In Gospel Conversations: How to Care Like Christ, I present a model of counseling people who are suffering. It includes biblical sustaining empathy and biblical healing hope.
Sustaining: “It’s Normal to Hurt”—Empathizing and Sharing Christ’s Comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-9) Healing: “It’s Possible to Hope”—Encouraging and Sharing Christ’s Healing Hope (2 Corinthians 1:9) Empathize Before You Encourage: Lingering Listening & Soul Connection
Many of us, when helping a hurting brother or sister in Christ, tend to race to healing hope. For instance, we jump right to quoting Romans 8:28 about God working all things together for good. It’s an amazingly powerful verse, of course.
However, do we stop to consider what comes before Romans 8:28? Before the Spirit focuses on eternal hope, the Spirit groans with us—Romans 8:26-27.
Consider 2 Corinthians 1:9. Paul finds healing hope by clinging to the God who raises the dead. So, we sprint to that Scripture when someone comes to us in pain.
But again, do we ponder what precedes 2 Corinthians 1:9? It’s inspired Scripture about the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-4) and about our calling to comfort one another with God’s comfort (2
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