What I Couldn’t Find in the Church

And Found in Christ Alone, and His Word

There was a time when I thought I was doing everything right: attending church, staying active in ministry, seeking counsel when I felt overwhelmed. And yet, in my most desperate seasons—when I was battling strongholds, confusion, and relapse—I couldn’t find the help I truly needed within the body of Christ.

I wasn’t looking for a pat answer or another Bible verse spoken without compassion. I was looking for restoration. For someone to listen without judgment. For someone to walk with me through the valley instead of directing me to a program or handing me a number to call.

Eventually, I sought counseling outside the church because the church no longer seemed to offer it. But even there, I couldn’t fully connect. Something deep in my spirit knew that the healing I longed for wouldn’t come through psychology alone. I needed something truer. Deeper. Eternal.

And I knew, deep down, that the Word of God held the answer. But I couldn’t access it clearly because the strongholds were too loud, the shame too heavy. I believed the lie that I wasn’t worthy of help. I carried my pain quietly.

But the Lord never left me there.

Recently, I picked up a book I’ve owned for years and never read: Counseling: How to Counsel Biblically by John MacArthur. Within the first chapter, a veil lifted. It spoke of what the early Church once did—how counseling was never meant to be outsourced, but lived out among Spirit-filled believers who bore one another’s burdens with compassion, prayer, and truth.

And I wept. Not with sorrow, but with relief.

I realized the ache in me was not rebellion. It was hunger for what God designed. Counseling in the Church was never meant to be professionalized and distant. It was meant to be tender and truthful, saturated with the Word, rooted in relationship, and empowered by the Spirit.

And even though I couldn’t find that kind of care back then—now, through Christ and His Word, I have found it.

💧 What the Church Forgot, Christ Remembered

Romans 15:14 says,
“I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.”

This was Paul’s vision for the Church—not a referral center, but a family of believers equipped by the Word and led by the Spirit to lovingly counsel, restore, and walk with one another.

I share this not as a criticism of the Church, but as a cry to return to her calling. The kind of healing and discipleship Jesus modeled was never sterile or outsourced. It was withness—God with us, and us with each other.

🕊️ For the One Still Searching…

If you’re reading this and you feel unseen, overlooked, or passed around instead of cared for—I want you to hear this clearly:

Jesus sees you.
He has never stopped pursuing you.
And the Word of God is still living, active, and able to restore you.

You don’t need credentials to receive His truth or to pour it into others. What you couldn’t find in the Church, you can find in Christ—and as He restores you, He will equip you to become what others so desperately need.

✍️ Final Thoughts

I believe the Lord is raising up a remnant—those who’ve been broken, restored, and filled with compassion. Not professional counselors, but spiritual ones. Not licensed, but anointed. If you’ve walked through pain and found Christ in the midst of it, you carry something sacred: hope that ministers.

The Church may have forgotten. But Christ has not.
And He is writing a new chapter in you.