Mental Health: Saying Goodbye to Stigmaنموونە

Day Seven - God’s Grace in Weakness

2 Corinthians 12:8-9 -Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

At my lowest, weakest point in my journey through mental illness, I didn’t want to be here anymore.

Life and the thought of going on was an unimaginable concept.

My friend, if you have reached a similar place in your struggles with mental illness, if you are beyond wanting to continue with life itself, please, PLEASE hear me when I say this is not the best choice for your life.

There is help for you.

There is a better life for you.

There is hope for you.

In my weakest moment, when ending my life was my ‘best option,’ I felt a glimmer of strength rise up in me, and I reached for my phone and called my dad. He then encouraged me to call a friend to come and be with me until he could get to me.

I write this story into this devotional because the number of individuals with mental illnesses who decide to take their own lives is frighteningly common. To battle day after day in your own skin is excruciating. It is lonely. Oftentimes, you just cannot see a way out.

But there is. Especially when you know the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we are weakest, He is strongest. I truly believe that that glimmer of strength that I experienced that day that enabled me to reach for my phone and put down the means to end my life was God’s mercy.

Do not be afraid of being weak.

Do not try to save face or protect your reputation.

Reach out.

Get help.

Seek it out with whatever you have left within you.

I have begged God to take away my mental illness. Just as Paul had a thorn in His flesh that tormented him and perhaps prevented him from living in the ways he wanted, he begged God to remove it from him.

And God said no.

God simply stated that when Paul was weak, God is strong.

So, if you have contemplated ending your life but have felt too ashamed, afraid, or embarrassed to admit it, please know that you are not alone.

Remember the goodness of God, that even if no one else can be there for you, He can be.

He can lift you out of this pit of despair and set your feet on a solid rock that cannot be shaken.