How Knowing Jesus Affects My Mental Illness
Hi friend! What is your perception of Jesus?
I believe in Him, am forgiven by Him, and He gives me eternal life. But I haven’t always followed Him. I believed in Him as a youngster, but my heart grew far away from Jesus during my Middle School years and Freshman year of High School.
During my Junior year of High School, I wrote in my diary, I want to get to know God better. God answered that prayer as events unfolded in my life that led me to my future husband who shared his faith with me. Even though I’d been in church all my life, I was so amazed by who Jesus was that I began to follow Him and experience His love and forgiveness and share Him with others.
Years passed as I grew in the knowledge of His love even more. But after I left the psychiatric unit of a hospital in Portland, Oregon, while we were on a vacation in 1989, I felt like Jesus had let me down. Yet I still came to Him daily for strength to cope with my battle with depression, and He proved Himself faithful to love me even though I felt disappointed in Him.
Those feelings eventually left because He tenderly guided me through my illness as the Good Shepherd who restores my soul, and I slowly moved toward recovery from depression, sometimes one step forward and two steps back.
Maybe you’re suffering because of the limitations that your mental illness foists on you, the stigma and angst you feel, or the uncontrollable emotions or behaviors that distress you. How does knowing Jesus help us during these moments or extended periods of time?
He speaks to us through His Word, the Bible. The ancient writer, Isaiah, foretold that Jesus would be the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. You may know Jesus as your counselor. He guides us and gives us counsel from His Word (though we may also need a professional counselor to give us insight into our mental health issues as well).
Jesus is our advocate. He is interceding to the Father for us. He sympathizes with all the stress we go through because He is human—all man and all God. While He was on earth, He experienced the full range of emotions a person goes through, yet He didn’t sin. That’s why the fact that He is with us is so important—because He is our best friend that we can talk to. He is always ready to listen.
During a time in my forties when I fell into a hole of depression for months and couldn’t climb out, the presence of Jesus comforted me.
As I sat at my kitchen table in the mornings with an open Bible, I poured out my heart to Him. I looked out the windows of our French doors at the trees in the distance, and I felt empty inside. In spite of the loss of joy, I knew Jesus was with me. He was still there. He was faithful. He says in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, I will never leave you or forsake you.
Communion with Christ was the thread that kept me in touch with God.
I wasn’t emotionally stable, but He was my Rock. He was my strength
There I was—limping through life, and He was there as the Good Shepherd, guiding me and helping me through the dark valleys.
Now, as I have recovered from clinical depression, He is my strength and song. I find peace in Him, and He gives me power to face the challenges and difficulties of life.
There are so many aspects to His character that I would never ever have the time or knowledge to name them all. Who can dig so deeply into His depths that we exhaust His endless love?
Do you know Jesus? Do you want to know Him better? If you ask Him, He will make a way for you to know Him and bring people into your life like He did for me. He desires a relationship with you more than you’ll ever know.
He told the crowds that He is The Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep. He said in a parable that a good shepherd leaves the ninety-nine and goes out to find that one lost sheep.
Take comfort, my friend. If you are limping through life, Jesus will scoop you up into His arms, carry you on His shoulders, bandage your wounds, and restore your soul.
- Marilyn