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So we have been recording this morning, and Jeremy was here for about three podcasts. Yeah. And so that was a lot of fun. But we have a few more that we wanted to discuss and talk about. And so it's just Michael and I.

And so we are going to be going through counseling God's attributes. And I'm excited today to talk about God's steadfast love, the steadfast love of the Lord that endures forever from Lamentations three. Any thoughts before we jump into my entry?

Yeah. Why'd you choose Steadfast Love?

Honestly, this was one of my favorite books that I was able to be the general editor on. And I want to talk about all of God's attributes at the end of the day. And so this is something that's just very exciting to me that I always want to share with my counsel leads. And I actually wrote three entries for this book. And I think we're going to do a podcast on all of them.

We've already talked about God's omni, what did we talk? Oh yeah, His omnipresence. Like the fact that God is always present is the podcast we've already recorded on. And here, I just wanted to focus on Lamentations three is the passage that we actually used at the pre conference that me, Jonathan, Duane and Brad Hambrick walked through and just talked about four attributes of the Lord that we see in that passage. But then I actually shared about God's faithfulness, which is such a, oh gosh, it was one of my favorite things again that I wrote.

And so if you have access to the pre conference videos, you can get that through membership resources, or you can buy that online. That might be something that you want to listen to, which is really good. But here for this entry, I focused on God's steadfast love. And the fact that it endures forever was really important for me just to really encourage the counselle of really the word love is just a four letter word. If you know, it's not centered on Christ.

Christ's love for us, his unconditional love, his sacrificial love, and if it's not rooted in Christ. And so I think it's really important to look at how did God express his steadfast love to us. And limitations three and the story of Jeremiah is such a great narrative to look at.

The first part of in session counseling, setting this up, how would you introduce this idea within obviously a lament level of suffering? How would you introduce a steadfast love of the Lord?

I would first start off by asking the counseling to open up the word of God. Hey, let's open up the Word of God together and we'll turn to Lamentations three. And if they can't find that in the Bible, obviously I'll help them and let and really ask them to read it. Michael, would you read Lamentations three verses 21 through 25 here in the English Standard Version.

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.

The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I will hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that the one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

So when you read that passage, what are some truths about God that jumps out at you immediately?

Obviously, hope, his love, the fact that he's good. Waiting on him in those things is the encouragement, obviously, to to the reader, to the person who's lamenting and struggling.

Yeah. And then the greatest thy faithfulness that all these things are true, because and as a result of God's faithfulness. And so I'll acknowledge that, like, yes, I love that. I love that you see that God has steadfast love never ceases. That His mercies never come to an end.

That His faithfulness is great. That He is our portion, that our hope is found in Him, that He is good. So many good things about the Lord. And then I'll say something like, Hey, but in our time together now, let's hone in on just the steadfast love of the Lord. You know, what we see here is that God's love never runs out or fails.

Jeremiah here is calling this to mind. This is how he starts out with this. Call to mind, therefore I hope. So in our situations and in our day to day where we are to call to mind these truths about God. And so he didn't say this at a time when all things were working out and perfect in his life.

Like Jeremiah is technically speaking these words at a time when he and the people of Judah, they feel forsaken by God. Jerusalem is in ruins. He is suffering from physical affliction. He compares his situation to that of a hopeless prisoner. They're in famine.

He is seeing people die, mothers losing their babies. When you read Jeremiah, this is not a good situation. And so here he is in that moment, in that affliction, and he recalls the experiences of his past by remembering the steadfast, unceasing love of the Lord and the revelation of God's faithfulness. So therefore he places his hope and the goodness and salvation of God. That it's such a great reminder for us and the council lead because we're not looking at, hey, this is what's going on in my world.

And this is when I have hope. No, he's calling to mind who God is. And through that truth, he now has hope. So then you say, Hey, if your heart is struggling with fear, discouragement, loneliness, pain, grief, doubt, or restlessness. We can remind our counselee of the consistency of God's love.

How constant it is that it's immovable. It's never changing. It's undying. It's steadfast. That's where their comfort and that's where their stability comes from.

Or maybe they're feeling convicted and that they've fallen short of the mark of giving in to sin. Had, we have those moments. We've, when we feel convicted, we actually should welcome conviction. Lord convict me, show me every grievous way in me. That's Psalms 13nine 20 three -twenty seven.

And so in that scripture, as God gives us conviction, what do we do? We remind our council lead that the steadfast of the Lord never ceases, that he is faithful to discipline and correct us. That's not something we shy away from that we run away from. In that conviction, it brings us to repentance and confession. We've repent and confessed because in first John one nine, it says he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

And so as we're examining the struggle, what's the counseling bringing to the table and the counseling session, when we go to read this passage and we're encouraging them in the steadfast love of the Lord, these are the truths that are reminding them of. If in thinking of Jeremiah's situation or in thinking of their situation that they're in, if it stirs conviction, let's lead our council because of God's love. Hey, that's why you feel convicted. That's why he's correcting us. That's why we have discipline.

