It seems pointless to talk about it merely as a matter of counseling psychology. You can get psychologists to echo the sentiment, but they seem to have no power to use the moral truth. As a virtual pastor, the issue for me is the moral truth of things, and that all the healing worth pursuing is a matter of moral healing.
That is, it is moral healing first.
For example, it does little good to discuss “health habits” and “bad habits” if that’s the only way we approach them. Whether something is a good or bad habit is a matter of whether it hinders something in your heart-led living. Mere clinical health means almost nothing if you fail to engage the heart-mind measure of things. Without the heart-mind leadership in your soul, the whole concept of moral goodness and evil has no foundation. It’s all a question of God’s personal moral character, and He speaks to the spirit, which manifests in the convictions of the heart, while the brain/intellect is the last part of your awareness to figure things out.
Want to quit smoking, for example? You have to want it as a moral requirement for you individually, not out of some false social guilt. Drinking too much? It’s “bad” only if and when it hinders your heart-led existence, not because someone tells you it’s bad. Changing those habits requires a change in your moral drive.
And don’t even think about telling someone else what is in their best interest on any other grounds. Unless you are their parent, or they have submitted to your moral authority in some other way, God does not authorize you to decide such things. You don’t have the power to make someone morally better, only to offer some limited guidance for a moral strength already there.
People change their habits when something inside changes first. Otherwise, it’s just a matter of false discipline and nothing worthwhile has changed.
Absolutely spot on.