Navigating Mental Health: 5 Key Biblical Truths about Mental Health

Hey, Victorious Living family, welcome to Stepping Forward. My name is Sheridan Correa and I am your host of this show and I'm also your sister in Christ. I am a living testimony of the transforming power of Jesus Christ and I've been freed from so many things. I've been walking in freedom for a little over eight years now and that is freedom from mental health issues, major, major mental health issues, from addiction, from incarceration, from self-sabotage, from sin patterns, from horrible thinking patterns even, from unhealthy relationships. I lost my kids, I lost my freedom, I lost absolutely everything in my life, all of my material possessions, absolutely everything. And I was a slave to it all. You name it, I did it and was a slave to it all and imprisoned before I even showed up behind bars. And I say that to say that if God can do the radical things that he's done in my life, he can absolutely do them to yours and for you in your life and in your family's life. This is not just about my own healing I learned early on. This is generational healing, amen. So what we're experiencing and the changes and the transformation that God is having us work out and experience, it ripples into our families and into our communities and to all the areas of influence that we have touch on. So hang on, hold on to hope. There's help here, okay, and so thanks for tuning in and let's dive into navigating mental health. All right, so this series is about navigating mental health and you're probably watching this episode in June, but May was Mental Health Awareness Month. And I really wanted to do this series to become aware of mental health challenges and difficulties because family, we all have them. We all have them. And just to make sense of them and to bring some clarity to it, especially when we look at it in light of the word of God.

And so here we're going to break the silence because, listen, if we are keeping silent about the things that we are struggling with, then we are kept in a place of hidden incarceration that ain't nobody know about. And that's not what we're doing here. God came to free us from all of that. So that includes being vulnerable and reaching out to people for help or tuning in and learning, but breaking the silence. We all struggle. We all struggle. We all struggle and are challenged in our minds. And sometimes we're not winning the war in our minds very good. So we just want to break that silence. We want to normalize it and say that, yeah, there's everybody on this earth is touched by hardship, is touched by trial and tribulation, are facing things that stress us out and affect us mentally, emotionally and other areas of our life. So you're not crazy. You're human, as we learned about in the first episode. OK, so we're breaking the silence. Let's just expose it. Let's just talk about it. All right. So when we keep it hidden in the dark, then we're walking in darkness. Amen. And God says that we are to expose that and to be children of light. And that means come into the truth and in the fullness of who he is and illuminate those places that we are keeping silence because we are then be incarcerated by shame. We're not trying to do that. That's not the life of a disciple and of a Christian and of a follower of God and especially one that is living free. We just don't talk about it.

So we're breaking the silence. We're going to reduce the stigma. You are not crazy. You are not anxious or anxiety. You are not PTSD. You are not bipolar, bipolar disorder. You are not fill in the blank, whatever has been said over you, spoken over you, whatever diagnosis and identity you have been handed. We're ripping that up. We're not. We're going to say, no, thank you. I may struggle with that right now, but that is not who I am. Amen. In Jesus name. So we're reducing the stigma. And then I just want you to hear that everyone listening and watching. I want you to hear that God sees, God cares, and God understands about our challenges down here. We live in a fallen world. So we're going to experience some type of dysfunction and dislocation, if you will. And God has not left us without hope and without help. So that's what we're going to talk about. about here today is all things mental health in this series. And today, first, before we get started, I truly want to just kind of lean into you a little bit and I want to hear how you're doing. I want to know what's going on in your heart and what's going on in your mind. What is keeping you up at night? What is that thing that you are carrying around that is so heavy and that is depressing you and flattening you out? What is that secret that you are living in that behind closed doors and in the dark when no one's watching you're doing? Okay, I truly want to know what is hard for you and what is difficult and what is challenging. I want to hear about it. I want to hear about what affects you and where you're confused and where

