Christian Belief or Life Coaching can be traced to both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, that teach, “people do what they do because they believe what they believe,” i.e., “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)
This alternative to traditional Christian counseling is not built on personal therapeutic skills or abilities, but rather on the powerful truth of the Word of God that counters the lies people have unfortunately believed. If a hurting person does not choose to allow God’s Word to speak into his or her life, nothing will change. However, when he or she does, God will renew their mind and bring life-changing healing. Rather than focusing on a person’s bad behavior, this process focuses on problematic thinking errors that are rooted in a false belief system.
Belief Coaching suggests that life-controlling problems and distortions of reality, responsibility and accountability are based on lies people believe. These lies originated from dysfunctional learning during a person’s cognitive development. The Belief Coach helps a Christian client to identify the lies buried in his/her belief system, replace them with the truth, and begin renewing the mind (Rom. 12:2). Appropriating the truth will begin to make the person free by changing the way they think about things. Truth replacement can have, and often has, an immediate effect on a person’s actions or behavior, but the renewing of the mind is a process.
One central element of Belief Coaching is the development of a positive Christian self-concept grounded in God’s unconditional, electing love in Jesus Christ. With a Biblical perspective of self-concept a person is released from the burden of having to generate feelings of self-worth based on performance. Since a Christian, i.e., a believer in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, need not be a slave to ego-enhancing behavior, he/she can be free to be unselfish and to manifest virtues such as faith, integrity, knowledge, patience, self-control, God-consciousness, kindness, love, sacrifice, obedience and humility. But without a healthy self-acceptance based on who we are “in Christ,” the practice of these values can easily become a neurotic striving to gain God’s approval.