That's why our church has discipline, right? It's from the steadfast love of the Lord. Let's help them to confess and repent. Help them to find their comfort and stability, not in their situation, but in who God is in his steadfast love. And then another one I put here, does it seem to them that they're alone in the struggle?

Do they feel weak, abandoned, or rejected? The steadfast love of the Lord is always with us through our sufferings, our trials, our temptations, our weaknesses, our burdens, our problems. As our great high priest, He is there to help us through them. There, they will receive His mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. You know, what we're seeing in scripture here is the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

His mercies never come to an end. I mean, how often do you tell me Michael, like when we're in conversations in marriage and I'm like, you always do this and you're like, quit using absolutes because it's true. The one thing that we can always trust in when we're communicating to other people of the uses of absolutes is when we're talking about God. That so when he says never ceases never comes to an end, that doesn't mean, Oh, I've all this past, all this sin, all this stuff that I've done, the Lord is tired of me coming to him. Would the Lord say that?

No, of course not.

No, because his mercies, his love never ceases his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. And then the reason why we can even use those absolutes is because great is thy faithfulness. God's love is steadfast. He is never too tired or busy to listen and to help us.

The God who calls us is faithful to complete the good work that He started in us. And Philippians one:six remind us that He will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. That is such a good truth for us to sit in, to reflect on, to meditate on the truth of God's word, not only in our own life as a biblical counselor, but allowing that to overflow to those that we're counseling. We're not just wanting to help them fix a problem or to find a solution or to get out of this particular situation, or even like for their struggle with depression or anxiety to go away. Our goal is to point them to Christ, share the truth about who God is to help them call to mind.

Therefore we have hope. People always say, Hey, and when you go through any biblical counseling training, the goal is to always offer hope, right? And offering hope. How do we do that? We call to mind the truth about God.

And the one on this particular episode here on this podcast is talking about God's steadfast love. And I think you've interviewed some other people too, that is mentioning some of the other attributes, whether it's communicable or incommunicable attributes about God. And the one that we talked about before is the fact that God is always present when He, when we're saying that He's always present is His steadfast love, right? That endures forever. The mercies that never come to an end.

What are your thoughts?

As you were sharing those things, I was thinking about just a couple of cases that I have had here recently, where because of the things that were going on in their lives, this was very difficult for them to embrace. But just, and again, because when we're suffering things that we're struggling with, it immediately takes away our joy, then it makes us go inward and we begin to feel like God is actually not these things. And so being able to sit in session and go over this text with a counsellee, and then you said towards the end, obviously, in concluding the session and encouraging the counsellee in that, the after session assignment.

Before we jump to that, what you're saying about the situational example that you gave, it's hard to believe these truths about God based on our situation. What we're doing is we're bringing our horizontal or we're bringing our vertical to the horizontal to say, oh, I'm going to understand who God is based off of what's happening here versus no, we're bringing our horizontal to the truth of who God is. And I think for me, when you're sitting before a counsellee, and man, the things that they're going through are things that maybe we've never personally went through. It's beyond something you can even imagine, like the loss of a loved one, right? You might not be able to fully be able to sympathize exactly.

Oh, I understand this because I walked in this too. And so it feels heavy. They're even saying, have no clue how in the world am I going to be able to walk through this. One of the things that I think is always very helpful for me is when we can go to a narrative in the Bible, this is a real person, not a made up story. This is a real person who walked this journey, who lived this out, who got called in this particular way.

And to see the reality of what's happening with Jeremiah and the fact that he gave warning to these people. He literally warned them. And yet now he's in the misery with them watching the destruction play out. Okay. He's literally Michael looking at things beyond anything we could ever imagine.

Like, I just don't think that there's anything we could go through, like, in the normal things that we're counseling. Right? That we could really imagine the reality that's before Jeremiah. And then how did Jeremiah find hope? He called to mind the truth about God.

So that's what we literally before the person. It's not about how we feel the reality of how our situation is making us feel. It's the reality of this is the truth about God regardless of how I feel. But through calling to mind the truth about God, we therefore have hope that then overflows to be able to walk in light of our, or despite the struggles, the miseries, the affliction, the hardships, the temptations, all the things that we're going through. And as a biblical counselor, that's the hope that we get to offer the person that's sitting before us that we are called to care for.

So then yes, I'm jumping to an after session assignment. We talk about all this in the counseling room. I'm praying that as I'm sharing, I'm not teaching to them, like you just said, teaching them the podcast. I'm sharing these things with them. So I'm always going to ask them questions and bring it back to the struggle that we just examined together.

Like how am I actually asking them questions? Okay, now that I've just shared that with you, when you think of his mercy has never come to an end, how does that impact you in this particular way? And then just letting them share, because so it's definitely a dialogue of the conversational. And so there after session assignment, I think my goal would be, I'd want them to continue to reflect on this particular verse and actually ask them, how are you constantly daily or moments throughout the day, continuing to reflect and meditate, call to mind, right? These truths about who God is, and then writing those out.

