Biblical Counselling and our Desires, Emotions & Will.

It is well known in Biblical counselling circles that behaviour modification is not the primary target or goal of such counselling. Behaviours are the outward or horizontal manifestations of a person's life. This only changes when the there is a vertical (God vision) change of the inner heart. This inner heart of a person is made up of their desires, emotions and will. It is the will that transforms emotions into behaviours.

Emotions are always driven by desires, met or unmet. There is always fear or lust associated with unmet desires. Either the fear of getting something we don't want, or the lust of wanting something we don't have.

This concept can be shown by looking at any behaviour, then looking at the emotion that is driving the behaviour and then looking at the unmet desire or expectation.

DESIRES --> EMOTIONS --> BEHAVIOURS

Here is a list of a few examples. These do not necessarily go directly horizontal across from each other. Any of the Desires can trigger any of the Emotions, that show up as any of the Behaviours.

Esteem --> Escape --> Yelling

Love --> Anger --> Violence

Approval --> Self-pity --> Blaming

Respect --> Frustration --> Escape

Comfort --> Bitterness --> Gossip

Ease --> Sadness --> Judging

Control --> Hopelessness --> Avoidance

etc

Can you cross reference any of these? Biblical counselling looks at the root of the desire to understand the emotion. The behaviour eventually always comes from any met or unmet desire.