Small Group June 17, 2021

Mental Health

IB: What kind of reality show would you like to appear in?

Prayer: How can we be praying for each other?

Study

Read 2 Cor. 12:7-10.

What thorns in the flesh do people have?

Have you known someone with a persistent mental health struggle like a “thorn in the flesh”?

Have you experienced different mental health struggles (MHS) like a “thorn in the flesh.”

What can Paul’s response to his thorn teach us about facing our MHS’s?

Charles Spurgeon once said, “The mind can descend far lower than the body, for in it there are bottomless pits. The flesh can bear only a certain number of wounds and no more, but the soul can bleed in ten thousand ways, and die over and over again each hour.”--https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/encouraging-truths-mental-illness/

What do you think about this quote?

Four Biblical truths to remember when facing mental health struggles:

1: I am not alone.

Why did Jesus cry out when He was on the cross?

Matthew 27:46 ESV

46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Was He alone?

How do our feelings lie to us with regards to God’s presence?

2: It’s not my fault

Read: John 9:3

John 9:3 ESV

3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

What does this passage teach about the connection between sin and suffering?

Can sin make mental sickness harder? How?

How does James 4:8 both challenge and encourage us?

James 4:8 ESV

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

3: God sees me and is with me.

Remember Lazarus? .....Jesus wept.

God sent a helper:

Romans 8:27 ESV

27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

God is near brokenhearted people.

Psalm 34:18 ESV

18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

4: God’s word has men and women with mental struggles and this can encourage us.

Psalm 25:16 ESV

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.

Psalm 42:5 ESV

5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation

Psalm 88:3 ESV

3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.