Holy Grit — Battling Sickness with Compassion - Wednesday
Today’s Verse
Proverbs 18:14
The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? (NIV)
Our minds are capable of such incredible things. We create and dream, as well as learn and move. But just like our physical bodies, our minds are not immune to sickness. Until recently, sickness of the mind was viewed as something you could simply “pray away.” If you were struggling with a mental battle, you obviously didn’t trust God enough. The cure for this sickness was to simply “surrender it all to Jesus,” and He would take it away.
Now, don't get me wrong. The above statements are so close to being true. When we face trials of any kind, we should surrender them to Jesus. We should trust God with everything: our livelihood, our physical health, and our mental health. When church people simply quote these sayings at someone struggling with their mental health, I struggle with the fact that this kind of verbiage suggests that complete healing is in the hands of the infirm. If you would just trust enough or surrender it all—are you sure you surrendered everything? Then your pain would be taken away.
Trusting in the LORD does not equal a get-out-of-trials-free card. Truly surrendering to the LORD admits that this battle could stick around. But trusting God means we acknowledge that it is in His hands now. Instead of the immediate lifting of a struggle, Scripture shows us an ongoing battle, where we must fully rely on the LORD to hold us up.
Isaiah 41:10 says: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
We all should surrender our trials of any kind to the LORD daily. But equating this daily surrender with immediate relief is not at all helpful for our friends struggling with mental battles.
So what can we do? If you or a loved one are struggling through some tough mental battles, let me encourage you with this: The LORD gave us His armor (Ephesians 6) when we face trials of many kinds. When you face a battle, you don’t go to the front lines unprepared. God gave us the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. These are our defensive weapons. With these by our side, we will be able to stand firm though the battle wages on.
God only gave us one offensive weapon: the sword of the Spirit. There is no crossbow of coolness or javelin of justice. Only our sword. When the time comes to take the offense, how do we use our weapon? Well, where do we find the Spirit? The sword is described in Ephesians 6:17 as “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Jesus only gives us one tool for offense because He knows it is sufficient.
REFLECTION
If you or someone close to you is struggling with their mental health, show them the love and compassion of Jesus. Exercise your sword arm today by looking up these Scriptures and taking them to heart:
Romans 8:28, Isaiah 40:29, Philippians 4:13, 1 Kings 18-19, Isaiah 41:10, Romans 8:31, Romans 8:18, Ephesians 6:18, James 5:13, Job 23:10, James 1:3, James 1:12