Our Emotional Well-being Comes from a Relationship With God
By Scott Stephens
Because we were created in the image of God, by nature we were created as a rational and responsible beings. Because of this, there is an innate sense for the need for some type of creed or guide to live by. All of the convictions that we have, whether conscious or unconscious, form the picture of life in which we all believe. Every one of the views and strong beliefs which we develop during our lifetime provide us a way of viewing the world.
The Christian worldview is very unique: man is created in the image of God, he fell into sin, and because of this, by nature he is in opposition with God and His ways. Christ’s death on the cross solved the problem of mankind’s separation with God. The purpose of Christ’s death was to bear our sin and guilt. By doing so, He willingly received the wrath of God that we deserve (1 Cor 5:21).
God's Word and Emotional Health
Christianity views the unregenerate man as alienated from God his Creator. It is God alone who gives meaning and purpose to man’s existence. In Christian theology, man is either a corrupt sinner, or a disciple of Christ. Being a degenerate sinner does not mean that man is as evil as he could become, but it does mean that he is one hundred percent sinful in and of himself. Without Christ, his unregenerate mind is not capable of fully comprehending spiritual truth because he does not have the Holy Spirit indwelling him (1 Cor 2:14). The Holy Spirit and God’s Word are the Christian’s source of all true emotional health (Rom 8:6).
True and meaningful emotional health begins with presuppositions that are Biblical: God exists, He is the Creator, man is responsible to Him, man is sinful, and only God can help him. To be truly beneficial, emotional health cannot start with humanistic presuppositions that try to sprinkle a little Christianity into it. True emotional health comes from a relationship with God through His Son Jesus. When we have this relationship, God provides us with His divine intervention through the work of the Holy Spirit and His inspired Word. It’s through these means that God speaks to man’s inner spirit, guiding and directing him to a life that is meaningful.
Comfort and Blessing
The great comfort and blessing we have as followers of Jesus Christ is that God is always working in us (Romans 8:28-29)! Our hope comes from knowing that the entire universe functions according to God’s laws, not man’s. So, when He tells us that He has provided everything we need in order to live a life that glorifies Him, we should rest in that knowledge (2 Tim 3:16-17). Our emotional well-being should not be contingent on what we have or what we accomplish. Our emotional well-being is contingent on Who we know.