When I used to be twenty-three, a well-meaning individual told me my anxiety, depression, and physical pain were in my head. “If you simply stop excited about them and fill your mind with God’s Truth as an alternative, your problems will disappear.”
They claimed they’d lived my story: traumatic events during childhood, intense verbal abuse, and crippling diagnoses that left deep wounds and suffering. And yet, the mental and physical casualties I felt were written off with mere Christian cliches.
I don’t think they honestly knew what I used to be experiencing. I doubt they do now.
While young adults are one in every of the highest groups to suffer from mental health issues, I feel there are three negative and sometimes unfaithful assumptions being made about their suffering. These statements were made about me, and I wouldn’t be surprised in the event that they’ve been said to you. And that’s why I would like you to have the opportunity to discover and rebuke them.
1. “Anxiety Is a Failure to Trust God”
The first time I experienced anxiety, I used to be ten. I picked up the phone, and someone I dearly love threatened to kill me. You can imagine how I felt when a sermon said, “Anxiety is a failure to trust God.”
This belief mainly stems from Matthew 6:25-34, 1 Peter 5:7, and Philippians 4:6. In each verse, Jesus essentially tells us, “Do not worry.” Worry comes from the Greek merimnaō/a. It’s translated as being anxious/careful along with your thoughts or troubled by care. But here presents three varieties of anxiety: worldly, human emotion, and clinical disorders.
When Jesus asks us not to fret about food, drink, clothing, or security, in Matthew 6, He’s referencing worldly things. We’re called to trust that God will provide — to not be obsessive about earthly gain. This is where anxiety could be sinful if we aren’t careful. It happens after we care more about gaining materialistic means than the Kingdom.
Jesus’ call to “forged our anxieties on Him,” nevertheless, makes it known that we thoroughly could also be anxious no matter our trust. Especially after we’re anxious about things that aren’t earthly gains. The presence of hysteria isn’t the mistrust of God. One can trust, pray without ceasing, and endlessly give due to Him, yet still be anxious without sinning. How?
Because the Lord Jesus Himself did it. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus knew anxiety. Sweating drops of blood, He’d face probably the most horrific death known to mankind. With earnest supplication and prayer, He asked God 3 times to remove the cup if possible. That wasn’t the Father’s will, and Jesus humbly accepted that. Yet, I’m convinced, at that moment, and lots of others, He knew anxiety. He knew physical and mental pain, too. He knew the second style of anxiety well; a human emotion and response.
Jesus experienced every little thing we as humans experience, and yet He was spotless. He knows our pain and cares. But if that’s true, would we are saying His pleading was in sin? His anxieties a failure to trust God? Of course not! Then why would we are saying the identical about ourselves and our brothers and sisters in Christ amidst their sufferings?
Anxiety is a human emotion and response to life’s stressors. If I wreck my automotive, I will likely be apprehensive about driving. Individuals who go away for faculty have every right to be nervous! Everyone, to a level, will experience anxiety of their lifetime. But for many who suffer from mental disorders, it could be way more severe.
The third style of anxiety isn’t at all times a alternative. This describes clinical anxiety. Disorders like generalized anxiety (GAD) or obsessive-compulsive (OCD) create unnecessary fears that aren’t similar to someone selecting to fret about on a regular basis stressors or worldly securities.
If you were to catch a chilly, would someone say it’s a sin? What in the event you developed cancer? Absolutely not. This truth that sickness and disease aren’t sins also applies mentally.
While there are tools and resources for anxiety, like talk therapy, reciting Scripture, praying, deep respiration, and getting loads of sunshine, this process requires gradual healing. Trauma takes time. Clinical anxiety takes time. Wounds take time.
I can get help and do what’s inside my control (like caring for my body, mind, and soul). But clinical anxiety isn’t a alternative issue—it’s a health and healing issue, often found outside of myself.
2. “Depression Is a Sin”
The second Christian cliche that hurt me deeply was “Depression is a sin.” Depression is a gaggle of conditions related to the highs and lows of an individual’s mood. And like anxiety, there could be two types: human emotion and clinical disorders.
When depression is a human emotion, it’s typically transient and/or circumstantial. For example, in case your pet or loved one dies, the sadness you’re feeling is typical. In the book of Job, I feel Job faces one of these depression. He goes from blessed to cursed in a day’s time and has every reason to mourn. Yet after a period of suffering, God blesses him, and he rejoices.