you're struggling. I truly, truly do. And I wish we were doing this in person. I do because it's just so much more powerful, but I have to do it over this computer and over this camera. So friends and family, listen, our God wants that too. He wants us to lean in and he wants us to tell us all the things. Okay. I think of, have you ever, have you ever seen that movie Goonies? If you have, you know this part in it, but Chunk got wrapped up with the criminals, not us this time, with the criminals and they're trying to find out information from him. And Chunk is so, just so scared, but he decides to not only tell them the information that they are looking for, that they are seeking in order to go, you know, fix the problem they find themselves in. But Chunk decides to start telling all, every single bad thing that he had ever, ever done, everything. And they're sitting back just like, oh my gosh, this poor kid, this is the saddest thing I've ever heard. But he is telling them about all the, all the ways that he made up things and he lied and, you know, just all the wrongs. And that, that's a funny way to, to imagine how our God is, is kind of leaning in and wanting us to tell him things too. But that's how I, that's how I imagine it. It's just like, oh, and then this happened and then I did this, and then this happened and this was really hard. And so, because that was hard, then this happened and our God cares. Our God cares so much about that. And family not only cares about that, but cares about our wellbeing enormously and especially our mental wellbeing. All right. So we're going to talk about that today. This is, I just wanted to show you this. This is a little mood meter that I use sometimes. And not only in my classes that I facilitate and lead, but just see where people are at, you know, what they are experiencing, what the emotions they are experiencing. Cause we don't know a lot of times, if you're like me, we, I got a case of the finitis. Y'all have that too? Or, you know, where somebody goes, Hey, how are you doing? How's your day today? Oh, it's good. I'm doing good. And we don't want to open up all the Pandora's box of all the crap that we are anxious about and worried about and praying about, or just not talking about at all. But our God wants that. He wants us to come to us with a sincere and genuine heart and really bear and let go and throw up all the things that we are keeping inside of us. Because I'll tell you this, what I have learned is those things that we are not talking about, they are affecting us and they are radically affecting our mental and emotional wellbeing. I perfected that in my lifetime. I was an expert at it. And I didn't realize until after coming to Christ that, Oh my gosh, I'm just a, I'm a walking hoarder. I'm an emotional hoarder. I do not share. I have

struggles sharing sometimes. I'm so much better at it than before, but I still find myself challenged at times. And I have to remember to be strong and courageous. It's okay. You are safe. You are loved. You can share that about yourself and be vulnerable and still. live and still, you know, have good relationships. But I just say that to say that, you know, there are so many things that affect our mental well-being, and we'll get into that over these episodes, but not exposing the tender places and the deep, dark places that exist inside of us. And I know they're probably even scary to us, right? They're scary to us. We don't know if we're going to blow up. We don't know if we're going to die. We don't know what's going to happen if we expose that. Or we don't want to expose it because we're still comfortable in it, and we still are getting a payoff of some kind, not a consequence. We don't want a consequence. So we want to keep getting this temporary payoff that's probably not doing us well, if we're being truly honest with ourselves and with the Lord, all right? But we want to expose those things. We want to share those things. And here's a safe place to share. On Pando, they just started that comment section, where if you're watching this video, you can type in a little message. I see those messages. I can't reply back to you, sadly. It's not a two-way form of communication, but we hand those off to our correspondents, and we will write to you. If you give us your address, we will write to you, and we can start a conversation. We can start a letter relationship where you need that encouragement and that help and that guidance and even the prayers that we pray over fervently over your life to help you, okay? And we're just so glad that we get to do that. But yeah, I just want to ask you, do you see yourself on here? Maybe you can't probably see all the words, but even the colors, like, do you resonate even with a color? Do you relate to like, man, I'm feeling kind of blue today. I'm feeling kind of yellow. I'm sick and I'm having fun, and that's kind of where I am a lot of times. I feel like the green is like calm, blessed, content, chill, still, not anxious. You're not anything. The red is where like anxiety and anger and like you're kind of more hyper-tolerance over here is like hypo-tolerance. And here you're kind of like, you're good, man. You're just good. And here you're like, so where are you today? What are you feeling? What are you thinking? Where is your mind camped out at? And I wish, you know, if you could tell me in the comment section so I can read them so we can just hear your heart. I want to hear your heart. And I just, and I know that God wants to hear our hearts too. So today we're going to

