Is self-help the answer? What does the bible say?
The self-help industry is estimated to generate over $50 billion a year worldwide, with about 40% of that in North America. That tells me people know they are a mess. I have no doubt that some of that money brings at least temporary results for some people. I’m all in favor of better people.
The problem is that very little, if any, self-help material addresses our key problem. Our problem is sin, and the effects of that sin.
The Bible is not a self-help book, and the gospel is not a self-help program. The Bible tells of our need for God and His plan of rescue. The gospel is that plan.
The gospel tells us that when we become believers, we are no longer the same person.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17
That person no longer exists. The new creation still has problems, but we are reconciled to God and transferred into the Kingdom.
… giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Who rescued us from the authority of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:12-24
That doesn’t immediately clear up all of our other problems. For that, the Holy Spirit works in us. As we draw closer to God, our behavior and character change. Our ideas about what is and isn’t truly important transform over time.
Other than Jesus, no one has been born without sin. Adam and Eve were sinless for some short period of time, but they fell in a most spectacular way. You and I were born with a sin nature and a propensity to sin. We cannot defeat it on our own, no matter how many good works we do or how many self-help books we read.
The Lord is our helper. The Lord is our healer. He created us in His image, and His desire is for us to be more like Him.
We are works in progress, but we are His workmanship.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
He will not fail to finish what He started in us.
For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
Get help where you need it, but never forget that your true help and healing is supernatural. The God of the Bible is the ultimate helper.
Trust Him.
Hallelu Yah (Praise God)
Be blessed
Kevin
Summary:
The self-help industry may offer temporary improvement, but the Bible teaches that humanity’s deepest problem is sin, and true transformation and healing come only through God through Jesus Christ.
- The gospel is not a self-improvement program but God’s rescue plan that makes believers a new creation reconciled to Him.
- Human effort alone cannot overcome sin; lasting change comes through the work of the Holy Spirit shaping believers over time.
- Christians are God’s workmanship, and He faithfully continues the work He began in them until it is complete.
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