Mental Health Directly Affects Spiritual Maturity
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Thessalonians 5:23 NIV)
God wills that our spirits, souls, and bodies are perfectly preserved no less than anything, but sometimes in the course of life, these three elements can be disturbed and said to be unfit or unwell.
When the health of the body is disturbed, there may be visitation services, there are prayers from elders, but often still have to require the follow-up care of a doctor or hospital. Actually, people who have a mental disorder and have been disrupted in their activities and sometimes cause problems in their families and communities, they should also need similar treatment.
Mental health disorders can be restored. The fact is people who have mental disorders may not know about it or maybe ashamed to talk about it. This makes it more difficult for them to ask for help and get treatment.
The opposite of a mental disorder is a healthy mentality. Having a healthy mentality is essential in the life of Christianity. Mentally healthy is a necessary requirement (not a sufficient requirement) for a person to have spiritual maturity. Christianity is an elaboration of the center of the cross, which describes relationships with God vertically and with others horizontally.
Some healthy mental traits are when a person:
- Able to realize its advantages
- Able to realize its shortcomings
- Able to cope with normal life pressures
- Able to assess the environment proportionally
- Able to objectively assess its productivity
- Able to contribute to others.
People who have a healthy mentality will have good self-confidence, but not excessive because they are also aware of their weaknesses. Too much self-confidence will give rise to narcissistic traits, and it will be difficult to accept input from others. When encountering problems in his life, he would have a hard time getting an adviser.
Where is the source for a person to get good mental health? One of them is from the closest environment that can meet some basic needs in the growth period, including:
- Unconditional love and a sense of security from the family
- An environment that fosters self-confidence and self-esteem
- Opportunity to play with peers
- Appropriate guidance and discipline.
God not only wills us to be well and well in all things, but He also desires us to grow up, which is characterized by the appearance of the fruit of the spirit, as mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
We need to reflect that mental health has a direct effect on spiritual maturity. It is easy to understand that spiritual maturity will be demonstrated by the appearance of the fruit of the spirit in his life. And the question is how can a person with a mental health disorder be able to produce the fruits of spirit optimally.
It’s impossible to be spiritually mature, while remaining emotionally immature.
– Peter Scazzero (Senior Pastor of The New Life Fellowship Church) –
Source: Ps. Agus Prihardjo (Global Moral & Mental Health Coordinator)