talk about five biblical truths about mental health. Okay. Now the Bible, when we go to the Bible, the Bible does not ever say the words mental health. It says wellbeing. It says soundness, which means health, sound mind in like 2 Timothy 1.7 or sound doctrine in that we find in Titus and in 1 Timothy, God cares greatly about our health and wellbeing and not just our mental, but our physical, our spiritual, even our financial, and even the things that we are believing, which get wrapped up in our psychological and our mind and our emotions and our will, and even our decision-making, right? We want to have wisdom and God wants to give us that wisdom so that we can experience truth and truthful and right living and authentic lives. Okay. Where we are living a life of wealth or sorry, health that turns into wealth and not financial wealth, inside wealth, spiritual wealth, and prosperity and shalom, where he is trying to always get us to that I share about. So he doesn't ever, the Bible doesn't ever use the word mental health, but it uses soundness. It uses shalom, completeness, perfection, all those words that have the same meaning. Okay. Life, the Zoe, the abundant life that John 10, 10 talks about. So it absolutely, the Bible absolutely speaks to the condition of the mind and the heart and the soul, which encompasses our mental wellbeing and offers wisdom and comfort and hope for those of us who are struggling emotionally or psychologically. And again, I said this at the beginning, we're all struggling at some point in our life. We are all struggling. So you may be struggling now, or you're maybe walking into something that is really hard and a trial and tribulation. And Maybe struggling or maybe you're coming out of something, but or maybe you've never just even had a reprieve from it. And I know that feeling. I've lived that feeling. And I'm here to tell you that there is hope for you when you apply the word of God and believe him and trust him and really walk in and out your faith. Things change. You become transformed. You get a new mind, a new heart and a new life. And so hang on, hang on, hang on and stay tuned. So let's talk about some key biblical truths that relate to mental health that we see in the Bible. The first key biblical truth that we're going to go over is God cares about our whole being. Now we find this scripture in First Thessalonians 5.23 where Paul talks about that we are a whole body, soul and spirit. They are all we are made up of all three and they are all integrated and intertwined and interacting with each other. And when one is impacted, it's going to impact the others. Usually there is a ripple effect because they are all connected like that. So in Matthew 22, 37,

it says, love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Now, this again, God cares about our whole being. He just doesn't care about one part of us, but all the parts of us. God designed us as integrated beings. And he cares about our thoughts and our emotions and our mental well-being just as much as our spiritual lives because they're all interacting with each other. Now I can tell you a testimony, short testimony from my life. Once my spiritual life, once I was being led by the spirit, like it says in Romans 8, and no longer by my flesh, my well-being and my health that I experienced not only mentally, but emotionally, physically, relationally, and spiritually all got better. They all were coming into this state of more freedom and healing. And I continue to experience that. So God cares about that. And when we can put the spiritual truths above everything else that we are experiencing down here, because the characteristics of God are life and peace, and that's what his word brings, and that's what Christ brings into our life, then we can be sure to experience that. He is faithful. He is faithful. So when we are applying those spiritual truths to our life, we can and will experience change and transformation and health and well-being. The second key biblical truth that we're going to talk about is scripture acknowledges both mental and emotional distress. I alluded to this a little bit in that first episode, You're Not Crazy, You're Human. But many biblical figures experienced emotional pain, depression, anxiety, discouragement, trauma, the impacts of trauma. Okay. And I'm going to give you four. Actually, I'm going to give you five. David, we see in the Psalms, the book of Psalms, he's constantly going before the Lord and sharing his grief and his fear and his despair almost. And even in Psalm 42, 11, it reads, Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why are you so disturbed within me? Those are his words. He's writing those words and probably singing them also. But at the end of that Psalm, we really see his chin and his head lifted up to the Lord and be able to exalt the Lord above his experience and be encouraged and strengthened, although he is feeling that type of way. Elijah, the prophet, Elijah, a prophet is experiencing discouragement, loneliness, you know, hard, difficult emotions and even despair. And so much so that he literally tells God, hey, God, can you can you get rid of me? Can I come home? I'm done. This is hard. And ask God to take his life. That is in First Kings. The chapter escapes me. First Kings 19. There we go. After an intense season of stress and isolation, you know, he is experiencing some emotional distress and mental distress. And the way that God is

