Helping through blessing

 1. To bless means: to speak good words, to wish people well. God has a desire to bless. This divine desire means for us that we can have a positive, expectant and receiving attitude, that God will do good things. While many approaches towards helping people are problem oriented, in Helping Through Blessing (HTB) we focus on the good, in what we say and in our attitude. One important aspect is the need to listen silently together, in order that God Himself can speak these words that the counselee needs to hear. The accent is then more on what does the counselee understand that what God is saying rather than the counselor.

 2. We are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), called to bless, even our enemies. Blessing is an attitude as well as an act. The New Testament affirms our double role as priests: a) to stand with compassion next to people and bring them in touch with the Holy One; b) to look (with His grace and mercy) from God’s perspective to the counselee and respond from His heart.

 3. Jesus gives His disciples the instruction to reach out to people they meet, with Shalom. To speak about the peace and wholeness which God offers us (Mat. 10:12).

 4. When God has compassion we read in the OT that this is linked with action. He comes into the situation of His people (miracles, plagues of Egypt, the Cloud’ and the ‘pillar of Fire’ in the desert. In the New Testament this is manifested in it’s fullest through the incarnation of Jesus. In Him, God comes in the ruins of humanity, in the dirt of this world. Thus HTB stresses the coming of the Redeemer in tough, painful and sinful situations of counselees. That’s why HTB has a strong Christ-centered character. First we look at Jesus, then at the situation.