Why Christians Should Be Cautious About “Self-Help” Resources
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- čas přidán 22. 10. 2019
- Kyle Strobel and Jamin Goggin address the problem of the self-help outlook influencing Christians and the alternative we discover in Jesus’s formula for self-discovery and flourishing.
I read so many self-help books before I discovered Christ and now, the Bible is the only self-help book I need.
I think self help books elongate and dive deeper into what the book of Proverbs talk about, wisdom. Almost everything I’ve read in self help books are just examples and explanations of what’s already been written in the book of Proverbs. As Christians, we should link everything we read to God and find the correlation.
Amen
I think the problem already lies in the name: self help is about self; glorious is to serve not only yourself but just as much your neighbor.
That’s the purest thing you can do. And I believe you can only do it with the Holy Spirit inside you. 🕊 and I personally have to keep praying to keep being guided by the Holy Spirit
Many false teachers are just self help teachers. I honestly love self help stuff, in the last few years, I have began to notice the difference between the invaluable truth of God's word vs. self help stuff that will only improve me life for a fleeting moment. Self help has it's place in a Christians life, but the authority and life that are given through God's word is absolutely perfect and enough.
Just came across this video while I was searching for the topic of self help and Christianity. People around my age looking for ways to better their lives while straying away from the foundational things as a Christian. It shows us that we need to be very careful with the things we accept online and from all these gurus. This video is a very valuable resource.
Praise the Lord! Human techniques can modify only our behavior but it cannot change our hearts. There is POWER in the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. "In Christ ALONE" He alone can transform us.Thank You!!! :)
I wrote and article about this very thing nearly 20 years ago titled, 12 Steps to Failure. It basically presents the glaring difference between behavior modification and true transformation. I am redeemed and set free from homosexuality and at that time "ex-gay" ministries, christian counseling and self-help movements were in their prime. Fortunately for me, the Lord led me away from them and into His loving arms of grace and freedom through the transforming power of His grace and holy word. I have watched over the years as these groups continue to fold and fail people who often turn out worse than when they began the programs. Why? Because their common theme is "SELF". Self-will, self control, self denial, etc. In ourselves we are powerless to overcome or change our broken identities, addictions, sin, etc. We only put to death the deeds of the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit. All else is doomed. God bless.
Suzanne Leigh
Loved reading your words.
I love the embarrassing sufficiency there is in God.
@@philipbenjamin4720 thank you. So well said. To Him be all the glory. God bless you.
Hi Im really interested in what you have said ..is it oossible to find your article?
@@sharonwhittle2437 I will see if I can dig it up. Been a long while!
@@StandUp777 thankyou!
Relevant and important topic. Thanks for addressing this. Very helpful.
New Age religion is the ultimate end of all the self help books.
Totally get where you guys are coming from on this one - that is, a desire to keep the focus on Christ and the transformative power of the gospel. That said, we need to be a bit careful, because there is plenty of sound biblical teaching about personal striving and its place within the confines of discipleship (1 Tim 6:11 for example). Even that word is a clue - we're disciples. The way you've expressed it here, but for a tiny mention at the end, runs the risk of sending people down a path of cheap grace - that there is nothing we can do, should do, or need to do in response to Christ's call on our lives. This is the challenge when we perceive that there is a wrong thing happening (in this case - self-help mentality) - we can sometimes swing too far in the other direction in our reaction to it.
That’s facts. I remember pastor TD Jakes said “God makes the trees, it’s up to us to build the tables and chairs”. God isn’t going to do everything for you, he gives you life, health and strength it’s up to you to take action. We have a role to play. At the same time understand that it’s all by God’s grace.
Exactly. God gave us a human brain to understand all sorts of things from mathematics to engineering- it is up to us as individuals to learn the steps. Some things have to be learned and other things have to be taught. Self discipline is a fruit of the spirit for a reason!
@@iamzay4938Hello, I noticed you mentioned T.D. Jakes so I just wanted to warn you that a lot of his teachings are about positive thinking and the prosperity gospel so be careful since some of his teaching are very truthful while others are straight up lies.
Oh Praise the Lord! He is raising up people to pin point with definitive meaning what Jesus was saying when He said "Follow Me." Somehow the difficulty of abiding has been changed to suit our lifestyles, even tho the text is clear..you will decrease as Jesus is given more increase to work His will in our lives. Our will and desire will be changed to conform to His🥰
So true
Yes LORD 🙌🏾
When I was reading self help books with little to no time in prayer and in the Bible, I thought i was just learning to be better. Now I can see I was creating an idol of myself like a golden bull and I made an idol of self because it was all about how I COULD CHANGE, I COULD MAKE MY SITUATION BETTER, I CREATED SUCCESS.
why this is bad?
