Guiding Bible verse:
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light Matthew 11:28–30 (KJV).
When we face emotional struggles or deal with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, the only thing we can do is give our trials and struggles to Jesus. The more we try to fight these battles on our own, the harder we fall. If you’re like me, one minute you think you’re okay, and the next you’re right back to your broken state.
This has been true in my own life for many years. That is until I took the biggest step of my life by God’s grace to get the help I needed.
I’ve delt with undiagnosed anxiety for several years. I’ve had many experiences over the course of my life that caused me to be overwhelmed, caused me to become introverted, and keep mostly to myself. There have been times when I’ve felt like a failure as a writer, a mom, and I felt like I had to justify why I wasn’t doing one thing or another, or why I was late to something or other.
I journaled about my struggles both electronically and by hand, and even read devotionals to try to get my emotions under control.
I didn’t know I had a problem until my daughter came to liv with me for six months last year. During her therapy intake appointment that summer, I felt a nudge in my spirit prompting me to consider getting help for myself. The therapist could tell that I had anxiety, though it was undiagnosed. I talked to my mother and my daughter, and a couple of close friends about seeing a therapist to get confirmation of the diagnosis and to learn what my next steps should be.
I have to admit, there were days when the devil whispered in my ear, “You’re fine, you don’t need help. Just read your Bible and all will be hunky dory. That seemed to work at first, until my daughter decided to stay with her father at the last minute. After my parents and I went to pick her up at our visitation exchange location, my sense of being “fine” crumbled to the ground. That week in the middle of October 2024 was one of the hardest weeks I’ve ever faced in my life.
I went to my local mental health clinic in September of 2024 to see a therapist and the psychiatric nurse practitioner. The combination of therapy, and a mild medication to take the edge off my overwhelming emotions helped me break through my anxiety.
God is the source, everything else is a resource. God has the power to heal us by His divine power. However, there are times when He uses healthcare professionals and medicines as sources of healing. He could have freed me from my anxiety the moment I first cried out to him, so I wouldn’t have had to ride the emotional roller coaster, but then I wouldn’t have made a deeper connection with Him and learned to trust him completely through drawing and handwriting.
My word for 2024 was “growth.” At the time I thought it meant growth in my writing and in my editing business. But the Lord showed me that my growth was personal and private, not growth that would be seen by the public eye.
This year, my word is clarity. God made it clear to me that my overwhelming anxiety had to die, for Him to birth something new within me.
Read Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 and pay special attention to verse three: “A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;” (KJV). In the first half of this verse, God showed me that the afflictions we face in life must die—meaning we must turn to God for the resource to overcome our anxiety, depression and other mental, physical, and emotional issues, for God to heal our broken spirits by drawing us closer to Him, and birth something new within us or take us to a higher level. I’d like to share a dream I had at the beginning of 2025 to illustrate my point.
In this dream, my father was driving a golf cart to a building. I was in the passenger seat and a three-month-old baby was strapped into a car seat in the back of the cart. This dream was set the day after someone in my family had passed away. Later in the dream, I was in a building with a tin roof. I was having a private conversation with someone on the second floor of the building, in the middle of a heavy downpour. There was no thunder or wind, just a heavy, loud, peaceful, cleansing rain.
Sometimes God speaks to me in dreams, and I don’t always know what these dreams mean when I wake up from the dream, the first day, or even the first few days afterwords. It took a week for God to reveal to me the meaning of my dream. It took three months, before he birthed something new in me. If you’ll give your troubles to Jesus and put your trust in Him, He can do the same for you, too.
I have a bit of encouragement and a challenge for you. I encourage you to give all of your troubles to Jesus. After you have done this in your journal, ask the Lord what life-changing first step he wants you to take. I suggest you write this prayer in your journal, because writing is cathartic and it helps you get the thoughts out of your head and onto the page. If this doesn’t work for you, speak to God in your own prayer language. Sit with Him for a while and listen for the still small voice of the Holy Spirit to lead, guide, and direct your steps. Don’t forget to write His answer in your journal, in the Notes app on your phone, or on a piece of paper and place it where you can see it every day, as a reminder of the steps you need to take on your healing journey. The time to heal is now.
Journal Reflection:
What important first step did you take to start your healing journey with Jesus? How has this small, yet important first step changed your life?