“The more we become like him in these attributes, the less we will struggle with emotional problems.”

A thought by Henry Cloud, from his book, Changes That Heal (p. 17). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Hurting people need answers.  They want to know where to turn.

Henry says, “The Bible says that we were created ‘in the image of God’ (Gen. 1:27). We were created ‘like’ God. Theologians have filled libraries with books about the attributes, or characteristics, of God. They distinguish between God’s incommunicable attributes—he is immutable (changeless), omnipotent (all-powerful), infinite (without limitations), omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (everywhere)—and his communicable attributes—he is just, righteous, holy, loving, and faithful. Obviously, we can’t reflect God’s incommunicable attributes: we can never be all-powerful or all-knowing. But we can become more loving and more holy. The more we become like him in these attributes, the less we will struggle with emotional problems.”

He goes on, “The apostle Paul writes that God ‘predestined [us] to be conformed to the image of his Son’ (Rom. 8:29). What he means is that our goal is to become more like him. Our destiny is to pursue this family resemblance to God. The problem we face is figuring out how to become more Christlike. How do we work on becoming ‘holy’ when we feel so powerless to control our eating habits? How can we be ‘loving’ when we’re burned out by all the requests for our time and energy?

“Since becoming like God doesn’t seem practical, we try to solve our day-to-day problems by splitting them into two different categories. We ask, ‘Is this an emotional problem or a spiritual problem?’ If we are struggling with an emotional problem, the Christian psychologist is called in; if it’s a spiritual problem, the pastor gets the call. We assume that our depression, panic, guilt, or addictions have little or nothing to do with our spirituality; they are two separate issues.

“But separating our problems into ‘emotional’ problems and ‘spiritual’ problems is part of the problem. All of our problems stem from our failure to reflect the image of God. Because of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, we have not developed the ‘image’ of God in the vital areas of our person, and we are not functioning as we were created to function. Thus, we are in pain.”

He then says, “In the course of my own spiritual and professional journey, I have identified four aspects of the personality of God that, if we would cultivate them, would greatly improve our day-to-day functioning. God is able to do four things that we, his children, have difficulty doing: 1.​Bond with others. 2.​Separate from others. 3.​Sort out issues of good and bad. 4.​Take charge as an adult.”

And improving our day-to-day function is what we want and need, isn’t it? 

Yes, yes!