Learn To Be Content
Use All the Tools at Your Disposal
In an attempt to put on a happy face one day before church, I groused to my husband I was going to have to “fake it ‘til I make it” about appearing glad to be at church and excited to see everyone. My husband, who doesn’t understand why anyone would fake anything, started probing into why this should even be a thing.
Long story short, here’s what I came up with: we have to be happy all the time to prove God is good in front of unbelievers, and that if you’re not happy, you must not be blessed, and therefore, somehow in sin.
So bring that pie to the potluck and smile, y’all! Apparently, I’m Southern AND codependent, so we must all be happy or I’ll scream.
In truth, God made our brains with a rich tapestry of emotions, and none of them are bad or evil. Using them as a reason to treat others poorly, sow division and discord, or exclude people from the good news of the gospel, is actually bad. Evil, perhaps.
For this reason, I work on my mental health by doing more than just praying that God will make me a better person and for others to stop acting dumb. God, who designed our brains, gave us many spiritual disciplines that will help us re-wire the neural pathways that set our behaviors and responses to provocation. Seeking God in meditation is scriptural, and who better to alert us of our misguided reactions than the Holy Spirit?
The Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:11 that he, “learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” It does not say he wasn’t ever angry, frustrated, sad, or elated, just that in all those emotions he was able to find contentment in the moment. I will tell you, that is a supernatural response that is cultivated over time by seeking the wisdom and peace of God in every situation, and you cannot do it while your mind and brain are in a state of dysfunction over an emotion you are unable to process.
Learning the therapeutic techniques to understand yourself and why you act the way you do, coupled with focused and direct prayer that speaks into your specific situation, with scripture designed from the beginning of time to have a healing effect on your senses, is the key to solid mental health that will broaden your relationship with the Lord and enable you to live in unity with the Body of Christ.
Case in point: David, the one whom God called, “a man after His own heart,” one day returned to his village to find it burned to the ground by his enemies, and all the women and children carried off. His own men, after raising a wailing cry of devastation, turned on him, threatening to stone him for making them leave the village unattended.
David’s reaction? In I Samuel 30:6 says he “strengthened himself before the Lord.” He did not to pushups for the crowd, but he demonstrated the mental strength to find God in the moment of extreme fear and devastation. He was able to put a pause on the suffering and confusion long enough to get clear direction from God on what to do next, and the ability to follow through without his legs failing underneath him.
Mental health is the key to strengthening all our relationships, first and foremost the relationship we have with God. Placing God in the center of this process is necessary and right, even as we utilize the world’s therapeutic tools. It will take both our determination, and the supernatural strength God promises to those who seek him.
Do you feel that utilizing therapeutic tools is not Christian? Why or why not?
What emotions do you need God’s help in dealing with?
What would contentment look like to you?
“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” (Philippians 4:11 NIV)
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