How do you care for your mental health biblically?
This is Felicia Ferguson with Christian Mix 106, helping you build faith for the journey.
Mental health has been an increasingly hot topic in the US over the last several years. Psychiatrists and psychologists can create treatment plans that may or may not involve prescription drug therapy to help manage symptoms, sometimes until they almost all but disappear.
But did you know that our mental health is part of biblical self-care? Most of the battles we will fight in our lives will be in our minds. The devil will lie to us, manipulating our emotions and casting doubt on what we know to be true about God and ourselves. But we have weapons to fight him. The apostle Paul told the Corinthians to take every thought captive to God. And John wrote that we are to test the spirits to see if they are from God.
So how do we do this? Taking thoughts captive means keeping a watch over every thought that floats through our head. Don’t let them roam free without paying them some amount of attention. Once we have a grip on the thought, we must test it. How do we do this? By holding it up against scripture and asking, Is what we are thinking biblically correct? For example, if our thoughts are telling us we are unloveable, scripture directly contradicts that—because even when we were sinners God sent Jesus to die for our sins out of his love for us. If our thoughts are telling us we’ll never be perfect, then we can line them up with scripture and find in Romans, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. In other words, no one is perfect except Jesus. So our aim is not perfection, but to be as much like Jesus as we humanly can. If our thoughts are telling us we’re a failure, again we can counter them with scripture. Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations, The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
But even though the battlefield of our thought lives is in our own head, we don’t have to fight alone. James said to confess your sins one to another in order to be healed. So find a trusted confidante or prayer partner to walk with you in the battle. Someone who will be a sounding board and an unbiased listener who will redirect you back to the scriptures for your reality check. And if the battles you fight require professional help, find a Christian therapist. Secular therapists will be helpful, but having someone who also operates from a biblical worldview is a tremendous advantage when battling the devil’s wiles and helping you align your thoughts to truth. God’s Truth. Period.
Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy and that includes your mental health. Be on guard and have your weapons ready to fight him. Christ has won the war, but until he returns there will always be battles to fight.
This is Felicia Ferguson. Thanks for listening to Christian Mix 106.
