Your neighbors’ bookcase, the local library, and just about every chain bookstore will all likely have a large selection of self-help books. In fact, according to Marketdata Enterprises, Inc., in 2006 the “Self Improvement” market was said to be worth 9.6 billion dollars. By 2010 it is estimated to increase to 13.9 billion dollars. This value includes books, audio, infomercials, motivational speakers, and even personal life coaches. This industry claims to help people who suffer from depression, anxiety, weight issues, even indecision. Those numbers are shocking.

What are people lacking in their lives that results in such an industry? What are people seeking that causes them to turn to people they have never met for help? Do these types of services really help, or are they a waste of our money and our precious time? Can the remedies to all our problems be found within the mind of man?

The problem with all these self-help solutions is that they really only target the symptoms rather than the underlying problem. The fact is that mankind is a religious creature. When we push God out of our lives problems arise. We try to fill that void with earthly things, doing so leads only to our downfall.
God has revealed Himself to all through His creation (Romans 1:18-20). God further reveals Himself to all through His Son (Hebrews 1:1-2). The Holy Spirit was sent to guide the apostles into all truth (John 16:13). It is by this Truth that God intended we guide our lives 2 Timothy 3:15-16.

The primary purpose of the Word is of a spiritual nature. Namely it spells out to the diligent student God’s marvelous plan to save mankind from sin. However we should not neglect the secondary, ancillary benefits of scripture. These secondary benefits are those of a physical or emotional nature. Perhaps you could call them "Christian Side-Effects."

Notice that our Glorious Creator has given to us “ALL things that pertain unto life and godliness.” All means all brethren. Those “personal problems” that we might have can be solved through the scriptures.

This isn’t the “Health and Wealth Gospel”. I am not saying that a Christian who properly follows the scriptures will always be the picture of health and have riches. Nor am I saying that the Christian life should be the life of ease. The fact is that life is a test; Christians have been tormented and persecuted since Christ died upon the Cross. What I am saying, is that the Scriptures hold the answers to rectify the root of our problems. Unlike all those “Self Improvement” products, God’s Word goes to the heart of the matter. A life lived by the scriptures is the best life one can live!

Perhaps we can flush this out more fully in the coming weeks.

Lovingly Submitted

__________________
1 Peter 5:6-7: Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. -ESV

I have a little hobby of matching successful self-help and motivational material to the equivalent Scripture. With a little digging, we can see most everything of this ilk is repackaged Scripture, especially the successful stuff whether the author knows about it or not.

__________________
Butch Adams
Blue Ridge, VA
http://daleridgechurchofchrist.net
http://mydailypause.org