Mental Health and Prayer

Mental health and prayer, two of the most important topics. I was reading a post on the Guardian earlier today about spiritual abuse. It mentioned prayer, the dangers of prayer & mental health. It was highlighting some shocking cases of abuse in the UK from research by a Christian Think Tank. One feature of the article is that people have been told to drop their medication, and that prayer will solve it all.

What the article missed is actually how unbelievably helpful prayer is with regards to mental health issues. What also was overlooked is the over-reliance of subscription to medication with often no short or long-term plan to get people off of said medication. Not great.

I would like to give an Amen to the Guardians central message highlighting spiritual abuse and the dangers involved. I am totally with them.

Today we have a huge rise in Anxiety and Mental Health issues in the most secular society Britain has had in a long time. This leads me to say…

‘you ain’t got all the answers SWAY! You ain’t got all the answers!’

If you had all the answers would mental health issues be on the rise in a secular society?

Mental health effects, the poor, rich, people from all walks of life. Even Kanye pictured above has had his own struggles with mental health-related issues. Mental health is an area where very few people have real answers.

Prayer is an amazing cure for mental health issues. I do not even need to look for the miraculous, something beyond reality.

We live in a world of filters, social MEdia – adds so much stress and anxiety. A completely false representation of our lives for all to see. I have never posted a selfie of me with the bills I cannot afford to pay. But I will post a pic of a monumental moment that means something to me and looks good.

People ask every day ‘how are you?’ – When was the last time you answered with something even remotely close to the truth? We stick filters on everything, in every conversation.

Prayer may be the only conversation we have left where we do not have to filter it. A conversation so intimate and amazing it changes everything.

Please, take it from a man whose mental health led him to Stoneleigh train station waiting for the last fast train, ready to step in front of it. It was prayer that turned my entire life around that day, a knock effect that has also changed many other peoples lives for the better.

It was a prayer that now sees me married to a beautiful wife with two of the most amazing daughters I could ever have ever dreamed to have.

Mental Health & Prayer

I have spoken with 100’s of people, if not thousands who have prayed. The conversation is always the same, they prayed, something happened that cannot be described – then they say everything changed. When I press them, they cannot tell me a single thing that has changed. Their bills are not paid, the new job has not come, their partner is not promising to not leave them, their kids are still pushing them to the wire, but something, something, something transcendent has taken place and it is all different now.

I have known rape victims who found new life through prayer.

Drug addicts now clean through prayer.

Clinically depressed now full of joy – yup, through prayer.

Let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. Let’s not spiritually abuse people. Let us not undermine medical practice. But at a time where the NHS is at breaking point, let’s not throw away one of the best practices that can help lighten that load. Certinaly not because some mindless morons are ruining it for everyone else.

Prayer – in it’s purest form is a conversation with an entity who knows everything. It removes the need and even the opportunity to spin the conversation a certain way. With God we can come as we are, knowing He faithfully will not leave us that way. Knowing He will not throw it in our face. Knowing a bruised reed He will not break…

He will not break a bruised mind.

He will hear you.

He will love you.

He will recieve you.

It is one conversation you do not have to filter. That alone is healing for the mind and the soul.

WHERE YOU BELONG

CityHill is a guilt-free, grace-full church. Our services are 50mins short, designed with you in mind. If you have had a bad abusive experience of church then this is the place for you. To plan your visit click here…