Handle With Care

Mental Health and How to deal with it with God

I often look back to reminisce about my past hardships and how they made me stronger. But it’s always the emotional, physical, and mental toll it took on me.

Although people would like to believe I’m a happy, joyous, outgoing, loving, and hyperactive person, I honestly felt for some time that it didn’t feel like that.

When life started to happen, as life is never as easy as it seems, it felt as if the world AND GOD were going against me. My mental health and self-esteem went down the drain, physically I let myself go, and only tried to fill my heart, soul, mind, and spirit with things that couldn’t be fulfilled.

My relationship with God was questioned further than I could’ve imagined, as everything around me was crumbling, I tended to push away from God and isolate myself.

It stemmed from pressure to maintain some standard, an ungodly standard of trying to be perfect, making minimal mistakes as possible, and trying to please everyone around me, or just failure after failure, which made me think less of myself.

But it was always wondering where God was in the midst of it all.

There were many thoughts and questions I would ask myself :

“Am I ever going to amount to something?”

“Am I really doing this alone?”

“Why can’t my life look like theirs?”

“Why do I feel alone?”

“Why do they get better opportunities, and I’m always left behind?”

“Does anyone see me?”

“Does anyone value me?”

“Who do I have in my corner?”

“Who is on my side?”

“Who will be the one I can call on?”

“Will anyone save me?”

“Will I die before stuff in my life starts to happen?”

“Will I ever beat this obstacle in my life?”

“What more can I do to be valuable?”

“What am I made for?”

“I'll never be good enough.”

In the same way, many others felt or thought the same way.

ELIJAH

Elijah is a prophet and an amazing man of God, but even at the peak of one of his greatest victories, he's overcome with hopelessness and fear. God has just used Elijah to defeat 450 prophets of Baal in a stunning show of power and glory. To top it off, God has brought rain to the land after three long years of drought.

Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, the King of Israel at the time, is determined to kill Elijah. Upon hearing this, he runs for his life. He feels afraid and exhausted and prays for death.

So God appears to Elijah and doesn't remove him from the situation or neglect his feelings, but gives him what he needs, 1 Kings 19:5 ESV, “…Arise and eat.” God provides him with a place to rest and eat.

It happens twice, until Elijah regains his strength and, we can imagine, a brighter outlook on life. He heads to Horeb, “the mountain of God," and waits for the Lord to pass by. What’s notable here is that God doesn’t share the full plan with Elijah when he’s feeling scared and overwhelmed in the desert. Instead, God waits until he’s ready to take the next step.

How often are we terrified and overwhelmed about what might come next? What do we do when we’ve reached a breaking point, and things seem hopeless?

Elijah’s story teaches us that God is always there to comfort and provide for us, even in the toughest times. He understands our needs, and we can be confident that He sees the bigger picture and has a plan in place for us. Even when we feel lost or uncertain about what to do next, God makes His plans clear to us when we need to know, not always when we think we should.

JOB

If you know anything from the bible, you know Job had it ROUGH. Job becomes the unluckiest man alive as everything he owns or possesses is taken from him, especially when you know he’s served God faithfully all his life, and yet on one awful day, he loses everything.

Can you imagine his deep sorrow and confusion?

As if losing every material things wasn’t enough, Job also contends with painful sores that cover his body, from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, Then his wife and three closest friends, who are meant to be comforting him, instead suggest that Job has done something to earn God’s wrath. Imagine you’ve lived a “blameless and upright” life, and now, the people closest to you have the audacity to suggest that you deserve what you’re going through.

Sadly, the attitude of Job’s friends is something many of us dealing with mental illness encounter today; the idea from others that we must have caused our condition or that God has given it to us as a test. Job at that point says he hates his life and wouldn’t live long, and to be left alone as his days are going to be short (Job 7:16).

Job 30:20 ESV says, “I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me.”

Have you ever felt alone in your pain, or like your suffering goes unnoticed by God?

