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Studying The Heart of the Problem will be a wonderful time of deepening your relationship with God. We pray that as you begin this encounter with God you will consider, notice, and remember several things:
1. Each week has an overview video to watch. After the video, complete each day of the workbook.
2. Consider enlisting a prayer partner who will pray for you throughout the study.
3. Notice that the study is designed to guide you through five days of study each week (six days for week one). Please use the other two days to reflect on what God has spoken to you through the five days of guided study.
4. Read slowly and make notes in the wide margins. Answer the questions and spend time thinking through the Reflect boxes. Reflection time may include more than answering the questions. It is a time for prayer, looking up other Scripture passages to discover their meaning, and simply taking time to apply what you are reading.
5. Remember, this is a time to encounter God, not simply to complete a study.
Foreword
There comes to every child of God, and to every person, a wonderful word from God. It touches the deepest needs in the human experience–peace in the heart and in the entire life:
May the God of peace . . . equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever.
Hebrews 13:20-21, niv
Henry Brandt has done a great service to the earnest, seeking heart by doing two things:
1. Confronting us with ourselves, and often at our most difficult and bewildering moments.
2. Confronting us with God’s clear provision for our every condition.
He deals with tenderness, yet transparent truthfulness in some of the most significant factors in our lives: peace, joy, anger, bitterness, facing crises, forgiveness, sin, honesty, and interpersonal relationships.
In doing so, Brandt returns us again and again to the only place we can turn–God, His Word (the Bible), the Holy Spirit, prayer, and faith.
The world, and even well-meaning Christians, will share counsel that is not from God. What kind of response should there be? There should be a clear and resounding turning to God through the Scriptures and a confident trust in Him.
There is no doubt that Brandt has tested and proved God’s ways and faithful provision in his own life! Sharing out of the depths of his own crises, his time with missionaries and the tender moments with those who have sought his counsel, he brings light and affirmation from real-life to the counsels of God. He shares the Scriptures and shows from real-life experiences how faithful God is to those whose hearts are right with Him.
We have too much of the “world’s counsel and reasoning” as a substitute for God’s counsel and truth. Brandt presents a refreshing and much-needed “return to God!”
Much practical help is gained from the format and the thought-provoking questions provided by Kerry L. Skinner. His years as associate pastor and minister of education, guiding God’s people into a daily relationship with Jesus Christ, add much to the personalizing and putting into life the truth given by Brandt.
This material can be missed if read without thinking. Great truths, presented in clear, simple language and illustrations, can be overlooked. Read it slowly and thoughtfully! Pause, reflect, and meditate on each day’s thoughts. Then, faithfully seek the enabling of God’s Spirit to bring you to God’s fullness in Jesus Christ. Live life as Jesus promised, in His peace and His joy!
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
John 15:9-11, NIV
This study guide, whether studied personally or in small groups, is most timely for our day! God will use Brandt’s faithful witness and earnest pleas to return to God on His revealed terms as an instrument for revival among His people and spiritual awakening in our land.
-Henry T. Blackaby
Introduction
I have observed that individuals who move effectively through the ups and downs of life are regular church attenders. The weekly sermon, the Sunday school program, the music program, the educational program, and Christian fellowship all help. Consistent partaking of such helps and practicing the teaching will provide strength for each day.
One of the most productive activities I have observed is group study. It works best at a retreat but is most worthwhile in a series like this study. I am convinced that an unseen hand guides the makeup of the group. There is a beginning and an end to the study. The teaching of the lesson, questions directed to the teacher, small-group discussions, conversations with individuals in the group, Bible memorization, and personal think time all help to fix the message in your mind.
The people who get the most out of this study tend to follow a pattern.
1. They want help. This illustrates a biblical condition: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6).
2. The teaching stimulates discussion of biblical principles. This illustrates another biblical truth: “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, niv).
3. Acting on biblical principles results in lasting change and deepening fellowship. This illustrates another principle: “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
4. Continuous exposure to biblical principles illustrates your allegiance: “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32, niv).
Jesus had a fascinating understanding and approach to people:
He knew their thoughts (Luke 11:17, kjv).
He knew their hypocrisy (Mark 12:15, kjv).
God knew their hearts (Acts 15:8, kjv).
He didn’t need a case history. Jesus knew that the heart of the problem was the problem of the heart.
-Henry Brandt