"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"

In a post titled "The Therapeutic Gospel" David Powlison describes a gospel that is about using God to fix what I think is wrong in my life rather than one that is about bringing me into His Kingdom, one that has Him serving what I think are my needs rather than one that brings me to love Him and to serve Him and to want what He wants:

In this new gospel, the great evils to be redressed do not call for any fundamental change of direction in the human heart. Instead, my deepest problems are merely limited to what has happened to me. It's not something about me that has also gone woefully astray.

It's only about my sense of rejection because others have not loved me thoughtfully and well. It's my corrosive experience of life's vanity, because I haven't been able to have the impact I want, to be recognized as Somebody Who Matters. It's my nervous sense of self-condemnation and diffidence, because my self-esteem is wobbly. It's the imminent threat of boredom if my music is turned off. It's how so much of life is routine; I love the adrenaline rush, and I don't like it when a long, slow road lies ahead.

The gospel is enlisted to serve these particular cravings; Jesus and the church exist to make you feel loved, significant, validated, entertained and charged up. This gospel ameliorates distressing symptoms. It makes you feel better. The logic of this therapeutic gospel is a jesus-for-Me who meets individual desires and assuages psychic aches. ....

Such a gospel massages self-love. There is nothing in its inner logic to make you love God and love any other person besides yourself. This therapeutic gospel may often mention the word "Jesus," but He has morphed into the meeter-of-your-needs, not the Savior from your sins. It corrects Jesus' work. The therapeutic gospel unhinges the gospel.

The real gospel is the good news of the Word made flesh, the sin-bearing Savior, the resurrected Lord: "I am the living One, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore" (Rev. 1:18). This Christ turns the world upside down. One prime effect of the Holy Spirit's inworking presence and power is the rewiring of our sense of felt needs.

Because the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, we keenly feel a different set of needs when God comes into view and when we understand that we stand or fall in His gaze. My instinctual cravings are replaced (sometimes quickly, always gradually) by the growing awareness of true, life-and-death needs:

• I need mercy above all else: "Lord, have mercy on me." "For Your name's sake, pardon my iniquity for it is very great."
• I want to learn wisdom, and unlearn willful self-preoccupation: "Nothing you desire compares with her."
• I need to learn to love both God and neighbor: "The goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith."
• I long for God's name to be honored, for his kingdom to come, for his will to be done on earth, for his whole church to be glorified together.
• I want Christ's glory and lovingkindness and goodness to be seen on earth, to fill the earth as obviously as water fills the ocean.
• I need God to be my refuge and deliverer, setting me free from enemies, sufferings, sorrows, death, temptations.
• I long for the Lord to wipe away all tears.
• I need God to change me from who I am by instinct, choice, and practice.
• I want him to deliver me from my obsessive self-righteousness, to slay my lust for self-vindication, so that I feel my need for the mercies of Christ, so that I learn to treat others gently.
• I need God's mighty and intimate help in order to will and to do those things that last unto eternal life, rather than squandering my life on vanities.
• I want to learn how to endure hardship and suffering in hope, having my faith simplified, deepened, and purified.
• I need to learn, to listen, to worship, to delight, to trust, to give thanks, to cry out, to take refuge, to obey, to serve, to hope.
• I want to attain the resurrection to eternal life: "We groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body."
• I need God himself: "Show me your glory." "Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus." [more]

Thanks to Theocentric Preaching for the reference.

The Therapeutic Gospel: Part 1