Seven Easy Steps to Success

If you browse through your Borders or Barnes and Nobles, sometimes you will find they have categorized certain Christian authors, such as Rick Warren and Joel Osteen, under the ‘Self-Help’ section. Isn’t that telling? The ‘world’ sees our Christian teachings as nothing more than self-help.

A large part of the American psyche is the spirit of the ‘self-made man’—the ‘you-can-do-it’ attitude. But it seems to me that in the last 50 years, Bible teaching in America has been replaced by this spirit—of human potential and ‘self-actualization.’

I do understand the intent of many Christian writers is to make the Bible practical—“seven keys to improving your life every day,” “six steps to building a healthy marriage” and so on. But self-improvement is not biblical. (As someone has said it is not self-improvement God wants; it is self-annihilation!) And my real concern is this: "spiritual" is being replaced by "psychological"; and the "transcendent" by "pragmatic."

Building Christian character is the work of the Holy Spirit—not self will and will power. It is only when we give up all self-effort and become dependent on His resident, indwelling power that we can become who God created us to be and accomplish the work He created us to do (Eph. 2:10). And it doesn’t happen in six or seven easy steps.