There are so many “mental health” things these days. I understand. Look at the times in which we live. As the old movie title stated, “It’s a mad, mad, mad world” and its only gotten crazier by the day.
So how does one stay sane in an insane world? I know of only one way.
It boils down to focusing on UNCHANGEABLE THINGS. In a world where things taken for granted throughout all of human history are suddenly changing under your feet, you focus on the truly unchangeable. What is that? It is a verse given to us from God in Hebrews:
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8 ESV
If you want mental health in today’s world, this is your verse. Why is that? Well…Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and therefore he does not change. He is the same yesterday, right now, and forever into the future. What He is in the past and right now…you can count on into the future with no end. That is fantastic news.
I can know that He is the Creator of all that is. Not only did He create all, he sustains it at this very moment. The great “I AM” says to the universe “BE!” and thus it continues on…until the time comes that this age ends and He recreates everything in a sinless state; a state of perfection forever.
If you want some bedrock under your feet as you face the world, the Westminster Confession has some bedrock for you as it compiles Biblical teaching into this one statement:
God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.
Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 3
I love that phrase “whatsoever comes to pass”. That tells me whatever happens to me, whatsoever “comes to pass” in this world, has first passed through the will of the loving Lord of all. It is fulfilling his eternal, most wise plan. He has “ordained” it to happen. As the Apostle Paul stated it in Romans:
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 ESV
So, if you love God – the God as revealed in the Bible – you can know that ALL things are working for good, even if they are painful. He has ordained it for His glory and your good. He can be trusted. The same God who incarnated as Jesus Christ and went to a cross to show his eternal love (John 3:16) does not change. Whatsoever He allows, yes even ordains to occur in this life and in your circumstances…is for your good and His glory.
R.C. Sproul used to say there is not a single maverick molecule in the universe. Every molecule of matter obeys God’s ultimate will. I love that. If you believe and contemplate that, then nothing can really rattle you. Nothing. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve depended on this in various situations to keep me grounded. If God is in control of every single molecule that exists (and He is), then what do you have to fear? Whatsoever comes to pass in the physical world of molecules is under his command and control. No exceptions.
You want stability in the constantly changing world threatening your mental health? Land here. The unchanging God in absolute sovereign control of every molecule. Know him, and rest in him. His burden is easy and his yoke is light. Any suffering in the life of a believer has a purpose, a good purpose – and all we now see is temporary anyway – permanence is coming in the eternal state of perfection with Him as our God. He NEVER changes; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.