met him in that place is just gorgeous. He sent an angel of the Lord who just he didn't chastise him. He didn't condemn him. He didn't tell him and correct him and all these things. He just said, hey, Elijah, eat, sleep, rest, and allowed him to do that for a couple of days till he got his strength back and he could step forward into the next thing. But I love that. I love the way that God met Elijah in that place. And you know that a prophet would be, oh my gosh, experiencing distress and discomfort like that. Job suffered immense loss and cried out in deep anguish. That's in Job 3. He went through it. Very, very similar to a lot of the things that we're probably going through. And what I mean by that is losing family, estranged from loved ones. Maybe we don't even have any loved ones anymore, but a lot of loss, a lot of grief, a lot of confusion to where he goes before the Lord and was like, what is this about? What is going on? And really had to ask himself, what is life about? Who are you, God? And what am I to you in your life and in your purpose? And ask those same questions that we're probably all wondering and asking too. And even almost chastising God. He went to God and started telling him some things, but God said, you don't know. You don't know how hard my job is or not how hard, but you don't know all that I do and what's behind the scenes and going on all the time. And really just met Job in this beautiful place with his presence and with truth and even the characteristics of God. Enough so that Job was like, oh my gosh, you're right. You're right. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. And, you know, you are King, you are Lord, all those things. But God meets us in, in our, even our confusion and even our questions in such beautiful ways. He's not scared of it. I think of King Nebuchadnezzar. This is one of my favorite stories where King Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar was the King of Babylon and he was experiencing some very real informs of insanity and like, hey, we can, we know about all that, right? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result every time. And how well did that work out for us? Let's be real. So King Nebuchadnezzar, he was sent out into the wilderness because he didn't listen to God. And he didn't do what God said. And so he kind of lost his mind and he became insane and he was living out in the wilderness and his nails were super long and his hair all grew out. And so he was out there homeless and wild for so many years. And it says in the word of God, until he finally came to the end of himself, looked up to God and acknowledged and declared that God was King and he was the Lord of his life, his sanity was restored to him. And I just, I love that. I love that. That is such a great example

of how our emotional and mental wellbeing can really affect us when we are turning away from God and doing life apart from God. So let that be an encouragement and even maybe even a conviction to you. I don't know, just a sense of exhortation even that if you are doing life apart from God and experiencing some insanity and things are not getting better for you and it is not well with your soul, it may be time to stop and look up and acknowledge God and his presence and his power and let his peace come over you in your life so that you can experience wellbeing and health in a way that you have never, ever probably experienced before, or maybe in just that one area. Okay. The third key biblical truth is that God invites us to bring our anxieties to him. He is not scared about the things that we are anxious about. Now, the word of God also says and calls us to not be anxious about things, but I'm going to give you two scriptures. Cast all your anxiety on him, Jesus, because he cares for you. That's in 1 Peter 5, 7. That word cast means to hurl. It means to like huck. I don't know if you've ever played soccer. I played soccer in college. And when you are throwing in the ball from the sideline, you have to chuck it. If you're trying to get it over there, you have to get rid of it and put a lot of force and effort behind it. This is the same language, cast and hurl and chuck. With all your might, all your anxieties on him, because he cares about us. He cares about the things that we are anxious about, that we are caught in a loop about, that we are, we got the case of the what ifs, um, where we are imagining, uh, and, and creating worlds that aren't even realistic and scenarios that won't even happen. Like he cares about those things because he doesn't want us being spun out in these places where we become really stuck and fearful and anxiously engaged. He wants to free us from that. So the word of God says that we are to cast those anxious thoughts and the places that we are holding onto and trying to make sense of onto him. On him, because he cares for us the way that I do this in my life. Um, some mornings, you know, I'll sit with myself and my devotion time in my journal, and I will ask myself, um, out loud or on paper, what am I anxious about today?

