Depression and Anxiety in Christians by Dr. Scott Rosenthal - HTML preview

CHAPTER EIGHT

GROWTH

HOME PRACTICE REVIEW

1. How did your Transformation go?

2. How did your conversation with someone from your faith community go?

3. Did you have a chance to pray for anyone this week? What did you pray for and could you discern God moving in any way?

4. How did your "0" Factor Activity go? Who, what, when and where did you choose to engage in selfless actions on behalf of another?

5. How did it feel after it was over? Did this meet or differ from your expectations?

6. How did your prayer times go this week?

This week we are going to change routines from our typical session, assignments and homework. Our focus will be solely on the core of this program: that of renewing your mind with scriptural declarations – a process we have called transformations.

Please read over the following commandments of mental health and record your immediate thoughts/feelings after meditating on each one for a few minutes.

MENTAL HEALTH COMMANDMENT #1: GODS GRACE

• "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. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in  persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong".

(2 Cor. 12:9-11)

Observation:

Notice the stark seemingly contrasting principles in the aforementioned verse. On the one hand, we are to rest and celebrate in the sufficiency of God’s grace. As we learn to depend on the Lord to meet our deepest needs, we become more readily open to discovering and confessing our weaknesses?

Most people try to hide their shortcomings to look better to themselves or others. Weaknesses are generally not held in high esteem on this earth. We try to make as few mistakes as possible and meet standards of perfection that are not reasonably obtainable. But God’s program reverses the common psychology. He loves to make Himself known to us and to those we interact with by showing up in surprising ways that aren’t necessarily tied to our hard work or great knowledge.

Conclusion:

When it comes to anxiety and depression we can bring these emotional states to God with open arms ready to give to Him what we cannot bear on our own. God calls us to live our lives on the basis of faith. This means we don’t need to know how, when or why God will take our problems from us. We simply know He will if we let go.

So the call is for joyfulness when we are in the midst of difficulty, trials or sufferings. Adverse circumstances give us an opportunity to lean on His omniscient supernatural power, rather than our own feeble and mostly unsuccessful ways to solve our own problems.

MENTAL HEALTH COMMANDMENT #2: IN CHRIST

• "I can do all things through him who gives me strength"

 (Phil. 4:13)

• "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must  remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine  you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit;  apart from me you can do neither. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch  that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and  burned."

(John 15:4-6)

Observation:

We are encouraged to remain in Christ as our vine or source of nourishment to get all our needs met. As the vine that arises feeds the branch of a tree from the roots and soil below, so we are to be enriched by the person of God in order to bear fruit. The act of bearing fruit is the natural outgrowth of the process of how trees expand.

The fruit exists for the farmer who planted the tree and reaps the harvest when the right time has come to pick the fruit from the branch. Likewise, if we get our needs met by trusting in the sufficiency of God then He takes responsibility to shape our fruit as He sees fit for Himself, others and ourselves.

This is similar to the weakness principle described before. We don’t need to have our mental health "act" together in order to approach God. In fact, He’s asking us to relax and rest in His all sufficiency. He promises us that if we remain in Him we can do anything. If we choose to go our own way we are essentially cutting ourselves off from the vine – which causes withering and death; such as the leftover branches that are picked up off the ground and burned in fire.

Conclusion:

While God freely offers us the gifts associated with being grafted in His source of strength, it requires us to let go of any tight grips we might have around our habits, patterns or old ways of trying to solve our own problems with mental health being chief amount them.

Faith requires us to believe in His abilities to fulfill His promises to take care of us, despite whatever evidence to the contrary (or symptoms) we may experience. We also know from scripture that faith without works or actions is unfruitful or even called "dead". So we are not just supposed to lay around and hope that God will do everything that is needed to heal us.

While it’s true from our scriptures on Grace, Strengths and Christ’s sufficiency that He is the power source, we must recognize that He expects us to act upon our belief in His all sufficiency. That means we need to take the obvious steps before us to serve others and meet our own needs when necessary. For example, we may need to eat more nutritiously and get sufficient and adequate rest. While food, drink and sleep are gifts from God, we are expected to act upon our belief in His ability to use these vehicles of care to mature and grow us.

MENTAL HEALTH COMMANDMENT #3: HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS IS OURS

• "The words  ‘it (righteousness) was credited to him’ were written not for Him alone but  all for us, to whom God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in him who  raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and  raised to life for your justification"

(Rom 4:23-25)

• "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the  righteousness of God"

(2 Cor. 5:21)

• "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the  teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." 

 (Matthe w 5:20)

Observation:

How do we make sense of all these verses about sin and righteousness? First, note that unless we are practically perfect --more righteous than the most learned-we can’t enter Gods presence either now or for eternity in Heaven. This could be a problem if it wasn’t for God’s perfect love and attribute of grace. He knew that on our own we could not be good enough or well enough for His unconditional approval. So therein lies a problem.

Essentially, we are sinful and would rather choose our own ways than follow God. He could have pre-programmed mankind to automatically love Him and follow His will perfectly, which was certainly in His power. But He chose a different plan. He came down to earth in the form of His one and only begotten Son.

Jesus was made responsible for sharing with all people the true purposes and plans of His Holy Father. God wants us to hear these words both then and now and place our faith in His plan for our redemption. Our unintentional and sometimes intentional motives and acts of selfishness greatly disappoint Him.

In fact, the punishment for those who hear the good news about God but reject Him is death. But in God’s grand scheme of things he allowed Jesus to be put to death on our behalf. Even though Jesus did nothing to deserve the persecution and horrific torture he received from his enemies on earth, God allowed Him to die as a type of perfect sacrifice to pay for any and all wrong doings we might commit in the past, present and future. As you have come to know God’s ways it might not surprise you to learn that this whole process started with God’s loving heart and free gift to mankind. Jesus death and the blood He shed cover our mistakes, impurities and selfish tendencies.

We simply need to open our hands and receive this ultimate sacrifice. As if this wasn’t good enough Christ rose from the death of crucifixion on a cross, lived and taught among mankind for a while and then ascended to be with God at His right hand. His redemption purchased eternal life on our behalf so we wouldn’t have to be perfect on our own to try and follow all the Bible’s admonitions and desires of God.

Because of Christ’s sacrifice we are also made perfect through – so God not only doesn’t see our shortcomings any longer but makes us actual children of Him – perfectly loved, accepted and guaranteed a position with Christ at the right hand of the Father when we die. Our part is to choose to love God and accept His sacrificial gift and walk in the newness of life that He planned for us all along.

Conclusion:

I know this can be a lot to swallow, especially if this is the first time you are coming to understand this divine plan. Don’t worry about figuring it all out. God accepts and loves you, mental illness and all, just the way you are. Remember that it is impossible to please God without faith (belief and works). So just take whatever steps you can today. Pray about these verses and especially this final conclusion this upcoming week.

HOME PRACTICE ACTIVITIES

Thankformation:

• Thank you God for giving power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might  He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall  stumble and fall exhausted: But those who wait for the Lord-who expect, look for, and  hope in Him-shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their  wings and mount up-close to God-as eagles -mount up to the sum; they shall run and  not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.

(Isa. 40:29-31)

1. Reflect:

On your prayer times this week, Are your thoughts negative? Can you see positive thoughts and emotions? Describe these:

2. Mood Scoring Exercise (same as prior weeks):

3. Did you have the chance to meet with or talk to another person from your faith community? How did that go?

4. How did you do with the forgiveness and repentance process this week past? List more items, pray about the issues and/or communicate with someone you trust about this matter.