But God does answer Job. Job 38:3-4 ESV says, “Dress for action like a man;
I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.”

God put Job in his PLACE, and reminded him who he is: powerful, loving, and triumphant over death. God encourages Job that evil's place in the world is temporary, and ultimately, God will triumph.

We aren’t promised an easy life. The Bible doesn’t say following Christ will save us from troubles, pain, or mental health issues. But it affirms God’s presence in challenges and victory over death through Jesus. That God will be with us in those challenges, and that we have victory over death through Jesus.

DAVID

David is well known for his psalms, many of them written from a place of deep vulnerability and full of unfiltered sorrow and angst. Throughout David’s journey, we get glimpses into his mental state, and many of his psalms paint the picture of a man struggling with feelings of depression and hopelessness.

Many of his psalms follow a similar pattern: an opening section where he expresses his raw emotion, a complaint, a request, and then an expression of praise or trust in God.

Psalm 13 ESV says, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

It’s David’s way of pouring out his authentic self before God in all of its confusion and pain, but choosing to keep trusting God and praising him, even when he doesn’t feel it.

How hard is it to trust and praise God when you don’t want to?

David’s mental health seemed to go up and down, but he consistently relied on God for help. As a shepherd, anointed king fleeing an army, crowned King of Israel making mistakes, and a leader at his peak, he needed God’s help.

Just like David, we need to trust and praise God and continue to cry out to God.

JONAH

Having just spent three days in the belly of a “huge fish” after an attempt to run away from God’s call, Jonah was a man on a mission: to tell the people of Nineveh that destruction was coming because of their sin.

But when the Ninevites listen to Jonah and repent, God cancels the destruction that was planned. And Jonah isn’t happy about this. He’s angry that God has chosen to show mercy to the people. Jonah said it would be better for him to die than to live (Jonah 4:3), even after God asked him if it was okay for him to feel this way, that Jonah still responds by saying yes, and that he is so angry he can die (Jonah 4:9).

Maybe you haven’t been as angry as Jonah, but most of us have probably reached a point where giving up seemed easier than confronting difficulties, especially when we felt that God was being unfair.

We never know what happens to Jonah after his conversation with God. Maybe he repents of his anger and celebrates that God is a God of second chances. Or maybe, he chooses to stay bitter and wrapped up in his self-righteousness.

When we encounter disappointment or struggle with feelings that things aren’t fair, how do we respond? Do we ask God to give us his heart and help us see through His eyes?

JESUS

Fear and anxiety are two emotions we’ve all felt. But have you ever been so worried and anxious that your sweat becomes like blood on your skin? That’s what Jesus experienced as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before his crucifixion.

Luke 22:41-44 ESV says, “And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

Jesus has always known he’s going to die a painful death. But the reality of that fate seems to come to a head for him in the hours before his arrest. What can we learn from Jesus’ final hours?

We learn that fear, anxiety, and other challenging emotions are a regular part of the human experience, even for Jesus. EVEN KNOWING he would reign victorious from death, he still had anxiety for what awaited him.

But what did he do in those lowest moments?

Prayed.

That’s one of the things we need to do when we’re facing challenges or struggling with our mental health: take it to God. He even asked his disciples to come and pray with him, emphasizing that our closest friends can support us too.

We are not alone in our struggle.

God will provide a way out of the troubles that bother you. God will walk with you and speak to you through everything you go through in every situation. Our Father God in Heaven is sovereign. He will lift us up again and again after we fall. Our God is merciful. He will forgive us for our sins. Our Father is a redeemer.

Even during the toughest pain and discomfort, God wants us to praise and lift up His name. As we choose not to let our circumstances cause us to turn away from God but instead draw us closer to Him, God will meet the needs in our lives. We can find hope for our needs in the word of God.

God will meet our needs, a mustard seed of hope is IN the suffering.

Philippians 4:6-7 ESV says, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

thank you all for tuning in, hope this helps as a reminder, refresher, and challenges you. yours truly.