mental illness

Power for the humble

/ E Bishop Wooten / Leave a comment
2 Cor. 12:9. . .”And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness ‘ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”
What weakness are you struggling with? Are you experiencing the power of God in your life? Remember God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. You can only experience God’s power when you truly realize how weak you are. How else can God be glorified? Maybe you have dreams of getting a certain job but have some type of disorder that keeps you from getting it. With God’s help, He will help you to get it in His own timing, and when you do you won’t have anything to boast about because you will have been too humbled from realizing your own weaknesses. Remember God wants to bless you but He has to take you through a fire first so that when He does give you what your hearts desire is you won’t be too full of confidence in yourself.
Maybe your weakness is depression or an addiction and you’re enslaved to some sin. As you realize your helpless to beat it by your own power and throw yourself at the mercy of God you will gradually began to overcome it. Remember what the Lord said to Moses, “my grace is sufficient for you for my power if perfected in weakness.” If you overcome something in life and you’re boasting about it, then God probably didn’t help you through it. So like Paul, boast about your weaknesses so that God’s power may shine forth and nonbelievers will stand in awe of your God-thus opening a door for Him to begin a work in them.

Bipolar hookup

/ E Bishop Wooten / Leave a comment

Although it is not recommended for two people who have Bipolar Disorder, or any other mental illness, to “hook up”, you can’t always stop love. These two may be the only ones who understand each other. This blog post will focus on the positives of dating someone with a similar mental health diagnosis.

One positive note is you may get a lot of alone time when your partner goes off on a manic phase. I can see it now: “Where is your boyfriend/ girlfriend?” You answer: “Oh, I don’t know really. Off on some mood swing somewhere.”

Speaking of mood swing, that would make a great tagline for a dating profile:

“Bipolar person seeks like-minded person to go on nice, romantic mood swings with.”

You never know, it could be a match made in heaven. As long as one of the two, or both, don’t have anger issues. Anger issues always kill everything.

On a final note, you haven’t lived until you’ve had bipolar sex. That always makes it worth it.

Strength of Character

/ E Bishop Wooten / Leave a comment

We’ve heard the old saying “Survival of the Fittest” and the famous one “God helps those who helps themselves.” Is this Biblical? Who are the fittest and the ones to whom God helps that help themselves?

Mental illness along with illnesses of the body are usually not found in those that consider themselves “strong.” Even the “strongest” person admits they have weaknesses. So why don’t we acknowledge our illnesses, particularly mental, as our weaknesses? We admit our character defects which for the most part include our sins. So why don’t we consider our infirmities as weaknesses? After all when you struggle with something for a long time it can wear down your body’s immune system. This is especially true when as we get older and prolonged years of stress & anxiety “weaken” our immune system and we end up having to take medicine as we get older.

So who are the ones who are the fittest? Some have a strong faith in God and some are strong in and of themselves. However no one is entirely that strong in and of themselves apart from God. Therefore it’s God who gives you the grace to make it through each day. You’re just deluded into thinking you’re such a “good person” in and of yourself.

Years of being grounded in the Word of God can “strengthen” your character as well. As you pray and seek God you can better discern His Will for you life so that you know almost exactly what to pray for. Then you stand on the Word and trust in God’s timing for the answer. God for the most part either says Yes when He grants it to you or wait. He only says no if it goes against His Word. Although all your prayers have their yes in Messiah Yeshua as everything you ultimately seek can be found in Him; security, significance, salvation, purpose,

So to sum it up Survival of the Fittest can best be attributed to Survival of the Faithful. Although no matter how godly or faithful you can get you can always get struck down with cancer, heart disease, mental illness. You will be healed of it even if it kills you; i.e. if God uses it as His means of Grace to call you home.

created4wellness profile image

Repression leads to depression

/ E Bishop Wooten / Leave a comment

Jeremiah 17:9. . .”The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But God searches the heart and examines the mind and gets to the heart of the human, the root of things, and treats them as they really are and not as they pretend to be.” (Message Bible)

The Apostle Paul said he became all things to all people so that he may win a few. I learn more about my faith by relating to non-believers and seeing what it is about my faith that they are really rejecting. The biggest thing that comes to mind is they see Christians as repressing their desires in an attempt to live for God. I learned in 12-Step groups that repressed desires are the leading cause of mental health issues. This could explain the Religious Trauma Syndrome that many people suffer from when they leave the Church.

Repressing our desires is not the freedom that God calls us to in Christ. While our desires are natural, they are not always Godly. When we turn from our own path and seek out the path of righteousness that God laid out for us, He begins to show us a new path to take; aka being born again, or a fresh start in life.

We don’t have to struggle with our desires. Maybe they are something good that God wants us to have. We should go after these as long as the Spirit doesn’t convict us and we put God first. Every desire is basically good at its starting point because it serves a basic need that we have. Our relationship with God meets every need that we have at its core.

We don’t struggle with or repress our desires. We simply rise above them and become fully human and live the life that God calls us to live. This is what Jesus meant when He said our faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

Spiritual roots of anxiety

/ E Bishop Wooten / Leave a comment
Prov. 12:25. . .”Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.”
Ever wonder why a lot of people have anger & emotional issues? Or even depression, for that matter? Since I’ve struggled with this in the past, I’ve come to realize (by the grace of God) that depression/anxiety isn’t necessarily a chemical imbalance. Of course, in a way it is, I don’t knock the use of medications, maybe some people do need them.

I heard on a christian radio show one day that the main cause of anger was unfulfilled expectations. On the same station I also heard that depression is a result of quenching the Holy Spirit in some way. So if a person struggles with these they may have something that God is calling them to do that they haven’t realized yet. Probably due to feelings of inadequacy or even doubts that God wants to use them or bless them in a certain way.

Remember the best way to discover God’s will for you life is by asking what desires are in your heart? (Psalm 37:4). As you delight (or surrender) yourself in the Lord, He gives you whatever desires He wants you to have. Of course it’s human nature to doubt due to fear or unbelief, so many people end up living average lives with unfulfilled dreams.

Every christian has a God-sized dream that God wants them to accomplish that requires a closer walk with Him to carry out.