MENTAL HEALTH AND THE FAITH

Article by David Saili

There are many theories about how the world was created; for those that profess the faith of Christianity, the creation of everything in this world is attributed to a powerful God who brought everything that is seen and not seen into being by the power of his word. Their strong belief in this account is sustained by the faith they have in their God.

Central in this story of how the world was created is the manner in which the first man believed to have been brought intoexistence was made. This account is found in the book of Genesis from the Holy Bible, which Christians believe is God’s very word which was written down by men and women who were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

“Then God said ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…” So God created man in his image” (Genesis 1:26, 27)

Apart from God “physically” getting involved in creating man, the other thing that makes man’s creation unique and paramount is when the concept “in the image of God” is highlighted. Many thoughts have been suggested in trying to explain what really the image of God is. This comes especially when questions like “Does the image of God mean we physically look like God?Could it be that we carry all the characteristics of God or his attributes are within us?” There is one thought we can entertain in line with this issue and this is picked from Psalm 139:14 where we find the writer of that verse bringing out two concepts when he mentions the words “Fearfully” and “Wonderfully” as a nature a human being has been created in. The word fearfully in the original writing carries the connotation that humans have a sense of reverence for God their creator unlike other creatures. The other word key word is wonderfully, which signifies how peculiar a human being is as he can easily be distinguished from other creatures.

It’s from these verses we therefore can suggest that the image of God may mean that a human being was created in a way that he or she is able to reason or do things in a manner that any other part of creation cannot do. Another thing we can pick is the fact that human beings have this great sphere of their life which is powerful because like their God who has vast, countlessthoughts (Psalm 139:17), they can as well have these many ideas or things to think about.

We discover that many who profess to be Christians hardly exercise this component of a human as it should be done. Apart from physical and spiritual aspects of a human being, the other area is the mental faculties that have been embedded in each person. It is this area that time and again has been overlooked hence the total wellbeing and development of an individual is hindered because things are only handled physically and spiritually without the mental aspect being engaged. This can be seen with how every situation is prayed for, something that should defiantly be done for everyone calling themselves a believer but does it really do good to just pray for drug addict and not provide practical steps they can take as they desire to quite such a habit? Is it enough for a student seemingly not clearing a course because of a number of reasons to only pray as they approach their exams? Does it add up that someone in need of a financial breakthrough should continue praying without searching for opportunities that can guarantee them that fortune they desire?

For a long time, many of us as Christians have mishandled certain situations, we have missed opportunities that should have brought the things we prayed for simply because we never exercised our mental faculties. We have not drawn proper principles that perhaps should help and inform us with how we ought to approach certain situations we face in our lives. This in most cases has made us vulnerable and prone to things we should have settled by the use of mental faculties after we had prayed for guidance from God. After praying for God’s strengthening in our battles against all kinds of addictions, we must then take a further step of researching practical ways of how one can quite pornography, smoking or use of any other potential harmful substance. We must research on possible investment plans or business opportunities apart from praying for a financial breakthrough. Other than praying for that demon possessed person, we should take time to discover what other possible causes are there for that strange behavior they may be portraying.

I believe if we all as Christians took time to learn about mental health, it would help us engage our mental faculties just the way we were designed by our creator. It would help us even pray according to God’s will because we shall pray for someone’s emotional healing and not a suspected demon, we will not necessarily pray for a financial breakthrough but we shall pray for that investment opportunity after we have gathered our ideas for a potential business opportunity. We will, apart from praying for someone battling an addiction give practical steps they can take as they seek to let go of whatever thing they wish. As a student you will learn to find possible ways to handle stress in an academic setup and not coming to pray for God to help you understand the concepts you have been learning the entire semester few days before exams.

Christians need to learn about mental health in order to counsel people that may be suicidal, depressed, stressed with various challenges of this life or those having great anxiety for what the future holds accordingly. Prayer is definitely key in all this and I believe that sometimes our prayers should simply be whispered in our hearts in order to ask for inspiration in our conversation with a depressed believer. This should be done in order to help them deal with that past failure or any situation that may have caused them to get into that space. God’s desire is for us to be healthy and since a healthy person is one who is not only free from diseases but one who has a sound mind, one who is emotionally well and in the case of a believer, one who is spiritually well too (Philippians 4: 6 – 7). The scripture make mention of how we need to rejoice in the Lord always, of how we must not be anxious and lastly how God’s peace is able to guard our hearts and minds. Mental health related Problems are not limited to non believers.....