And so maybe the next session we stake on this verse and then we talk about God's faithfulness. Maybe we go back to the verse the next session we talk about God's goodness. And the next verse we just dive a little bit deeper on what God's grace and mercy looks like and how we have that through Jesus Christ. And so here we are just keeping them on one passage, but using that one passage in several different sessions that over the time that we're spending with them, we're talking about their struggle and what they're going through, right? And we're expanding on that and going deeper.

But all the while, we're just washing them with the truth of who God is and helping them to practice it when they leave the counseling room, to always call in mind. How are they specifically applying it in that moment, the decision that they're making throughout the day and the weeks that they're not with us, how are they applying these truths about God? Okay. So that's one kind of thought for after session assignment. The other one that I put here is, I don't know if y'all read Psalms one thirty six lately but literally, the Psalmist, he has a sentence and then after every sentence, every verse always ends for his steadfast love endures forever.

So, it's like, give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of Gods for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of Lords for his steadfast love endures forever. And he goes on to talk about really just recalling the truth about Moses and the things of an old Testament narrative. And he ends all of it with for a steadfast love endures forever.

So which means it never ceases. And it does this in this one chapter 26 times he states this over and over. Okay. Think about that. If we're talking to somebody in a conversation, it's like they make that statement.

And then we say for a steadfast love and does forever. Okay. I've already in my mind, just since the fact that we're going to be at the house or something like randomly like cooking and goofing off or something deep comes and you're just like for a spit a steadfast love and dose forever. Think about if we just continually just reminded and pointed our eyes to that, it reminds us that God will fulfill his promise for our lives. He will safeguard us in this world and he's going to keep us into eternity.

So how about we write out several statements about our life and follow each of those with the thought, the steadfast love endures forever. And then ask them to bring that to the next session. Because how rich will that conversation be when they come to the next session for you to be like, okay, hey, how did we normally have the question? How did this week go? How did your time of the Lord go?

What what were you reading? What is how was your affections stirred towards him? Now we're getting to actually see how did they practically apply these situations in their life and then end it with and a steadfast love endures forever. You know what I mean? Anyways, I've done a lot of talking.

What are your thoughts?

As you were sharing that and obviously the way that Jeremiah is writing this, I look at that and tend to read that with the idea that Jeremiah, yes, it's a declaration to the people because it's written, but I believe these are things that he told himself to remind himself of the very things he was declaring before the people. Because we know according to his story as a prophet and everything that he went through, that he struggled very much. As matter of fact, that very same chapter, you see some of the most depressing, sad, disappointing things in his life. And it actually reminded me of Psalm forty two five that I believe is a summary of what Jeremiah is doing in Lamentations three, that I believe all of God's people, which the reason why the Psalms is so important is because this is building a commentary of God's word in our hearts. And that's why this is very important.

Psalm forty two five, for example, why are you cast down on my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. It's very hard to praise God in the midst of suffering. And your whole your whole lesson and contribution and helping the counselor with the counselee, those struggling with things to see God's love and faithfulness in that.

And then obviously, David here in this Psalm is having that internal conversation with himself, with his soul. Like, obviously, we don't know what David was thinking of. We don't know what was going on within his soul that was causing him to preach to himself the truth. And a lot of times that's why in counseling, getting out the word and entering into the word with a counselee before the Lord in the presence of the Lord. We talked about that in a previous podcast, just his presence.

And so this text coupled with Lamentations three twenty two is a good text or a couple of texts to work in to really give our counselors the encouragement of developing God's word in our hearts to communicate to ourselves when we're feeling down and whatever's going on in a person's soul that's causing them to not think of God's faithfulness or goodness or even believe those things.

Yeah. And this is a passage that I think I tried to within the book say, hey, how could I use a single verse to explain the attributes of God? And so this is just one verse, but technically it's six verses here that you could build upon and utilize. But this particular entry here in the book is just based off of verse 22. But read that whole part, the read all of Jeremiah, read limitations.

Limitations, obviously being lament and crying out to the Lord. That would be also something learning lament and making sure that's involved and being taught within your counseling sessions. Because it's such fundamental thing for us as saints and believers to learn how to lament well. I think there's a lot here that we can glean from Jeremiah. And so don't miss out on using Old Testament narratives in your biblical counseling.

And so we have one of those books to help you with that. But then obviously, very specifically, just my encouragement is always like counsel through God's attributes. The truths about God are so profound. I know just personally in my own life, but obviously just watching those truths as I encourage other people. But anyways, happy to talk about it.

Yeah. That's good. Sean, again, thank you for this contribution and I hope it is an encouragement to y'all. Again, I would encourage you to go to the ABC store and buy this counseling through God's attributes book. I definitely think it'll be an encouragement to you and your ministry as you counsel and care for God's people.

And so thank you guys for listening, and we will see you next time.

Bye.