But clinical depression is an emotion far beyond the Monday Blues, because it’s characterised by sadness and apathy for at the least two weeks. These feelings typically don’t go away even after time or circumstances change. Dr. Mark Riley, co-founder and executive director of SoulCare Counseling, notes that the Prophet Elijah can have illustrated characters of this diagnosis.
Facing fear, failure, fatigue, and futility, Elijah is overwhelmed and exhausted. He asks God to take his life because he simply doesn’t wish to face it anymore. Perhaps you’ve felt that way? This depression goes beyond a sense because it often presents despair, desperation, and even suicidal thoughts. And though this will look different from individual to individual, it’s still clinical. King David, for instance, can also be said to have had some style of mental disorder (Pub Med) due to his laments within the Psalms. In just a number of sentences, he would praise the Lord for His goodness but additionally ask to die.
In these examples, individuals don’t decide to have depression, similar to they don’t decide to have anxiety. Depression is usually a clinical diagnosis. An illness—not a sin. And similar to physical illness, mental illness must be treated, not reprimanded. God illustrates this best in His response to every of the three scenarios:
When Job was stripped barren, he remained faithful to God amidst his suffering. And though others can have told him, “You’re sinning,” that was never God’s reply. In the top, he was more blessed than he began.
Elijah faced great turmoil and persecution in his lifetime. So many individuals wanted him dead that he, too, wished to die. But when God heard his pleas, he said, “Rest and eat, this journey is simply too much for you.” He’s at all times within the business of providing what we’d like.
David felt many emotions yet was often called a person after God’s own heart. He was at all times authentic and vulnerable along with his Creator, and though his suffering was also great, God praised him for his commitment.
I hope you may see that in each of those examples, no matter emotional or clinical depression, God gave help, not shame or judgment. And while some took longer to receive healing, answers, rest, or windfall, God was and is faithful to offer.
Christ has also taught us the best way to provide for many who’re suffering. Sometimes this includes listening and inspiring someone to go to counseling; for others, it means sitting with them, pointing them to Jesus, or encouraging them to look after their physical health. Regardless of the measure, each includes supporting each other in triumph and tragedy—not criticizing their struggles with cliches.
3. “You Just Need to Pray and Read Your Bible More”
While spiritual life is crucial to your overall well-being (including prayer and Bible reading), it’s not the one thing we’d like to heal our mental health. It’s a standard misconception that folks who’re scuffling with mental health just lack faith. For most, this definitely isn’t true.
Although things like anxiety and depression have impacted my walk with Christ, they haven’t caused me to show away from Him but relatively cling closer. In fact, it’s in these most painful times that I remember our forefathers within the Scriptures or look to Jesus, who suffered greatly on my behalf. There’s a reason 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that His power is made strong in our weakness.
But this cliche makes the belief that individuals aren’t reading their Bibles and praying, or in the event that they are, they should achieve this more. And as Sarah Robinson notes in her profound book I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, “Seeking medical look after mental illness—or any illness—isn’t an absence of religion or a rejection of God’s provision. Good doctors, scientific research, and advances in health technologies often are his provision” (pg.134).
Sometimes God sends us resources outside Scripture—fresh air, exercise, church families, doctors, medicine, and counseling. Of course, the spiritual resources He’s provided are life-giving wells we will’t do life without, but to disregard the wealthy provisions and helpmates He’s given us forfeits the total life He calls us to live.
If I could return to my past self, I wish I could tell her that the words she heard from that individual weren’t from Jesus. And though they’d well-meaning intentions, God isn’t peering down from heaven waiting to hit me with a lightning bolt for each emotion or illness I face.
He’s not ashamed of me. He doesn’t think ailing of me. And He definitely isn’t mad. But He does love me. He sees me. He cares. And He wants me to hunt help for my struggles using the resources He’s blessed me with. Beyond reading my Bible, praying, or talking with trusted families and friends, He wants me to know that healing is feasible—but it surely’s often not a one-size-fits-all answer. Sometimes it takes time and tapping into the life-giving wells He’s placed on this earth.
Over the last decade, I’ve heard cliches like these which have harmed my mental health. But statements like these help nobody. If we will recognize and refute them, we will likely be one step closer to healing. One step closer to counting on Jesus and the blessings He’s developed inside the world around us. One step closer to ignoring and refuting misconceptions and living in reality, wholeness, and wellness as He intended.
Agape, Amber
Photo Credit: ©RNS/Road Trip with Raj/Unsplash/Creative Commons
