How Spending Time with God Truly Helps Our Mental Health

One of the most impactful stories I ever read came from the pen of Philip Yancey. Yancey tells the story of a prostitute who is at the end of her rope. It’s a sad tale of a painful cycle of addiction and prostitution — even involving her own children. She was deeply ashamed and broken. Her friend suggested she might find some help and comfort at a church. Her response was raw and revealing: “Why would I go there?” She assumed that the church would intensify her shame rather than offering the grace of Christ.

I think about that story when discussing mental health. It is estimated that 1 in 5 US adults live with a mental illness. That is almost 60 million people in the US alone. I wonder how many of those struggling to find peace have a similar perspective to the woman in Yancey’s story. Why would I go there?

My own story involves bouts of depression and deep darkness. And I will confess that at times it feels like going to the Scriptures is the least healthy thing for my mental health. If you haven’t battled with this, you’ll likely not understand. But at times our hearts and minds can get so jaded and jumbled that what is meant for comfort is only experienced as a deep wound.

Yet, I have also learned through experience that spending time with God is one of the few things that is lastingly helpful. Though at times it feels like it is doing more harm than good, I’ve found that keeping on in this discipline is ultimately life-giving. There is no other fountain which can provide lasting help.

Here are five ways that I have found spending time with God to help with mental illness.

1. It Provides Comfort

Trauma experts tell us that three big things need to happen for us to experience healing: I need to tell my story, I need to tell my story safely to another human, and I need to tell a new, different story with other humans.

Personally, I think there is much more involved, but this gives us a baseline for thinking about our healing. If this is true, it means that we can experience substantial healing simply by telling our story to another person and then reframing it with their help.

You might have a friend who will listen to you, withhold judgment, and simply be there to provide comfort as you share your heart. It’s also possible that you do not have that in your life — at least not in human form. Did you know that you have this with Christ? Is there a better friend who will provide comfort to us — reshaping our story — as we share our heart with Him? Spending time with God is helpful and healing because He inevitably provides comfort to our weary souls.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).

2. It Promotes Holiness

In Psalm 32:3, David speaks of the physical toll which unconfessed sin plays in his life. Keeping silent about sin causes a deep, internal anguish which can impact us physically. I am not attempting to say that all mental health can be chalked up to a sin issue. I’m also not saying that it has nothing to do with sin. It might. I know that I have had periods in my life when a bitterness towards God, a refusal to forgive others, or hanging onto personal sin has caused difficulty with my mental health.

Spending time with God will inevitably promote holiness. You cannot get close to God and harbor sin. He will always lovingly expose these areas that are killing us. Spending time with God is a bit like spending time with a benevolent doctor. He will promote our health through holiness, and root out the things which are harming us.

3. It Places Our Story

When I’m battling dark depression, it feels like everything around me is distorted. I don’t know where to safely land. It robs me of any sense of purpose. I don’t know why I’m doing anything that I’m doing. If this lasts too long, I’m numbed into a quiet despair. This happens when I lose my center.

Spending time with God helps to recenter me. The good news of Jesus replaces my story where it belongs. I know that my personal sin — whether omission or commission — doesn’t get the last word on my life. My brokenness doesn’t have the final say. I know that Jesus does. And this gives me a new starting point. Rather than stumbling around in the dark, trying to find some purpose and meaning, I’m now able to have a simple goal for that day: pleasing God. The simplicity of this, which comes through spending time with God, helps me to put one foot in front of the other. And it reminds me that I’m firmly placed in the greatest story ever told.

4. It Pursues Rest

One of my favorite stories in Scripture involves the Gerasene demoniac in Mark 5. If you struggle with mental health issues, you might be able to identify with him. He seems so out of control. Not even chains can hold him from his self-destruction. There is no peace or calm in his heart. This is a picture of where the enemy wants to put every one of us.

This story is intentionally placed next to a story about a wild storm. Jesus calms the storm. Then when they land on shore, they meet this guy who is just as “wild” as the raging sea. Do you ever feel that way emotionally? Mental health issues can make us feel out of control and at the whims of something outside our authority.

With a word Jesus quiets the storm. And with a word, Jesus brings healing to this man. Mark 5:15 is one of my favorite verses: “They came to Jesus and saw the man who had been demon-possessed, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid.” He is finally “in his right mind.” Chaos is what happens when Satan gets his way. But when Jesus, the Stronger Man, comes we see something different — we see calm.

Spending time with Jesus does this. He gives rest to our weary souls. He calms our anxieties. He anchors our souls. It’s a comfort to know that we can enter our time with Jesus frazzled, hurting, wild, panicked, angry, insert any emotion or behavior here, and we can walk out of it “in our right mind.” This is the kind of healing that Jesus brings. Why would I not want to spend time with Him and experience this?

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