What, what thoughts am I ruminating and chewing over and over about? And that I'm worrying about where do I feel fear? Where, where am I experiencing fear in my life? And I write those down and then I'm able to pray those away and to release them and let go of them and put them in his hands and experience his peace and trusting, you know, giving him back, giving him away, trusting in him that he's going to remain faithful to me, that he's going to care for me, that he's going to whatever that I'm anxiously engaged in. Um, or, or just that I need some comfort and some peace in those things also, but not to make them the, what's leading my life during the day. Okay. My spirit, I want my spirit to lead my life. I want the truths to lead my life because that's where I experience that soundness of mine and mental or clarity and, um, and experiencing that peace and that love, um, second scripture, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, present your requests to God, Philippians four, six through seven. There's a call to us here, fam that says, Hey, yeah, you need to get out what is in, in you, and I call it like alcohol poisoning. Okay. For those of you who have ever been, had alcohol poisoning, what do they do? They make you throw it all up. Why? Because it's poisoning you. And when I'm not sharing, when I'm just getting, keeping those anxious and worried things inside of myself stuck, and I'm not exposing them, I'm not getting them out, I'm being poisoned every single time that happens. And so I'll either tell my husband, I'll write it out in my journal, my prayer time, I'm confessing and expressing it, but it says that we are to present our requests to God. That means that we need to get it out.

We need to talk to him about the things that we are anxious about, that we are fearful about, that we are concerned and worried about. And it says in every situation, okay. That's whatever you're going through. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how stupid you think it is or other people think it is. God cares. God cares. He wants to hear about it. He wants us to come to him and be in need. That's what it means to be a, like a child and childlike that, that our faith calls us to because children need their daddies, children need their, their parents for guidance and comfort and support and presence and to help fill that need. That's not weakness. That is strength. All right. So these verses do not shame people. They don't shame us for being anxious, but they invite us into a relationship with our creator and with Christ, our savior and into peace. That should be the result. So number four, renewal of mind, renewal of the mind is a spiritual practice. This is one of my favorite, favorite topics is how to win the war of your mind. And that'll be our next episode. But when the war in your mind and how to renew your mind, how to learn truth from lies, because when we are experiencing and living out our lies, we are not well, it is not well with our soul or any other part of our life. And we have grave impacts and. Results or side effects or symptoms that come out of that So the Word of God says in Romans 12 to do not conform to the pattern of this world

But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. This is one of my favorite favorite scriptures Because the world if you look at the world and you look at the culture of the world, man It's going straight to hell in a handbasket and it's going so so fast so fast. It's so hard to Sometimes it's still that I It's hard to not get swept up in the current of culture or the way that the world is going and for me I have to live a very Distanced life from the world. I don't watch a lot of TV. I don't watch the news a lot of times I don't I don't listen to You know what music is going on during these you know times pop culture and rap music That's that was my old self and it didn't do me any good. I listen to worship music. I listen to classical music I listen to meditation music like that's the things that I do Or read smutty books. I don't do that. I read the Word of God and I read other Books that really helped me to grow in my maturity not only in my faith But learn how to be a better steward of my life and all the responsibilities that I have Let's see, I don't succumb to fear if something goes sideways in my life, that's culture That's what culture does right? And then we start or we get hurt by somebody and we start gossip train That's the culture way to do it. And God says to God says do not conform to it. Get rid of it Don't do it. Don't mold ourselves. Don't be molded by the world and by the culture Molded by the world and by the culture that is not the way of the Lord And if you are doing that, you are probably definitely being probably be look I said probably definitely being Okay, you are definitely being that's just the results of it. You are being affected in your well-being So don't do that because all of God's thoughts all of God's ways all the things that he is calling us into all of his boundaries it always produces a sense of Life and peace or not a sense But it's it we experience abundant life and a life of peace and well-being every single time So we need to be transformed by renewing our mind. Our mind is faulty. It is minimal. We have holes in our brain We're always leaking out truth So every single day you got to be getting in the Word of God and you got to be challenging your thoughts Is this true? What does the Word of God say about this? Do I? Am I really this way, is that what my identity really is that I am

