I started writing this months ago, but in light of Jarrid Wilson, a pastor and mental health advocate, ending his own life, I felt it was an appropriate time to continue the discussion.
I am so tired of the stigma around depression in the church. People avoid you, make assumptions about you, or worse, they assume you are not in Christ. I was appalled at the way a big name pastor responded to a question on social media, stating that “those who are in depression are not in Christ, because in Christ there is only joy.” I mean, people who have legitimate reasons to be depressed are being treated with everything BUT compassion. It is the opposite of what the bible instructs us to do, which is to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. It baffles me when a person who has just been brave enough to be vulnerable with a group or person about their anxieties and gets scolded and preached at. And guess what happens after that? They internalize that judgement, never speak up again, and stuff those anxieties down so deep that it breeds the very depression a whole book in the bible is dedicated to (Job).
On your own, please take the time to Job and examine the exchange Job had between him and his friends. Imagine for a moment that his friends represent the way the church responds to mental health today. It is eye opening and so relevant.
I want to also include how they introduce him in the book, “There was once a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless, a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.” I think it’s important to include Job’s integrity because so many times victims of depression are told that they don’t believe in God enough or are not doing or being enough as Christians to evade these feelings of helplessness. This cannot be farther from the truth in the case of Job, yet he still suffered through depression.
Second, I want to point out that Satan petitioned to test Job because of his very faithfulness to God. (If you do not believe in the enemy and the power of the evil principalities in this world, I suggest you stop reading here because this is a huge part of this post.) This is significant because it is stated in the bible that the enemy’s purpose for every person is to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). 1 Peter 5:8 even warns us, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
I think the reason that the mental health field is never going to be completely successful on it’s own is because there is a complete rejection to the fact above. We do have an enemy, one who is relentless and always stalking his prey (us). But psychologists help their clients fight a battle from the belief that they are only fighting against themselves and/or their past and those in them. This would be effective if we were all not also fighting a spiritual battle. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us that, “…We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” A BIG part of fighting a mental health battle should include the spiritual battle against the enemy. And the western world has almost completely disregarded or even rejected the spiritual world. THIS is the real reason why so many Christians today are struggling with mental health issues. It is because leaders in the Christian world today are ill equipped or don’t see mental health issues as a spiritual attack from the enemy and instead cast judgement on people as being unstable or weak in their faith. Please understand, if they seem weak in faith it is only because they are overwhelmed. The weight is too heavy for them to bear alone and they believe God has abandoned them. But when God seems silent, sometimes it is a call for the body of Christ to bear together. It is our responsibility to one another to bear each others burdens and to fight the battle together. This is clearly stated in Galatians 6:2-3, “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.”
Modern medicine would also have us believe that we are irrational if we believe that some or all mental/emotional issues are in fact rooted in the spirit. But the fact is, they very well could be. (Please, don’t go so far as to believe that I am stating that even children born with mental incapacities are inhabited by an evil spirit… this is NOT what I’m saying.) In Mark 9, Jesus heals a boy who has been inhabited by a spirit who makes him unable to hear or speak and has symptoms that look a lot like seizures. After the disciples’ confusion at not being able to cast out the demon themselves, Jesus replies that “this kind” can only be cast out through prayer and fasting.
WHAT IF… the same Christians who who rallied around Cancer sufferers, rallied around mental health sufferers as well. What if we fasted and prayed for their emotional healing the same way we pray for physical healing. God can heal mental health the same way he heals cancer patients, who after help with prayer and fasting come to find there is no trace of cancer in the body anymore! What if we prayed and fasted for those suffering emotionally, and they come back and tell the church they are free, their depression is suddenly lifted, they woke up feeling joyful again! Remove the stigma, remove the judgement, and hopefully we will have less people going through it alone in their spirits the way maybe Pastor Jarrid Wilson did, and they will be brave enough to ask for help. Do you not believe it? The boy’s father, who Jesus healed, questioned Him, too. But Jesus responded, “What do you mean, ‘if I can?’ ANYTHING is possible if a person believes.” (Mark 9:23).
Letters to a King
“Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. -Isaiah 41:10
“No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.” -Isaiah 54:17
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.” -Ephesians 6:11
“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.” -Ephesians 6:18
” For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” – 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
“But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.” -Isaiah 40:31
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” -Mark 11:24
Letters To A King 