Therapy and The God Design – Part 1 of 3

By Ivory Bustin, MA, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor

The human condition: brokenness, pain, suffering, mood swings, trauma, negative thought cycles and corrupt belief systems. These are just some of the vast array of issues that negatively impact our human experience. The mechanisms that experience negativity aren’t just physical – they are emotional, mental, and spiritual.

The human being has been intricately designed by Yahweh with processes and functions that we have yet to fully understand as a species. Our aliveness isn’t just happening to us externally, but lived out internally through our thoughts, feelings, and our spiritual life. How we perceive the world is how we will experience it, and our perception is seated within the internal functions of the soul.

The soul houses our thoughts, emotions, will, and intention. These aspects interplay with one another to form the perception of what we identify as reality. Our life experiences, culture, familial upbringing, societal expectations, and spiritual formation will input information that shapes how we perceive ourselves, the world around us, and the Lord.

What happens when the lenses of our perception become foggy through our pain and suffering? Life gets tainted by the color of our experiences – we distrust others when we’ve been betrayed, we guard ourselves when others reject us, and we avoid relationships when we’re misunderstood, etc. Our internal world becomes cluttered with misperception, negative beliefs, unhealthy relational patterns of engagement – a disordered turbulent environment that shapes our expectations of what the world and others will give us.

This cluttered soul is the same mechanism by which we attempt to understand, engage with, and perceive spiritual realities. It is in this same place where we attempt to discern who God is, what He sounds like, and how He may be directing our steps (Psalm 37:23). The problem is that many times, the messaging gets jumbled through a disordered soul system.

As our soul contains our thoughts and emotions, which ultimately manifests our behaviors, we must pay heed to the composition of our thought life feeding our emotions. We have been empowered by Yahweh to take thoughts captive (2 Corinthians 10:5) so that we may be transformed in our minds (Romans 12:2). Many Christians believe the formula to do this is only done by going to church, reading Scripture, and praying. However, “taking thoughts captive” is a verb that applies self governance of willful choice initiating a process of bringing thoughts into captivity. To “be transformed” is a command to change, as in you do it, again implying a self-initiated intentional process. These are not the rote application of ritualistic prayer and Scripture, but engagement with the internal mechanisms of thoughts and emotions. We cannot engage what we do not know, and discerning our internal world requires education and experience through Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, and Knowledge (Isaiah 11:2).

Here is where psychology can be a valuable resource. We are not afraid of physiology (study of living organisms’ functions), biology (study of vital processes of organisms), and theology (study of religious beliefs) . So why, as Christians, do we get afraid of psychology (study of the mind, emotions, behavior)? Are not our bodies, minds, and emotions equally created by our Creator? Of course they are, and they are precious in His sight, so they ought to be precious in ours.

Find out more in my next article: Therapy and The God Design – Part 2 of 3