Emotional and Mental Health - The Whole Person

 

A lady, who has been in our church Body since before I started writing this blog, found out this week that I write a post as a nightly devotion. She said, "I'll bet it is a good read, because you are very spiritual, aren't you?"

I answered, "I write about what I'm learning at the time. I include the body and soul, as well as the spirit. I believe in ministering to the whole person." She stared at me like I had two heads.

I have a Biblical precedence for my ministry goal with my blog. God includes the body and soul with the spirit in his ministry to people as well (Psalm 23-all). During His ministry on earth, Jesus regenerated the spirit from death to life, forgave sins in order to free the soul and healed the sick in body and soul (Matthew-all; Mark 2:9).

Paul taught us to include the body and soul in our spirituality when he admonished, " So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:13). 

We can successfully accomplish nothing in this life apart from the Spirit of God. God even uses some unregenerate people to accomplish His will, although they do not even realize it (Ezekiel 29:4, 38:4).

If it is necessary, God will cause a donkey to speak by His power (Numbers 22:21-39).  He is a creative God, as well as a caring and loving God. He wants what is best for us. That is why He created Paradise as our original dwelling place.

It is the wayward, prideful choices we make that block God's blessings from our life. We want to do things our own way, controlling our own life and being responsible to or answerable to no one, not even to God.

God's ways are certainly higher than our ways, beyond human comprehension sometimes, which makes it harder to trust His wisdom and intentions. Yet, if we totally surrender to God's will, we find our self blessed beyond our most vivid imaginations.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for caring about our body and soul as well as our spirit (Psalm 23:1-3). You provide for all of our needs according to Your abundant riches (Philippians 4:19). You are worthy of all of our praise, service and attention. You want only what is best for us, even if we do not recognize Your intentions at the time.

We usually, eventually see the wisdom in Your answers to our prayers, even if we do not understand while we are in the midst of our trials. You send the right people at the right time in the right place to bless us beyond our expectations. We thank You for saving us through regenerating our spirit, sanctifying our soul, and we look forward to You glorifying our body when we see Jesus face-to-face.

Thought for the Day:

God gives us joy beyond words and new mercy every single morning. - 1 Peter 1:8; Lamentations 3:22-23

Worship the Holy One

 

Worship is not about the style of music presented at our local church. Worship starts in our spirit and in the privacy of our own home. We begin each day with worship in our heart to the Holy One.

We are filled with praise to our God from the moment we open our eyes until we snuggle into our covers every night. Our spirit will even worship as we sleep; and we will wake with a song filtering through our mind.

We do not wait until Sunday morning and expect our worship team to take us to spiritual heights we neglected all week. Worship is a way of life for every authentic Believer.

This way, when we gather with the Saints at the appointed times and place, we can worship regardless of the song style, musical ability, stage presence or technological advances is the service (Ephesians 5:19-20).

We are already ministering to our Savior and King with songs of praise, filled with love and gratitude for His majesty and blessings in our life, which pour forth from our soul all day long.

Even in trials and tribulation, we praise Him for salvation through Christ, the leading of His Spirit, His unconditional love, His continual provision and His forgiveness for our sins, even while we were still sinners (Romans 5:7-9).

A life of continual praise prepares us for unexpected challenges that meet us during life on this sin-cursed earth. We trust only in the Lord and never rely on our human understanding or assessment (Proverbs 3:5-6).

We see our self as a living sanctuary - pure, holy, faithful and grateful to our living Lord (1 Corinthians 3:16). Set apart for the Lord, we are no longer concerned about the temporal issues of life; but filled with the peace, joy and rest of the Lord (Hebrews 10:10-12).

Prayer:

Father God, help us to understand that our life is the true place of worship to You. Worship is not designed to make our soul feel good or our flesh to tingle, but as our offering to You. We dedicate our life to bringing glory and honor to You, even in the mundane aspects such as what we eat and drink (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Help us to focus on You rather than our self. Remind us to praise You all day long, to think only positive thoughts (Philippians 4:8), to bring You glory and honor with all that we think, say and do. We live with a heart devoted to worshipping only You. We dedicate the music in our heart and on our tongue as a worship to You every moment of every day of our life.

Thought for the Day:

We are true worshippers in spirit and in truth, making music in our hearts to the Lord. - ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­John 4:24; Ephesians 5:19-20

Loving Our Self

As a perfectionist codependent, I always put everyone else's needs above my own. As we all serve one another, we all get served. I read in the Bible that God wanted it this way.

However, it did not work that way in the first 45 years of my life. I did all the serving and others did all the taking with rare expressions of gratitude or encouragement for what I did.

I grew to resent the lack of reciprocation and my constant physical and emotional exhaustion. I felt like a hamster on its wheel, going round and round day after day and getting no place fast.

One day I realized that I was actually teaching people to expect me to do everything and not to respect me or my needs. I had a savior and martyr complex a mile wide and high.

The fact is, however, that I love to serve others. It is my main ministry in Christ's body. Thankfully, I started working for a recovering codependent at this same time and she spoke truth to me that set me free.

She said, "You are a person too, and you can minister to yourself and meet your needs in the same way you meet everyone else's needs." WOW! That gave me food for thought.

She reminded me of Jesus' words to love others as we love our self (Luke 10:27). I realized right away that I did not love myself in the same way that I loved others.

This opened up a whole new world for me. I went to the library and checked out books on how to be a nurturing parent. I learned to nurture myself and how to nurture others in a healthier manner.

Prayer:

Father God, so many times we take Your words at face value and skip over the minute details of the verse. We miss so much of the meat of Your Word because we do not take them in context with other verses in the Bible. We miss the whole picture, which You intend for us to see.

As we follow the leading of Your Spirit each moment of the day, we stop allowing the good things to become the enemy of the best things. We stop spinning our wheels by so much busyness and we live productive lives that bring us joy as we also give joy. We develop a closer relationship with You and people see our good works and give You the glory (Matthew 5:16).

Thought for the Day:

As we walk in the Spirit, we stop enabling others to be less than they can be by allowing them to do hard things for themselves and to learn to lean on God instead of on us, so they can live productive lives.