After I had my last child, I struggled mightily to lose weight and seemed to be constantly in a mental funk. What I didn’t realize was that most of my favorite foods had ingredients that worked against weight loss and mind clarity. For most of my adult life, I’d never eaten a diet rich in meat and veggies but sure loved sugar and other bad carbs. So I would go on starvation diets and rather than eating good food, I’d eat minuscule portions of sugar and carbs. I was super frustrated because I was tired, irritable and if I lost weight—I couldn’t keep it off. Bottom line: I had developed a taste for the wrong foods. I knew there had to be a better way, so I did the research. After that, I implemented radical changes in my diet. Now, after YEARS of disciplining myself to eat more meat and veggies and less sugar and carbs, I actually crave healthy food! Even when I fall off the wagon from time to time, I find the pleasure short-lived because of the negative impact on my body.
So what’s any of this got to do with mental health?
Hang with me and let me first give you the answer in a nutshell:
You see, God uses the physical realm to teach us about the spiritual realm. God designed us with a body, soul, and spirit. Our soul is the REAL us where we experience our deepest feelings and emotions. Our body functions in the physical realm and feeds our soul based upon what it gleans from the physical senses we have been given. Our spirit feeds our soul from the spiritual realm. When we are born again our spirit is made alive and able to communicate with GOD. Through God’s gift of salvation, we are given the opportunity for our soul to be fed by God!
Also—we were created with an anxiety mechanism which alerts us to our need for God. Thus, when we are NOT fed with His presence and His Word, our soul starves and understandably becomes more anxious!
The Holy Spirit, living inside us, equips us to begin mental health healing on a spectrum far greater than we could ever imagine!
But, breaking bad habits and healing our soul takes time. Much like it took time for me to develop an appetite for good food instead of my unhealthy addiction to sugar and bad carbs—it often takes YEARS for our soul to kick the bad habits and heal. And—we must always remember that our flesh is not born again, so it is the enemy from within and only interested in satisfying itself. It is one of our three enemies and beckons us much like my bad food addiction does!
Staying on the path to good mental health requires that we discipline our soul to be fed with God’s spiritual food [His Word] and train ourselves to spend time in His presence through meditation on His Word, praying, belonging to a small group community, and—very importantly—church membership. On this path, we WILL see our appetites shift and our soul begin to STRONGLY desire God:
“O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.”
Psalms 63:1-5
“Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”
Psalm 73:25-26
By making God’s presence our greatest hunger, we will heal our mental health. God does not have anxiety; when we’re close to Him we don’t either. To maintain good mental health, we must be disciplined. It’s so easy to let our guard down, “relax” and to fill our soul with bad food. Furthermore, when I find I’m not hungry for God, it’s often because I’ve grown too full of myself. 🤨 When I find myself anxious it’s because I’ve stuffed my soul full of unhealthy food, and it is starving for God. God’s presence is my greatest need. When I find myself feeling anxious I ask Him to help me get back on the wagon. God is so patient. He desires to bless us and fill us with the goodness of His presence!
“BLESSED are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.”
Matthew 5:6
We would love to hear your thoughts about this devotional. Did God speak to you or challenge your daily walk with him? Or is there a topic that you would like Kimberly to cover or expound on? Please share with us in the comments below.
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6 Responses
Already have 5 daily devotionals, including my Bible reading. This was my first one from you. I will try to make this my sixth. Very lengthy, but good….
Linda,
Bless you. Just passing along what God is so good to teach me! ☺️
thank you for the encouragement. bless you. God is a big God. amen.
He is HUGE! Blessings,
Kimberly
this spoke such truth to me and opened my eyes. thank you for being a open vessel so God can pour out his messages to us
God is filling the greatest desire of my soul and I’m doubly blessed to pour it out for others!~Kimberly