@@r0th2 self help makes you assume you can turn it around but only God can.
Many Scriptures can be used by people (any and all of us) in a way which is fear based without realising it. If someone was called selfish for asking for anything at all, as a child, they will need to have help discerning what selfishness is Biblically so as to hear Scripture in a healthy way. I spent years "serving" and giving under compulsion (not a good foundation). Only in the "Self Help" realm did I finally find the rigorous support I needed to come to acceptance of the deeply rooted patterns of thinking which I did not want to face! - rushing around in "Christian Service". There is a "Self care" which leads nowhere good, but it is simply not good self care. The ultimate self care is surrendering your "self" or "life" into The Hands of The Maker.
Yes but what about the person who has been abused and told that surrendering themselves to others is love? What about boundaries and Christ centerd self? I think thers distortion in what "sacrificial love" is that giving in doing things for people to make them happy and feel loved and giving up your "self" because it's the Jesus thing the Christian thing to do is taken advantage of and warped and abused. How do we reconcile Jesus with healthy "self"?
God's power made perfect in our weaknes! Sheeesh!
I think people need to realize the video is NOT knocking off self improvement and self help as ‘completely a bad thing/avoid’ but more so that if this part of ‘our self’ becomes the ‘center’ of our Christian living, we are then endangering our walk to not ‘lean/center’ ourselves on Jesus..being careful of idolatry. Where Jesus just becomes ‘preeminent’ (someone we know is important) where He doesn’t remain ‘prominent’ (the Lord of our lives). I believe we make Him a deserving Lord of our lives as we meditate and remember His work and His love for us (He isn’t a dictator, but a really a Loving being who wants us but He tells us to abide Him is the only way to life…we to walk the straight narrow way that few find).
We have the tendency to worship ourselves. We just have to discern and be VERY careful with ego, pride, self righteousness, etc, and that if we are wanting to ‘improve ourselves to get closer to Jesus’ (in our service, ministry, jobs, all areas of our lives) now that, is a good Christ like centered ‘faith improvement’. I think the moment we stop valuing ‘the world’ do we truly get to recalibrate how we do things in the world and understand the means to value Christ and the heavenly work.
In the modern culture where often prestige, accomplishments, goals, not necessarily bad but if the motivation for these are for ourselves, we HAVE to becareful when we achieved and attain by His grace (our Sustainer) and observe our hearts and see how it affects our worship/heart for Him. Often times our motives are left unchecked and we want to settle for cheap grace when it leads to sin. Or we get mad easily rather than become wise when we are given reproof, and study what we are told. Test if it gets us closer to Christ. I think we have to first be honest with ourselves ‘who are we treasuring in our hearts’…do we ‘really’ live for Christ every day? Do we ‘really’ do what we do for God? Once we really want to do and get right with God, we will be free from worldly treasures and desires.
The ‘self help’ and improvement mentioned in the Bible, if you’re referencing OT proverb it is a fact advice and result of logical actions and its consequences (like common sense things) and also wisdom in spiritual things (where as we can see it calibrates well in Ecclesiastes that we can chase knowledge, money, fame, etc, but ultimately living for God is the answer. As for NT ‘self help-ish’ verses like Paul’s letters, understanding the context that it’s to ‘keep us right in Christ in our walk with Him’ NOT so much a guru-ish ‘self help’ generalized advice: it has a ‘Christ Centered’ purpose.
Thank you for that comment. I took a screenshot of it because you explained things well!
Have a good day!
I think John Owen books, mortification of sin are some kind of christian self help book
1 Corinthians 15:10 but by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them-yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me
I truly need help with that, I don’t know what to do. I cantered everything around myself. What do I do now? My health, my finances, my career and especially the internal processes I have in order to not go into complete chaos mentally are cantered around myself. I don’t think I am capable of letting go of them. It’s too painful. What do I do? I need someone to answer me
Centred **
If you TRULY want Christ, you need to let go of them. That's what I did. All the habit trackers, documents, papers, files, even a CZcams channel with 2k subscribers (I was too focused on it and it did not glorify God)... I deleted all of it, and it hurt, but when I prayed I felt such a relief, I felt so close to the Lord... Remember, you're gonna die one day and lose these things so you might as well just do what the Lord wants you to do now. You know what I did after I deleted these things? I saw how wonderful the Bible really is. We who obsessed about self improvement really like to categorize stuff, like "Health","Business","Mindfulness", etc. You know what? The Bible has all of that. The Bible does talk about those things and tons of more things that are more important to God. We're Christians, we ought to be thinking of what God wants us to do, how we can become better and increase righteousness in the sight of God, and we do that by faith in Christ, who sanctifies us by the Holy Spirit.
