In my previous articles in a series on faith and mental health, I acknowledged that Christians may not only suffer in this area, but may also fall victim to religious stigma that fails to welcome them with compassion.

But that is not biblical faith! From the Book of Job to the Psalms and the emotional suffering of its greatest leaders, Scripture shows that Christians carry the treasure of the Gospel in jars of clay.

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Here are four Christian practices to aid the care of your mental health.

Bring your suffering to God

God loves honest prayers! If Jacob dared to spend a night wrestling with God until he was blessed, and Jesus had the courage to ask that his cup be taken away, why can’t you do the same?

The book Struggling with God applies the image of Jacob’s nightlong struggle with God before meeting the brother he had betrayed to affirm, “Christian resilience ... can be a struggle, but it is about having God with us amid our struggles. It can feel we have been struggling – wrestling – with God, but then we discover we have been blessed in the process.” [1]

For example, what a comfort it is to come across a poem that is both sincere and Christian, such as the one by pastor David Grieve.

I dare, as a Christian, to be depressed:
to make the heretic’s admission of discontent,
of dis-ease and fear that will not relent,
I, who have drunk deeply of conversion’s cup.

I know I go on about it
but I refuse to be falsely happy,
to connive, to be clappy,
when all the time life is hell.
I don’t want to be cheered up,
prayed over, witnessed to, preached at, rebuked
like a deserter.

But I’ve looked
in the face of the triune God.
I’ve told him my grim tale
and, bless him, he kept his peace
and his eyes open. He sees
my grimness. That’s a comfort. [2]

Develop a mature faith to face complex problems

Trauma, depression, anxiety, emotional burnout and other mental health challenges can lead to crises of faith. These may be intellectual crises, causing us to question God’s goodness and providence.

They may be emotional crises, where God seems absent or where our emotions are so drained that we pray without feeling anything. Or they may be relational crises, when we are disappointed by other people or institutions.

But do not give up on God! He knows both death and resurrection. He walks with us both in the valley of the shadow of death and in green pastures (Psalm 23).

He is a Saviour who welcomes us with mercy to his throne of grace because he is able to ‘feel sympathy for our weaknesses’ (Hebrews 4:15–16).

Your crisis of faith may prove to be a gift from God that helps you move beyond simplistic understandings and develop a mature understanding of Christianity.

Books by Christians who have lived through their sorrows with God, such as Augustine’s Confessions, Richard Sibbes’ The Bruised Reed and C. S. Lewis’ A Grief Observed, contain comfort and wisdom for times of trial.

Build a support network

The greater your suffering, the more you will be tempted to isolate yourself and think that nobody understands what you are going through. But it is precisely during life’s most difficult times that you need to surround yourself with people who can help you in various ways.

• Spiritual fellowship: make sure you attend church, draw strength from the love of your fellow believers, and serve others.

• Pastoral care: walk under the guidance of pastors who will accompany, advise and protect you.

• Psychological treatment: seek out professionals specialised in the area most relevant to your challenge.

• Trusted friends: it may not be wise to share your struggles with many people, but nurture a few close friendships where you can open up and pray for one another.

• Support groups: listening to people describe struggles similar to your own brings a sense of identification, understanding, comfort and practical advice.

Practise sacrificial love

Loving and serving others is not just part of the Christian life. It will help you move beyond your pain, realise that the world keeps turning – and grow as a person.

The author of a book on marriages hurt by addiction or mental illnesses describes this kind of sacrificial love as ‘advanced training in Christlikeness.’ [3]

Similarly, a great preacher who suffered from depression, Charles Spurgeon, taught young pastors:

Good men are promised tribulation in this world, and ministers may expect a larger share than others, that they may learn sympathy with the Lord’s suffering people, and so may be fitting shepherds of an ailing flock… Such mature men as some elderly preachers are, could scarcely have been produced if they had not been emptied from vessel to vessel, and made to see their own emptiness and the vanity of all things round about them. Glory be to God for the furnace, the hammer, and the file. Heaven shall be all the fuller of bliss because we have been filled with anguish here below, and earth shall be better tilled because of our training in the school of adversity. [4]

Would you like to know more? In the next articles in this series, I’ll be suggesting biblical criteria for evaluating unusual voices, visions, dreams and intuitions, as well as some excellent books on the intersection of faith and mental health.

Notes

[1] Christopher C. J. Cook, Isabelle Hamley, and John Swinson, Struggling with God: Mental Health & Christian Spirituality (SPCK, 2023), 24, 131, 134.

[2] David Grieve, Hope in Dark Places: Poems About Depression and the Christian (Sacristy Press, 2017).

[3] R. Christian Bohlen, Healing the Stormy Marriage: Hope and Help for You When Your Loved One Has Mental Health or Addiction Issues (Carpenter’s Son Publishers, 2021).

[4] Charles H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (Zondervan, 1954), 155, 164.