Making Sense of Forgiveness: How to and Not to Use Biblical Narrative in Counseling

The Bible is powerful. Stories are powerful. Combined, this means biblical narratives are particularly powerful. But they are also easy to misuse. In this breakout, we will use the story of Joseph (Genesis 37-50) as a case study for examining how to and not to use biblical narratives in counseling. Using this as an example, we can learn to discern when to use certain stories from the Bible so that we can simultaneously honor (i.e., rightly interpret) the Bible, our counselee, and their situation.