I really pray that you delete all of those things and focus and obsess about God and the Bible instead... He will set you free
Why do Christians like making enemies? Can't we all exist?
Some make anything other than bible evil.
What do you mean by that? All Christians are called to love others (That absolutely includes nonbelievers) and since we believe people who don’t know the truth of the gospel are going to hell so we warn them about it, - even if it makes other mad, uncomfortable, etc.
Aristotle's Habitual nature is very important towards sanctification. What requires discernment is whether we're improve for the sake of our own desires, or God's desires. A Habit of Mental Prayer, and consistent times to pray and organised forms of prayer are important for sanctification.
Self Help, for the most part, is very much against the sanctification of our soul. But some principles, and some books, are very good to help us be efficient in the ways of the world to glorify God.
Isn’t Proverbs and Paul’s letters “self-help” advice?
How both of apply this in your life any way? Is this video not a self help video? Is it not important to help our self to abide of the word of God?
My goodness. So good.
Hi who is Mark De jesus I can't really grasp were he is coming from
Mark’s teaching has radically changed my life and struggle with mental illness for the better.
John Stonestreet, G. Shane Morris: If Christianity is merely a kind of hobby or weekly pep talk designed to enhance psychological wellbeing or career success, then we can find better stuff on CZcams or Spotify. Why make time for this type of church every week?
It is arrogant to wag your finger at Christians who are actually trying to change themselves when you yourself offer no alternative other than vague spiritualizing of "you can do nothing apart from Christ". It is such an easy stance to take. Yes! We turn to "self-help" books because you, sirs, are not doing your job. Spiritualizing on "you can do nothing apart from Christ" is totally unhelfpul. Stop leading people into endless, passive torture spirituality when action can be taken towards (godly) change
I half agree. There are some things we pray about and Christ does it alone (miracles). Others we pray about and we have to do the leg work ourselves with Christ’s support. Think about it. We wouldn’t need the family of Christ (and the various skills of individuals), if we only needed Christ alone. Every organ and limb in the body of Christ has a part to play…. But we DO need discernment!
I'm sorry guys, but neither of you seem to understand what people find when they do the work of self-help advice. Yes, I know Martin Luther et al thought that Aristotle's Ethics (the greatest self-help book of all time outside of scripture) was the devil's tool against grace. I am pro-"doing the work that God gives us to do" and repented of "let go and let God." The way you talk, one would think that if you believe without repenting or doing the work God assigns you, that you would just "heal up." The most charitable interpretation I can give you is that you do not understand what the words "flourish" or "self-help" mean to a man of faith.
Thank you, sir! I as well have repented of "let go and let God. This is why this video irks me so much.
Exactly. Grace will lead an alcoholic to the understanding they need to change. A substance misuse organisation will teach them how to change. TGC need to be careful what they publish especially if it is more damaging than helpful.
Very true, the Bible is not soft help! It’s Salvation. I see not a lot of so called narcissistic self help, psychology based, and now so called ( Christ-Center recovery). You can’t mix psychology theology! But psychology has entered the church! Mans wisdom is foolish to God, and also with me! And we are called foolish to them. 1 Corinthians 3:19. I’ve been trying so find bible believing Christians of like mind and faith…..keep doing god’s will, again thanks
So you’re never going to a doctor ever again? The Bible says ‘as a man thinks, so is he’. CBT says our thoughts affect our behaviour’. It’s dangerous to assume the world NEVER has anything to offer. There are many Christians at work in the secular world. God created everything. Science reveals how he did it.
So you don’t think?
I don't want to even focus on me but on God.
I'm to serve God not me
Utterly absurd. If we take a charitable interpretation of self-help, it merely means that people want to help themselves overcome issues. How could God possibly be opposed to people improving themselves. And, to anyone saying, "You can't do anything, on your own, you need God to change you," I simply ask: Did God teach you how to read, do math, speak, think, or any other skill you have? God does not violate free will and will not miraculously give you skills, you must work worth Him to achieve those through labor. And I believe Philippians 3:13-15 is indicative of what I'm talking about.
Now, it may be the men in this video are referring to versions of self-help or self-improvement that derive from New Age roots. I would concur with them that this is bad, but any self-improvement deriving from virtue ethics and sound doctines is entirely compatible with Christianity.
Everybody can read, speak, do maths but they are not christians! It is not because you succeed in something that this is GOD. GOD is not against but that is not the message of christ.
@@vanessamukadi542 Well, exactly; God isn't against these things, and that's my point. It seems to me that the video is saying God is opposed to self-improvement, but I argue that if that was the case, then things like learning math would then be sinful.
I'd rather attend a personal development event than going to church.. religion is man made business...
Lol