Mental Health and Prayer

Let me start by defining prayer.

Prayer is a conversation between man and God.  It is a way to express your feelings to God either gratitude, grievance, or request. You will agree with me that there are situations around you that propel your prayers in a particular direction.

What is your drive?

Now here is where we look at the topic “mental health and prayer “. So many times we just want to pour out our heart cries to someone that could proffer a solution to that problem. Silence is also a mental state.

The case is the same when we have issues troubling us and we pray to God in a candid conversation. Mental health and prayer are connected in many ways. Sometimes we are lost for words to express ourselves to God in prayer. Rough days or disappointments can kill the morale to want to pray because we feel so sad. This could also happen vice versa as you can be too happy to put up a sentence to express yourself.

When people lose their loved ones, they sometimes find it very hard to eat or even take a bath.

This also happens in prayer. You can be so depressed that you don’t think prayer will solve the problem. Or you just want to give up on everything altogether. Trust me these scenarios do happen but when they do, what do you do?

Biblical Examples

We have several examples in the bible of our forefathers who at one point in the time of their lives had to pray in a certain mental state.

Let’s see Job for example, as much as he was in disarray, his mental state was stable and that was why he could win the battle there and come out of the mess he was in.
Another one is Jabez who also got so tired of his state that he cried out for a change of status which he also got an answer.
Hannah also was in a state of mind so drunk with her worries that she prayed silently but violently inside, she also got answers. This tells how much your state of mind can affect your prayer.
Now this brings about the need for a “counter mental state of mind”. This will help to boost the state of mind when it’s low, with the help of the word of God this can be done. Just keep confessing his promise and the low state will definitely rise to a high level of confidence again.

Conclusion

What about when you are afraid? The same formula will work, the word of God. No matter the state of mind that you are, as much as it can affect your prayers so also the word of God can correct this mental state to a sustainable and steady one.
I pray for you reading this that the grace to confess positively even in the face of trials will abide with you in Jesus’ name, Amen.