'Jesus counsels. He does depth counseling, pursuing fundamental rearrangements of your modus operandi. How? He loves you. He knows you, inside and out. He enters into whatever you face and whoever you are, "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." (Heb.4:15). He carries on honest, wise conversations (and gives wise sermons). He deals with the deepest issues. What do you live for? Where do you try and find identity? How do you interpret what happens to you? How do you treat other people? What do you do with Jesus himself? What goes on with your anger, anxiety, indifference, and passion? Where do you turn when life is hard? What do you want? Fear? Trust? Love? How does changing what you live for and changing how you live go hand in hand?
When you are counseled this way, you learn to counsel this way.'
David Powlinson, Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in community, p.106.
