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Looking around the congregation on Sunday, the statistics tell me that in a congregation of 50 people, 10 people will be struggling with mental health challenges. Throughout October, if you watch ABC TV or spend any time on social media, you’re going to know about Mental Health Month. Unfortunately, being a Christian, and going to church, doesn’t make us immune from issues with mental health.

So as followers of Jesus, what are we to think about mental health? Some people tend to think it’s purely a biological concern. Others feel it’s simply a spiritual problem. As I’ve spent time studying the ‘Theological and Pastoral Perspectives on Mental Health’ this year, I am seeing more and more, the many layers to a person’s mental health experience and usually it is a result of a complex range of factors.

What we do know is that the Lord is intimately aware and concerned for those of us living with mental health concerns. I love the image of God personally caring for our brokenness in Ps 147:3 ‘He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.’

The Lord God knows us more deeply than anyone. And he is as close to us as he has always been, despite how we are feeling or how mentally healthy we are. God has not moved away from us and he won’t let us go. We can trust God’s word when he says nothing in all creation can separate us from his love in Christ (Romans 8:39).

The Bible encourages us as Christians that even in our frail bodies, God is at work within us, inwardly renewing us spiritually, despite the state of our mental and physical health. There is a life free of these struggles ahead, in the timing that God ordains for us. In the meantime, we hold onto these words:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

If you are struggling, can I encourage you to tell one person: your GP, Lifeline, a trusted friend or St Jude’s Ministry Team member who can support you to get help.

As the family of believers, his church, we mirror our God’s loving compassion and care, and so we need to give others facing mental ill-health our support, not our judgment. When we hear that our grandchild has been diagnosed with anxiety, when we sense a person in our Connect Group is not their  usual  self, or when we notice someone in the congregation is not traveling well: a question to think over might be ‘could there be more going on for this person?’

The wonderful news is as we care for one another, we don’t need to fix each other’s problems. Instead, we can be quick to listen and slow to speak. This can be a profound help.

We can be that team of loving brothers and sisters in Christ who walk alongside in friendship with each other, helping to manage the struggles of life together that are common to all of us. We can do this over a cup of coffee after church, in our Connect Groups, going for a walk together during the week, or popping over with cake (and staying to chat if they’d like that).

Sometimes those struggling with their mental health are only capable of being on the receiving end of friendship for a period of time. Those caring for someone with mental health challenges can feel overwhelmed, and they need our love and encouragement too.

Being faithful in prayer for someone you are concerned about is another way of ‘loving each other deeply  from the heart’ (1 Peter 1:22). Here’s a prayer you may like to pray for someone you know who needs support, or you may even want to pray it for yourself:

Our gracious God and loving heavenly Father, we know that our world is fallen and broken and that this has impacted every aspect of human life. Today we pray for those of us who experience challenges to our mental health. We thank you for the depth of your love for us in giving our Lord Jesus Christ so that we might be restored in relationship with you. We thank you that your love for us does not depend upon what we do or our feelings or the quality of our mental health. Thank you that even when our resources are spent, we rest secure in your loving hands. Please uphold and strengthen us. May our hearts and minds be guarded and kept by the strong and loving peace that is ours in Christ Jesus, in whose name we pray, Amen.

I’m particularly praying for us all over this coming month, that God will cement in our hearts the truths of Romans 8 that nothing, including mental health, will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Grace and Peace,

Sarah Bull

Prayer and information sourced from Mental Health Resource Pack- Keith & Sarah Condie

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