does it do if he puts a hand out to ask someone if they will accept his Lordship, and they refuse? They miss the understanding that to get right with the Lord Jesus Christ means to get right in their very souls.
Some say we have been chosen since the beginning of time, that God knew who would be given to Christ as being saved. As we don’t have the capacity to understand the ways of God I find that very hard to understand – but I’m blessed that I am one. I truly believe.
Christianview.blog 
Great post Suzanne and Thank You. Here are some exhortative verses about our being predestined.
Ephesians 1 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)
1 Paul, an apostle (special messenger) of Christ Jesus (the Messiah), by the divine will (the purpose and the choice of God) to the saints (the consecrated, set-apart ones) [a]at Ephesus who are also faithful and loyal and steadfast in Christ Jesus:
2 May grace (God’s unmerited favor) and spiritual peace [which means peace with God and harmony, unity, and undisturbedness] be yours from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 May blessing (praise, laudation, and eulogy) be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual (given by the Holy Spirit) blessing in the heavenly realm!
4 Even as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love.
5 For He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will [[b]because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]—
6 [So that we might be] to the praise and the commendation of His glorious grace (favor and mercy), which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
7 In Him we have redemption (deliverance and salvation) through His blood, the remission (forgiveness) of our offenses (shortcomings and trespasses), in accordance with the riches and the generosity of His gracious favor,
8 Which He lavished upon us in every kind of wisdom and understanding (practical insight and prudence), Ephesians 1:1-8 AMPC
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Hi Rick, Please forgive me for my replying so late, … life gets away with us some times, but I love that you have found these eight verses which tell us that we are preordained! Thank you for that – I am very appreciative. They show the forgiveness of God, his love for us in giving his Son’s life to cover our sins, and to show that we were known before the beginning of time as we know it. Fantastic work in documenting these verses here, and thank you so much!
Many blessings.
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