You know mentally ill that I don't have any hope for my life. That'll always be this way that Is that does that does that say that in the Word of God? No, the answer is no I'm gonna give it you the answer right now The answer is no, but you need to go find out these truths for yourself Because when those truths get into us they transform us when our minds are being renewed From all the influences of the world and we are probably one of our worst influence Influencers because we're talking to ourselves all the time and we're a lot of times. We're not right. We're not right So we need to be renewed by the Word of God by truth to be challenging our thoughts There was a bug. Sorry In 2nd Corinthians 10 5 it says we take captive every thought and make it obedience to Christ make it obedient To Christ again We want to challenge that we want to capture the flag and then go run it over to Christ's side and say what do you? Say about this. Tell me the truth about this thought Again our thoughts. I think I talked about this in the first episode our thoughts Influence our emotions and our emotions influences our behavior or actions So we want to be able to stop that first thought and go Okay, wait before this comes out and I act this thing out. What does the Word of God say about this? What does Christ say about this and will this bring me life or death, right? That's the ad that's really what it is So mental health can involve learning to reshape our thought patterns with truth and grace and discipline so much discipline If you are trying to transform and change anything about you, let's talk about your weight, right? What do you have to do? You don't just stop eating a Twinkie one time No, you got to do that over and over again You got to tell yourself no and you got to choose the things that are gonna bring you into that state of health and well-being Where your body is getting? better and that you are becoming more healthy our Spiritual life is no different. Our thought life is no different. Our mental and emotional life is no So different. We have to exercise discipline.

Number five, God offers peace that transcendence that transcends circumstances. I don't know about you, but I've experienced many times in my life where it is going down and I have a peace and a stillness that I cannot explain, but God, right? Have you ever experienced that? Our circumstances should never dictate, um, where we are focusing, what we are believing and how we are behaving. Never. And that's what Satan, that's the opportunities that Satan uses and looks out for. Like, Oh, here's, here's something that's really hard. And so let me come up in here and let me try to get them knocked off kilter and knocked off balance and uproot them. So they are not standing firm in their identity. They're not standing firm in who God is and they are not standing firm in, um, in how to behave and, and keeping their disciple shipness, keeping their purpose in front of them instead of their circumstance. And I talked about this in that last series, uh, uh, finding a sound mind. What we are focusing on determines how we're going to think and, and move forward with things. Right? So we are, we are focusing on our circumstances and our problems and, and our fears. That's what's going to be the billboard of our lives. That's what's going to lead our lives and it won't be well with our soul. But if, if we put those behind God and we keep him above and bigger than that, because God is bigger than our circumstances, well, then it will bring us into a better state of peace where we are experiencing his perfect peace because our mind is stayed on him because we trust him. All right. And that is found in Isaiah 26, three, also Psalm 34, 18, the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and those questions spirit that tells me that he ain't scared of it. He ain't like, Ooh, fix that before you come to me.

I'm not trying to get up in that space at all with you. I don't, I don't even know how to meet you in your space of brokenness because I'm just so cool and I don't, I don't, I don't get down like that. So fix that, be perfect and then come to me. That's not our God. That's not our God. It says that he draws near to us in those times where we are feeling a type of way where we are brokenhearted, where we are stressed, where we are crushed in spirit, where we are depressed, where we are just in despair, where we are discouraged. He crawls into the pit with us because he ain't scared because guess what he created or not created, but he designed, look, he designed everything. He created everything. He is everywhere and in everything. So he is right there with you and his peace can touch you and meet you in your time of need in that hard place, whether you are experiencing illness or wellness. All right. But I can tell you that he wants desperately to bring us into that state of wellness where we are trusting him. We are listening to him where we are allowing him to exercise his faithfulness even in our life. All right, fam. So listen, the peace, the peace, peace does not always mean, peace does not mean that there is an absence of struggle. That is not the definition of peace, but peace is the presence of God in our struggle and in the things that are difficult and the trials and tribulations that we are walking through. Amen. So as we are listening, first Corinthians, God says to Paul, when Paul even goes to the Lord and says, can you please take this from me? This sucks. I don't want it.

