Wellbeing: An Invitation to a Flourishing LifeSample

Emotional Health Matters

Have you ever felt completely hopeless, utterly alone, and forgotten by God? Have you ever felt like God is deliberately inflicting pain on you? If you do, you’re not alone. In fact, Psalm 88 is a song written about that exact feeling. The inclusion of this Psalm in Scripture is an acknowledgment that feeling this way, at some point, is part of the human experience. However, there’s a reason only one of the one hundred and fifty psalms ends like this, God does not want us to stay in this place.

On our better days, we know we can trust in God’s love and His goodness. However, we don’t need to feel guilty when we have days when we just aren’t feeling it, but it’s equally true that staying in this space is not good for our well-being. There’s nothing wrong with having bad days, but we need to learn how to bounce back from these sorts of days.

Just like we can work on our physical well-being, we can also work on our emotional well-being. The enemy will tell us that poor emotional well-being is something that we are stuck with, that it’s a sign that we’re hopeless, or that there’s no point in trying. The path to emotional well-being starts by recognising that we can make progress and that we can find emotional health.

This is a journey best undertaken with someone else. Talk about it! If you’re struggling emotionally, find someone you trust, be open about where you’re at emotionally, and keep talking to them about it. If you find it hard to do this with a friend, talk to a pastor, counsellor, or mental health professional. Even though it sometimes feels like darkness is our closest friend, this is never true, there is always someone out there who is willing to help!

Thought Point: Who do you talk to when you’re struggling emotionally? You don’t have to be in crisis to talk to a pastor or receive counselling. Could either of these be an option for you?

Prayer Point: Ask God to bring people around you to support you in your emotional well-being. Ask Him for wisdom as you seek the best way forward to grow in this area.