Mental Health and Spiritual Warfare

May 13, 2024

It is Mental Health Awareness Month.

Mental illness and spiritual warfare – what’s the difference? Both are very real and very legitimate. But most of the people around us do not acknowledge the spiritual element.

Mental illness is nothing new. Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet. He was a man called and anointed by God, but his nation was in trouble, his message was rejected, and he suffered from so much isolation, loneliness, and depression that he authored a whole book named Lamentations.

King Saul, the first king of Israel, had what would probably be called clinical depression today.

King Nebuchadnezzar became insane for seven years and lived like an animal. He would likely be considered schizophrenic today. The Psalms show David expressing severe anxiety and depression at points in his life.

The afflictions of these characters show that mental health and spiritual health can be deeply intertwined and can affect us in deeply spiritual ways. Refusing to acknowledge the struggle is not helpful. Looking for people who you can blame in some way is not productive. Picking up unhealthy habits is not helpful.

Medication and counseling can be great gifts from God. They can be a great means of God’s grace to you. However, medication and therapy are not enough. Many of us realize at the heart of our mental afflictions, there is something deeper that therapy or antidepressants cannot fix. When you are open to consider the spiritual dimension, there are some extremely helpful truths to discover:

God is the best counselor, and the Source of all good counsel. … let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV

Journaling can help me surrender my anxiety to God. This can help heal my heart and relationship with God. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7 NIV

God has given us tools to combat the spiritual forces that are against us. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 NIV

The most important battle Christians fight is spiritual warfare. It is absolutely critical that we choose only the things that keep the door to our minds closed to Satan, choosing only to nurture faith. During anxiety one of those choices is to deliberately talk with God about the things that are causing it. Journaling and specific prayers help release my feelings in a positive, productive manner. The more vulnerable and transparent I am with God, the better able I will be to receive His love.

The concern for mental health has been around before we had any thoughts about psychology or even knew what to call it. As we have already considered, in the Bible we see people who are mentally healthy and unhealthy. Some problems are related to sinfulness. Randy Alcorn says, “There’s a time when the brain may be malfunctioning, and there may be medications that can help the person. Our mind and our brain are not the same thing, but they overlap. There’s the physical brain, and then we have this spiritual, immaterial thing that is called a mind. We need to do what we can to see that, as Scripture says, our minds are in conformity to Christ:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind … Romans 12:2 NKJV

Jesus addresses our heart, our soul, our minds, and our bodies. It’s important to look at a person as a whole unit and not just address a problem as spiritual. If the problem is spiritual, it’s also affecting the rest of that person as well. There can be a satanic or demonic attack on a person. The Bible talks about the influences of the world, our flesh, and the devil.

The culture has an immensely powerful influence on our thinking, particularly about success, power, sex, money, beauty, and more. We can easily drift into unhealthy patterns of thinking. The more wrong ways we get from culture to look at life will debilitate us and affect our mental and spiritual health. We must consciously choose to get into God’s Word and learn His way of thinking, learn from God’s people, get wise counsel, and aggressively, confidently address our mental health for our satisfaction and God’s glory.