I don't want this anymore. What does God say to him? He says, it is my grace that is sufficient. I am the one who gives you your strength in weakness or who brings your weakness into a state of strength. My grace is sufficient. And family, let that be true of our lives instead of floundering around and necessarily trying to fix everything and being so anxiously engaged and fearful of everything. Sometimes we just need to stop and allow God to be God. Allow his grace to cover us. Allow his voice to be louder than all the other voices. And let me tell you what his voice sounds like. God's voice stills you. It calms you. It says, whoa, stop. You'd be running around like a chicken with your head cut off. Chill. Psalm 4610 says, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. That is our God to us. That is what he is saying to us. So his voice stills us, it calms us, it stops us from ceasing and striving in all the ways that are bringing us not into well-being and health. God's voice leads us. It leads us. It doesn't push us. He doesn't shoving us and he doesn't rush us. That's the enemy's voice. God's voice reassures us.

It lets us know that we are okay, that we are safe, that we are loved, that he is here. It doesn't frighten us. The enemy's voice frightens us. God's voice enlightens us. The enemy confuses us. He seeks to confuse us. God's voice encourages, enemy's voice discourages. God's voice comforts you. The enemy's voice worries you, it causes worries. The God's voice calms us. The enemy's voice obsesses and God's voice convicts us gently and with love and truth. The enemy's voice condemns us. All right. So which voice are you listening to, family? Think about that. Journal about that. Write about the things that you are thinking about. Think about the things that you are thinking about. Where is your mind camped out at? What voices do you hear? And if it's 37 voices, welcome, welcome to the club. Let's make sense of them together. Get in the word of God. Get some clarity on whose voice is who, okay? God loves you. God loves you so much and he cares so much about your mental well-being. Let him love you. Let him lead you. Let him bring you into that state of wellness and completeness, all right? And again, I think I talked about this in one of the episodes, completeness and wholeness

allows for space for all of the scary things, the good, the bad, and the ugly to exist within us because that's what being human is about. It's not pretty, perfect, and polished all the time. And we don't reveal any of these dark, scary places about us. That is not wholeness. Wholeness is being okay with and making room and space for all the things that exist inside of us, all the experiences that exist inside of us, and not being scared of that, learning not to be scared of that, because I'll tell you this, our God is not scared of it either. And he wants to help us in those places. I hope this has been encouraging for you. Please write to us. Please write to us if you're listening or watching this on Pando, then comment, would love to read your comments. To make it quicker, you can put in your prison number and your address and I can ship it over to our prison correspondents and we can start corresponding and that would be so cool. So thanks for tuning in, guys. I hope this has been encouragement to you and just, we love you. We love you so, so much. That's why we get on here and help walk with you in this journey. You're not alone. Reach out for help if you are struggling, either to us, for a safe and trusted person around you, the chaplain, whoever, but reach out, expose the things in the dark that are affecting you. Okay? God wants to do something about it. Get on your knees right now and tell God all the things that you are carrying that you don't want to carry anymore because it's heavy and it's hard. And the word of God says, and Jesus invites us into that place. Come to me. Oh, you are weary.

If you're tired, heavy laden, depressed, flattened, and I will give you rest for your souls. Learn from me. I am gentle and kind. That is our savior inviting us into this place of well being. So let it be well with your soul. Get it out. Throw it up right now. Alcohol poisoning. Get it out. I love you so much. It has been a pleasure. Always, always walking with you and learning with you on this journey. So have a wonderful day. Love y'all so much. Bye bye. Thank you for watching our broadcast. Are you an incarcerated brother or sister who needs encouragement? Write to us at Victorious Living Correspondence, P.O. Box 2751 Greenville, North Carolina, 27836 or email us at Hope at VLMAG.org. To view Victorious Living Magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098 or email us through our website at VLMAG.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living Magazine free of charge, in bulk, with or without staples.