THE AREA OF mental illness has received a lot of attention over the past several years. Among Christians, there has been a stigma attached to this subject.
THE WORLD SAYS MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES ARE NORMAL. BUT CHRISTIANS DON’T HAVE TO ACCEPT THAT. We’ve been aggressive about ministering physical healing. We should be just as aggressive about healing for our minds.
On the other hand, we must not condemn fellow believers and others struggling with mental health. We wouldn’t condemn someone who’s sick in their body. Therefore, we shouldn’t condemn people who are anxious, fearful, depressed, and tormented in their minds.
Mental oppression will try to come on all of us. Everyone gets down from time to time. Sometimes life tries to break us down. Many people are brokenhearted because of sorrows or tragedies in their lives. The good news is, Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted (Luke 4:18). He paid the price so you and I could have peace.
HAVING A SOUND MIND, CLEAR THOUGHTS, AND EMOTIONS THAT WORK FOR US INSTEAD OF AGAINST US ARE ALL PARTS OF OUR REDEMPTION. (See Isaiah 53:4–5.) Through Christ, we have been redeemed from turmoil, anxiety, depression, and every form of mental illness. When Jesus bore our sin on the cross, He also bore our sorrows and mental torment and gave us His peace.
To walk in the peace God has for us, we have to play an active role. We must first take control of our emotions and thought life. The Bible says to resist the devil (James 4:7). We are responsible to resist depression and not invite it in. GOD WILL NOT CONTROL OUR MINDS FOR US.
The Bible says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isa. 26:3 NKJV). It’s up to us to keep our minds
focused on the Lord if we want to experience His peace in our lives.
Keeping our minds on the Lord includes rejecting negative thoughts from our past. To live in God’s peace, we need to let the past be the past and stop thinking about it. We can do what the prophet Isaiah said:
ISAIAH 60:1 (AMPC)
1 Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you—rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you!
As men and women of God, we may get down, but we’re not to stay down. God has given us the authority to rise up out of negative circumstances and depression and live in the peace He obtained for us. Peace doesn’t mean everything will always be perfect in our lives. Peace means we can have “calm assurance in the midst of life happening.”
In John chapter 14 Jesus talked about the peace we are to have.
JOHN 14:27 (AMPC)
27 Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]
Notice again that Jesus said we are not to let our hearts be troubled or afraid. This is up to us.
The devil is an intimidator. He loves to bully us. He wants Christians to be passive so he can rule us. He tells us what Goliath told David: “I’m going to kill you.” But as people of faith, we must be aggressive and resist fear. When fearful, anxious thoughts come, we can boldly tell them, “I will not permit you in my life, in Jesus’ Name!”
JESUS HAS DEPRIVED EVERY FORM OF MENTAL OPPRESSION OF ITS POWER TO HARM US. (See John 16:33 AMPC.) All we have to do is enforce its defeat.
If you are battling mental or emotional problems, know that Jesus suffered to give you peace and healing for your mind and heart. Because of Jesus, you can have peace.
Author
Tad Gregurich
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