When The Saints Suffer

Mental health. It’s like a dirty word in the church, or for you with young children it’s like talking about Bruno… we just don’t do it.

Depression. 
Anxiety. 
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We don’t like those things, we think they’re either too dark for our comfort zones or too complicated for the average Christian to be helpful with so we pretend they don’t exist and go about our happy Sunday’s with painted on smiles and only talk weather and grandkids. On May 1st we learned about healing and when the time came to apply what we learned by going to the Lord in prayer there were more hands raised in the room then ones satisfied with their current emotional state. So here we are friends, we have a problem, so let’s talk about Bruno… that is, Christians struggling with our mental health. Contrary to the teachings of the prosperity gospel, we saints do in fact suffer. From the moment sin entered the world in Genesis 3, every aspect of God’s good creation became corrupt. Our hearts filled with sin, our bodies filled with disease, our minds filled with every problem characterized as a mental illness. Praise Him friends, God promised to not leave us in a Genesis 3 world forever, as we await for Him to return with hearts washed clean by His blood we will still experience these issues. All of us in some form or another, many of us in deeper ways. 

Bi-polar.
Post-traumatic stress. 
We hurt, we are in Christ Jesus. 
Obsessive-compulsive.
Borderline personality.
We hurt, we are His workmanship.
Schizophrenic. 
Suicidal thoughts. 

We hurt, we are so not alone. These are just a few labels that born again believers may carry. Maybe none of these identify you or maybe all of them do. Maybe for you its support through a discipleship, offering accountability and challenging you to grow and trust God through your trial (Matthew 28:19-20). Maybe what you need is prayer for healing of the imbalanced body that encouraging these hurts to run wild (James 5:14). Maybe its intensive discipleship through meeting with a Biblical Counselor or Pastor, to pursue greater Christlikeness in the midst of your battle by consulting the might Word of God (Romans 15:4). Maybe you need help with discerning sin in your life (James 5:16), repenting and turning from ungodly attitudes as we all need to daily regardless of emotional health or current struggle.
Whichever it is, know that you have a church holding their arms out so open wide to love on you. Know that we can and do talk about these things here. Friend, no matter what lie the world has told you the God of the universe who created you is not incapable of healing your hurting mind. Whatever that healing might look like in His glorious will know that you are not alone. Let’s talk about why you did, or wished you had raised your hand because God cares about it and so do we.

​- Kim Bridges