For those of you who have been following along with our TRANSFORMED series, Pastor Doug’s sermon yesterday kicked off the week dedicated to mental health. Given my profession as a counselor, this topic is very interesting to me and I think it is to a lot of people — this is an area in which we all struggle to some degree. I’d like to look at a couple of our devotions for TRANSFORMED this week and expand on them a little bit.

The first devotion is today’s devotion, Day 16. It’s based on Philippians 4:6-7, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

As is pointed out in the devotion, this is often easier said than done. I’ve talked with a couple of people during my time here who have struggled with this verse. These have been people of great faith, who have been very hard on themselves because they do struggle with anxiety and worries, and felt that if their faith was stronger it wouldn’t be an issue. They feel that they should just be able to give it over to God and everything would be better. But that’s not always the case. You can give your anxiety and worry over to God. And you can also give Him the guilt you feel if you feel you haven’t trusted him enough. But there also may be work that you need to do. You can give your worry and anxiety to God and trust that he will see you through it but still work to learn new skills and ways of coping with your anxiety. For some reason with mental health, some people have a tendency to think that if they simply have enough faith, God will fix everything. If you were praying for a new job and trusting that God would provide, but weren’t putting in applications anywhere, would you expect to find one? Probably not. Of course God could have a job fall into your lap, but most people would do the work (putting in applications) and then trust that God would provide. I have spoken with many people who treat mental health differently. And even if that isn’t you, and you have put in the work, but still have trouble giving your anxieties over to God, it certainly does not make you a bad Christian.

The second devotion is tomorrow’s devotion, from Philippians 4:8-9, Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me — put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

The devotion talks about how what we put into our mind is going to affect our thoughts and our thoughts then affect our actions. Both Pastor Doug and Pastor Eric spoke about this over the last few weeks and it is so true. It has never been harder to block out the bad and let in the good than it is now. With so much garbage on TV, billboards, and the media in general, it is an uphill battle for Christians to try to fill their minds with good, godly things. The husband who struggles with viewing pornography is filling his mind with garbage that is going to affect thoughts he has about women, which will ultimately have an impact on his marriage. Young people who are immersed in a culture that promotes moral relativism risk slowly drifting apart from God and embracing the world’s ever-changing values.

To some degree, we all have issues with what we put into our minds, nobody gets it right 100% of the time. Admitting that you could do better about this as a Christian and being more vigilant and intentional about what you’re putting into your mind is a first step. This devotion talks about deliberately replacing the garbage with something good. And there’s a lot of good out there. Replace watching a graphic rated R movie with a family game night. If you find yourself in a conversation with gossip, quietly excuse yourself and center your thoughts on something more positive.

With three weeks down, we are really moving along with TRANSFORMED, and it has been encouraging to hear how great the small groups are going. As was announced at church this past weekend, Celebrate Recovery will be the 90-day piece for Mental Health that will be starting up in June following the TRANSFORMED sermon series and small groups. If you want more information on Celebrate Recovery, please get in touch with me. I hope you are having a great Monday!

Jarvis