Book Review: The Importance of Faith in Counseling

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Over the last several years, I have been on a bit of a journey to understand biblical faith. As I’ve sought to grow in Christ and help others do the same, the significance of faith in Scripture has been undeniable. Not only is faith in Christ the instrument through which God channels His saving grace to us (Ephesians 2:8-9), it is also the means by which we please God (Hebrews 11:6) and experience His spiritual blessings (Romans 15:13). In seeing the amount of attention given to this crucial subject in God’s Word, I was surprised at how few resources were written on it. I wanted to have a better grasp on what it means to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7), but I found that books on faith were not like books on prayer, of which there is a multitude. 

Imagine my joy, then, when I received a free copy of The Importance of Faith in Counseling by Jay Adams at the ACBC Annual Conference. Here was a book on the very topic I was seeking to understand combined with an emphasis on biblical counseling, and I didn’t even know it existed. 

In this work, Adams is clear about his objective, “That is the main reason I have written—to urge counselors to emphasize faith’s role in counseling…. Christian counselor, think about faith in counseling as you prepare for counseling cases, as you enter the counseling room, as you give counsel to those to whom you minister. And as you correct and direct counselees toward biblical behavior be sure that you stress faith as a prominent topic. The importance of faith in counseling should permeate your counseling.”¹ With this goal, Adams is seeking to meet a need within the biblical counseling movement, and I praise God for the little book that resulted. There are crucial principles and applications in this work that all biblical counselors need to embrace and remember. But as I read these pages, I found myself repeatedly wanting more. His points are strong, but they leave the reader with a desire for a more substantive treatment, which (to be fair) is beyond the scope of this book. Having said that, I do recommend this book for the following strengths.

First, I appreciated Adam’s practical instruction on what to do when something is impeding the counseling process. For instance, if a counselee is not experiencing the fulfillment of God’s promises in his life, “it is crucial to look for possible absence of faith.”² Such instruction brings to mind texts like James 1:5-8, where there is a call to pray for wisdom “in faith with no doubting” because the doubting person is “double-minded” and “unstable,” and must not “suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.”

In this vein, Adams also exhorts counselors to explore the three attributes of faith (understanding, agreement, and dependence) when a counselee is not progressing. If there is an understanding problem, perhaps you as the counselor did not teach the truth clearly enough, or maybe the counselee only listened selectively. If there is an agreement problem, perhaps the counselee has a sin she is not willing to part with, and disagreement is her way of hanging on. If there is a dependence problem, perhaps the counselee is afraid of the consequences that will come with believing God and is struggling to trust that God will be a refuge in that circumstance.³

Second, Adams gives sound counsel on what to do with a counselee who has “little faith.” Looking to Abraham in Romans 4:20, who did not “waver concerning the promise of God” but “grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,” Adams exhorts: “Don’t let [counselees who may have little faith] hesitate in unbelief, but tell them to go forward fulfilling the tasks God has given them, fortified by faith.”⁴ While I think this statement could use some more explanation, it is a needed reminder for counselors to urge their counselees away from being crippled in their progress due to sensing a lack of faith. 

The same kind of refusal to remain in unbelief is seen as Adams references Mark 9:24, where the doubting father cries out to Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Adams here identifies the importance of the man’s desperate plea when he states, “The man acknowledged his struggle with unbelief, and he came to the right person for help to rid himself of it.”⁵ These two facts may seem obvious, but they provide the struggling counselee with clear direction as he recognizes his lack of faith.

Third, Adams makes a necessary distinction as he highlights the vertical dimension of faith. In the context of assigning counseling homework, he points out two ways of calling a counselee to engage in works of faith. One way would be to say, “Joe, you know that fornication is wrong. It’s harmful to everyone involved. So, this week make a clean break with that woman.”⁶ This contrasts with saying, instead, “You must give up fornication. Leave that woman with whom you have been living. As you do so, you must believe that you will be pleasing God, that as you ask He will help you, and that as you obey His Word He will bless you.”⁷ The first option merely reveals the wrongness of fornication as it relates to other people on a horizontal level, without calling Joe to obey for the Lord’s sake and asking him to try and turn from sin in his own power. The second option points Joe back to God as the goal, the power, and the rewarder of his obedience.

There are plenty of other gold nuggets in this resource, and I hope these points do whet your appetite to pick up a copy for yourself with the expectation that you will be more equipped as a counselor for having read it. However, I also hope that there is another resource on the horizon that will provide further biblical insight into things like faith and the role of the Holy Spirit and what faith does when there is a lack of desire. There is much left to be explored within this subject, but I am grateful for the good start that Adams has given us.

¹ Jay Adams, The Importance of Faith in Counseling, 72-73.

² Ibid., 8.

³ Ibid., 28.

⁴ Ibid., 15.

⁵ Ibid.

⁶ Ibid., 30.

⁷ Ibid.