Trust Triangle
Helping others through the maze of personal problems can be confusing
and difficult. Where do you begin? Good question! Biblical counseling
seeks to understand people and their lives from God's perspective. According
to Mark (7:20), all problems stem from the condition of the heart. Matthew
(6:21) states that what our heart loves, is what we will live for. Combining
these two passages, we can conclude that all behavior stems from a motive
of the heart. As counselors, we must discern the condition of heart and
the tool we use is the Trust Triangle.
Scripture teaches us that every human being is a sinner and that this
condition of sinfulness shapes the way we interpret and respond to every
circumstance of life.
The Bible also presents every human being as a
worshipper. We all worship
or love something or someone. Matthew 6:21 states that what rules the
heart, what the heart loves, will influence our thoughts, behaviors,
and
emotions, i.e., our lives. Paul Tripp summarizes these two points well:
“The connection between these two aspects of the biblical paradigm—sin
and worship—explains the nature of the human struggle and our task
as counselors. Sin has corrupted and diverted worship. Paul says that
as sinners, we exchange the worship and service of the Creator for worship
and service of the created thing (Romans 1:25). The most significant
effect of our sin is not that we do wrong things but that we worship
the wrong thing. Wrongdoing is always the result of wrong worship. Sin
by its very nature is idolatrous. It is rooted in the creation taking
precedence over the Creator… The war that is going on is not
just the war for healthy recovery from our experiences. The war is a
war of worship, a war for control of the heart. What controls the heart
will shape the way I deal with every experience of life, … The
biblical counselor is called to help the sufferer examine the heart
that he or she has brought to the experience of suffering and how that
heart has shaped the way he/she has thought about and dealt with being
sinned against…”
General Outline of Trust Triangle:
- PP—The presenting problem being confronted
- Sinful Reaction/affects—Our sinful reaction(s) to the presenting
problem and the results
- Idols—The source of our sinful reactions
- Fears—What are we afraid of?
- Crises of Faith—When faced in the future with the presenting
problem will we, by faith, trust God or our idols.
Footnote
The Journal of Biblical Counseling, Volume 15, Number 3, spring
1997, page 7
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Trust Triangle
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