Mental Health and Divine Intervention

Mental health: it’s become a buzz word in our culture. While one’s mental health used to be a taboo topic of discussion, everyone ranging from athletes to celebrities are now opening up about their mental health struggles. There isn’t as much of a stigma when it comes to needing “mental health days” or incorporating a holistic approach to your health and wellness. Eating well, practicing meditation, and exercising to support a healthy mental and emotional state has become the norm. That being said, I believe there’s a fine line between trying your best to lead a healthy life and becoming so obsessed with the active attempt to “heal” the issues that the measures end up feeding the proliferation and constancy of it. While all of these practices are incredibly beneficial, their focus is to aid the symptoms of the issue rather than act as solutions.

The question I’d like to pose to you today is, Are you married to your struggle? All of these measures that we take to mitigate the effects of our wounds fail to address the core issue of the mental health dilemma so many people face today; many of these techniques neglect to identify what the root cause is. The scope of these practices are centered in learning how to cope with the issue, rather than targeting and removing the issue from the root. Over time, living with these wounds we begin to identify with these issues; we adopt these labels of depressed, anxious, OCD, bipolar, ADD, and ADHD. We identify with our trauma to the point where these demons become inculcated in who we believe we are. We may say things like, “Well I’ve always been this way” or “It runs in my family.” How hopeless! Are we truly stuck in this never ending rat race of trying to outrun our issues? We begin to think, maybe if we run often enough, if we find the right medication, if we cut out sugar, if we meditate everyday, maybe then, THEN we can catch a glimpse of what life could be like without the drudgery of emotional torment. We believe that we will continue to think the same ways we always have, act the same we always have, and feel the same ways we always have.

What if I were to tell you that there was another way? What if I told you that your past doesn't have to dictate your future? What if I said that you won’t have to feel like you’re drowning anymore, that you won’t have to feel like you’re gasping for air before the current pulls you down again? What if I told you that you can be fully delivered from the storm and placed on dry land? What if I told you that there was something out there capable of granting you full freedom, full healing, and full autonomy over your life? What if I told you that regardless of your environment, your predispositions, the mental or behavioral patterns you’ve formed—you are capable of shifting into a completely new identity?

The answer lies in something outside of you. The answer is divine intervention.

The answer is Jesus.

God is capable of transforming you completely. God makes us into a new creation. He refines us. He leads us through the holy fire where anything that is not of Him is burned off and seared from us permanently. He delivers us so that we are able to walk in greater freedom, in greater authority, and so that we are truly capable of exercising free will. Instead of being shackled and slave to the depression, to the anger, to the unforgiveness, to the compulsive eating, to the self destruction— we are set free and capable of moving in our newfound autonomy.

It may be difficult to believe that your predispositions to addiction, to anxiety, to depression, or to neurotic behavior is completely fixable. God can and will transform us into a new creation if we ask Him to. If we place our faith in His ability, over our own, anything is possible. We need to shift our focus away from “Am I capable?” to “God is capable. God can do anything.” Ask and you shall receive! Seek and you shall find! Knock and the door will be opened to you! (Matthew 7:7). He wants to prosper you! (Jeremiah 29:11). He wants to teach you how to move mountains. (Matthew 17:20). He wants to lead you out of the desert. He wants to equip you with the ability to stand in the authority given to you by Christ, so that you may declare healing over yourself and others. He desires to bestow you with wisdom, with knowledge, and with tools to be an ambassador for the Kingdom. He supplies the saints with the fruits of the Holy Spirit to bring Heaven to Earth.

All of this being said, this isn’t a promise that life will be perfect, or painless, or easy. We live in a fallen world, a broken world filled with broken people. We are imperfect beings, this is true, but we serve a perfect God. We serve a good and all powerful God who loves us more than we can fathom. He adopts us into His family and calls us His children. What good parent wouldn’t want to see their children succeed? What good parent wouldn’t want their children to be free to make their own choices; to live a life filled with possibility? What good parent wouldn’t want to give their children the best opportunity to fulfill their own destinies, use their gifts and talents to the max, and to bring forth all the potential they have within them?

He does not promise us a life of constant ease and comfort. There will be trials and we will still struggle, however, we will have His perfect joy, His perfect peace, His strength, His wisdom, His comfort, and His protection to help us withstand any adversity we may face.

We must desire to know who God is. We must desire more of Him in our lives, we must learn His voice and recognize His handiwork. When you become aware of the ways He’s moving and working in your life, you learn to identify the fingerprints of His greatness etched along the canvas of your individual experience. You must understand and believe that full deliverance is possible. Healing is possible. Restoration is possible. Becoming a new creation is not only possible but it is His promise to us. When we decide to surrender to Him, when we decide to follow Him, and when we decide that we are ready to let the old pass away and the new be brought to life, He will step in and show us His greatness.

Step into the new life that is awaiting you. Take a leap of faith. Allow God to show you what He’s capable of when you let go of the steering wheel, when you give Him the opportunity to lead you, mold you, and refine you. Your future self will thank you.

Romans 8:31 says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

With God in your corner, you cannot fail.