Episode 512

TODAY’S READING

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Psalm 42:11

I wanted to really focus on mental health because it is something that a lot of us struggle with at times, and it’s something that we know someone else who may be personally walking through a season in which they may be struggling with either depression, anxiety, maybe some bad news, or just the normal grief of a loss of a loved one. And so if that’s you today, I hope that this message speaks to you; if it is a friend of yours, please send it to them. Because God spoke to me last night while I was working on this. And so, we’re also going to be reading out of Matthew 17:20, and it says, He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you… And so, again, because of this National Mental Health Awareness Month, I know the importance of shedding light on this subject because I battled depression for a long time. I was overcome with anxiety, and there were many days where I didn’t even want to get out of bed. 

This was probably back in 2016, if I remember correctly, but in that same year, I grew a relationship with Christ, and my life was forever changed. And I know that it’s a lot easier said than done because there are moments in which I still feel, you know, waves of sadness; just because life can get to us, there are moments in which we are overcome with sadness or with grief. And so, I wanted to switch it here and paint you a picture of what can happen in your life and how that can also tie into the scripture verses. And so sometimes we go to a restaurant, and a waiter will bring you a plate and drop it off in front of you. And you’ll say, Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t order that. And then they turn around; they say, well, you know since it’s already on the table, I messed up, but you can have it, you can take it because I can’t necessarily take that back on the pronoun away. So what happens is that we are left with this food or this plate of food which we didn’t necessarily want or order. And the truth is, is that the world is capable of doing that to us. We get heartbreaking news, and we say I didn’t order that. But the world can’t take it back. And what results is that a lot of us battle this depression; we battle anxiety, and some of us are stressed about Doctor reports. We’re stressed about the grief of a loved one. We are grieving the loss of a dream, the loss of a career. And from one day to the next, our world is changed forever, and we have this play in front of us, and they can’t take it back. And so I’m here to remind you that just like in Matthew 17:20, we can turn to our situations, and we can say, I didn’t order that. But even though the world can’t take it back, we can ask for a site of mustard. Because our Jesus says that faith, the site of a mustard seed, can move this mountain. So whatever you’re facing today, whether that be ways of depression, whether that be a season of loneliness, whether that be a bad doctor’s report or the grief and loss of a loved one. You can order a side of mustard with the plate in front of you, and you can tell this mountain to move; we have a father that loves us, one that wants to stay here with us beside us on wants to green with us, but one that wants to strengthen us. 

And so on this month of National Mental Health Awareness, I want you to be very aware that there are tools and resources that can help you overcome this season. And there is a community of faith believers that are standing behind you with prayer, knowing that this is a season and that you will find all of the strength that you need, all the tools and resources that you need to get through this time. So if that is you, if you need extra prayer, please message me. I would love to pray for you. And if you need any additional help over that, there are some additional resources in the description below.

Prayer

Father God, we love you so much, and we ask that you come beside us and you walk with us during our sad times, during our times that we are raised with anxiety. Lord, we pray for mental health to breakthrough. We pray for clear skies; we pray for the joy of the Lord to overcome us. The Lord, Most importantly, as a community, we come in believing that you are protecting us; you are protecting those that we love. You’re protecting those we come in contact with because together they can be in the millions of people, and Lord, all of us look to you for our strength. Some of us are battling things that we don’t even speak about. So, Lord, we ask you take the tournament torment from us. We ask that you take our burdens and that we cast them on your Lord because the Bible says that we can do so because you want to take that from us. We thank you in advance for all you do for us. We thank you for being the kind of father that takes our heavy burdens. We love you. We ask that you protect our minds; we ask that you protect the minds of those that we love the most. It is in your holy name that we pray for today and every day. Amen.