Copyright by Shea Oakley
\nAll rights reserved<\/p>\n
Many believers in the West today do not rest in the love of Christ. We pay lip service to the notion but we do not deeply receive the love He has for us. The evidence of this is the psychological pathology that afflicts such a large percentage of the body of Christ. The gift of God is, among other things, a sound mind. It is impossible to bask in the fullness of His love and remain chronically emotionally ill. Something is wrong when the children of God are popping Prozac like its going out of style.<\/p>\n
Now I do not want to sound like some eternally sour fundamentalist. There are enough voices out there condemning psychology in an arrogant and undiscerning way without adding my own to the chorus. Also, as someone who regularly sees a Christian counselor it would be the height of hypocrisy for me to do so. I also need to make clear that I\u2019m not saying that all those who struggle with feeling the love of Jesus do not truly know Him. That said the fact remains that something is wrong here.<\/p>\n
As much as one tries to find it in the early church the first Christians apparently were not a depressed, anxious bunch of people. While Pentecost might not have ushered in perfect mental health for those who received the Spirit the event was not exactly an occasion for group therapy! The love of God in Christ brought delight and purpose to people who existed in a time and place where life was often brutal and short. Something happened that transformed them from individuals who seemingly had every right to be miserable into beacons of enduring joy.<\/p>\n
The New Testament talks about trials and tribulations. In fact it promises adversity to those who walk in the footsteps of Jesus. What it does not promise is that the Christian life will cause or perpetuate everything from Obsessive-Compulsiveness to Bi-Polar Disorder. Again, the gift of God is a sound mind. When so many believers are without a sound mind it is, I think, justifiable to ask why.<\/p>\n
The cure for what emotionally ails us is the acquisition of heart knowledge that, through Christ, the God of the Universe loves us personally and that we love Him. No one who truly lives in this realization on a daily basis can long be deeply troubled psychologically. Some will call this stance simplistic. Others may say that it is too black and white and that it punishes people for struggling with the reality of still being marooned in a fallen world. Perhaps both objections are valid but they still do not account for the lack of joy and the growing presence of pathology in the Western church today.<\/p>\n
I submit that the problem is not so much psychological as theological. \u201cJesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.\u201d A clich\u00e9? Yes, but profound and life changing truth nonetheless. It is solely in the progressive acceptance of this love that our hearts and minds are put at rest. In the end Jesus Christ Himself is the only deliverance we can count on from emotional disorders and we do well to look to Him directly, even as we continue to take our medication and visit our therapists. Whatever legitimate relief we get from both of these resources ultimately comes from God anyway. The hope is that, some day, we will come to know Him and His love well enough to dispense with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved Many believers in the West today do not rest in the love of Christ. We pay lip service to the notion but we do not deeply receive the love He has for us. The evidence of this is the psychological pathology that afflicts such a large percentage of… <\/p>\n