MENTAL HEALTH DEFINITION
Any mental illness (AMI) is defined as a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder. AMI can vary in impact, ranging from no impairment to mild, moderate, and even severe impairment (e.g., individuals with serious mental illness). (National Institute of Mental Health)
A HEALTHY PERSPECTIVE
–> Mental health issues happen to a person because we live in a broken world, not because that person is weaker than others or deserves hardship more than others.
–> Good mental health treatment should mirror the same medical approaches used for physical health.
–> Miraculous healing is available to people with both physical and mental needs.
–> The Church must respond to AMI with God’s approach to all brokenness: grace and mercy.
(1 Kings 19:3-9 NLT) Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”
Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree. But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!” He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again.
Then the angel of the LORD came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you.”
So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. There he came to a cave, where he spent the night.
APPLICATIONS
1. We can choose to ruminate on things that distort or strengthen our minds.
(Philippians 4:8-9 NLT) Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
2. Confess and embrace human limitations.
(Psalm 139:23-24 NLT) Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
3. Recognize that God can work through brokenness and weakness.
(2 Corinthians 12:9) But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me…When I am weak, then I am strong.