Mental Fitness

We are continuing to prepare ourselves for taking discipleship as a way of living our whole lives for Christ.

We have talked about the importance of spiritual fitness and how this develops our relationship with God and draws us closer. Without prayer, scripture reading, and other spiritual disciplines, we are not developing our spiritual fitness.

Next we moved into one of the hardest areas of life to give God control over: finances. We talked about how importance it is to put it all before God and let God guide you in using the blessings wisely for supporting the church and helping others, even when it seems like it is impossible. When God comes first in our budgets, everything else that needs to work out does so.

Last week we talked about how our bodies are a temple for the Holy Spirit and made for glorifying God. We are to treat our bodies as not our own but as the temple which the Holy Spirit is welcome to dwell in. We talked about how the kings in the Old Testament either were reforming and cleaning out the defilement in the temple so that worship was restored or they defiled it and worship faltered. When we honor our bodies in order to bring glory to God, we make room for the Holy Spirit but when we pollute it and abuse it, we leave little room for God to dwell in us.

This week we shift our focus from physical fitness to mental fitness. Our minds are the center by which we are able or unable to direct our lives for God’s will and purpose.

Let us pray:

Eternal God, we come to you this morning thankful that in each area of our lives, you are not only present but you can help us walk the path of discipleship. While we have long way to go, we are hopeful and anticipating your Holy Spirit to teach us this morning about mental fitness. Helps us to see clearly when we need to deal with the stuff in our minds and when we need to seek the help of others. Guide us Lord in scripture and in receiving in our minds and hearts Your message today. In Christ name we ask this, Amen.

Lets start the journey today with one of my life verses that is an anchor for my soul when life’s storms start to overwhelm me. Listen to Paul in Philippians 4:4-9

Philippians 4:4–9 NRSV

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Paul implores us to rejoice in the Lord always. Why? Because you always have God on your side, regardless of whatever is going on good or bad, great or small. You always have an advocate who wants to help you better yourself and your life. This is something to always rejoice over. Rejoicing sometimes help us to shift our minds to focus on a positive that can be greater than the negative. While this does not cancel out or remove the negative in our life, it helps us to find an anchor where joy can be present in the midst of all the emotions of life.

Listen to Philippians 4:6 again

Philippians 4:6 NRSV

6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Verse 6 is a life principle in my opinion that when we live by it, we can get through all things great and small. Worrying or being anxious robs us of the joy mentioned previously. I spoke about anxiety a couple of years ago and showed how the brain’s ability to think is hindered when things like anxiety cause us to not be able to think clearly in situations but become tied up in the anxiousness we feel and unable to rationally think through something,

Paul here is reminding us that when we start to worry or feel anxious, we need to go to God with that. If we can train ourselves to go to God with what we are feeling, then we can let God in and let God help. Too often, we feel shame or fear in not being able to handle ourselves and conquer our emotions. It becomes a viscous cycle where we feel anxious about not being in control. We fear others finding out so we retreat and hide or pretend everything is fine. We begin to feel even more anxious because what if someone can see right through our pretending. This process not only hinders our mental health further but also causes us to withdraw from others because of our anxiousness.

The second part of what Paul gives us in verse 6 is to bring everything to God in prayer and supplication. I look at it this way. When I start to worry about a situation, I need to simply go to God and pray to God what I am feeling in that situation. I know God already knows but there is something that happens when we lay it before God. It starts to no longer be the secret but instead becomes the opportunity to give is over to God and then be thankful that it is God who helps us.

Thirdly, Paul gives us hope that if we will do this (verse 6), then verse 7 speaks to our hearts and minds what God is able to do in all circumstances. Listen to Philippians 4:7 again.

Philippians 4:7 NRSV

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I read this passage often. I meditate on and seek this peace of God in my life. I need the peace of God which guards me against my fears, worries, and anxiousness in life. It is not that they ever simply go away but I don’t have to go through it alone or conquer them on my own.

Lastly, verses 8-9 give us ways in which we can retrain our minds to dwell on things that will draw us closer to God which keeps the peace of God present in our lives. Listen once more to Philippians 4:8-9

Philippians 4:8–9 NRSV

8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Keep your mind focused on the truth, what is good for you, what is pleasing to God, keep your mind and life focused on these things, rather than the things that take our minds to places that are harmful to us and our mental health. When we can successfully do this and keep doing it, the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds.

In a closing note, I will share my personal feelings on this topic. Mental health has been a struggle in our culture. Some look at mental health as almost taboo. It used to be that when someone was diagnosed with a mental illness, they were put away or hidden away because somehow it was shameful to have a mental illness. Some folks think you just need to get over them and other folks think people who have mental illnesses should be removed. If you ever want to see me angry then take one of these stances about mental illness being shameful or all in their head. I realize our own ignorance , mine included, hinders our ability to process people and their illness apart from each other. In other words, we sometimes see that person and the illness as one. We have a hard time separating the illness that afflicts them and their identity as a human being. However, we must do this if we are to love person as God loves each one.

Secondly, mental health is not always something you can simply deal with on your own. Their are times when professional help is needed. This is a second area in our culture where it has such a negative view on the subject. If you need professional help then your life is out of control because of something you did or something you just did not try hard enough to fix. If you needed professional help in that situation, you might not be stable in the future so I can’t trust you. While for some this may sound silly or absurd, for others it is a reality, or perhaps a struggle happening in deciding on seeking professional help. Seeking professional help is exposing it before the world (or at least that is what it might feel like). Personally, I try to and encourage others to see mental health as no different than physical health. It is vital to our wellbeing and to ignore signs that we need help is to leave something like a heart condition untreated.

Lastly, and I do not want you to take this the wrong way but not everyone is a mental health professional, not everyone is a counselor that can help you. I say this in order to caution you when you do need help that professionals have lots of training that others do not. In pastoral counseling I have my limitations to giving advice on spiritual matters. I cannot and will not counsel you on how to deal with depression. While this may sound harsh, I likely do not have the education background or experience in order to help you deal with your depression in a healthy manner.

For example, if you come to me and say I have this problem of worrying about everything and I simply say stop worrying and move on. Was that helpful and did it help you to learn how to deal with the underlying causes that make you worry? No, and when I do this you are likely not going to be any better off and you are also less likely to try getting help again on the matter. I hope this makes sense but if you have questions please ask them.

In summation, we go to God for our mental well being. We also must know when to seek professional help. Mental health is a vital part to living a healthy life of discipleship. When we are not honest with ourselves or God, we are not exposing the things that we need help on and we miss out on that peace of God that guards our hearts and minds. When we stop seeing mental health as taboo, we can begin to seek help in areas that diminish our lives and prevent us for living fully for God as a disciple of Christ.