Mental, Emotional, Physical and Spiritual
Continuing with the approach in this spiritual health blog series, I would like to just bring to your attention some ways that it appears to me to Jesus lived a wholistic, balanced life. And if He did, and we are to strive to model Him and His way of living, then shouldn’t we have a wholistic balanced life too? Here are some of my thoughts and arguments to support my thoughts.
Was there ever a time in the Bible that Jesus wasn’t walking in complete and total health, whole and balanced? Show me a time and I will retract my belief. Let’s just go on the assumption that He was never living a life out of balance or unhealthy, fair enough? Then let’s explore some ways that Jesus lived wholistically.This week we will address His Mental Health, and discuss the other areas of His health in the weeks to come.
Mental Health
Remember, when I talk mental health I mean things like time-management, budget, career, goal-setting our purpose in life. Let’s break each of these down even further then as they apply to the way Jesus lived.
Time Management
Jesus was never in a hurry. As I read the Gospels and the life of Jesus, He always seemed to be “strolling.” But this word almost denotes leisure and lack of importance. So I don’t think He really strolled. Perhaps a better word is “intentional.” He walked and moved and performed His miracles and teachings with intentionality. But never hurried. In fact, even in my own life, and perhaps in yours as well, I seem to always be wanting things from Jesus, or our Father – now. I need it now Lord. But the reminder I seem to always get from my fellow believers is “God’s timing is always perfect.” And even from the Father Himself when I take the time to listen, is “wait” or “in My timing” He seems to say. “Be still and know that I Am God” Psalm 46:10 says. I doubt He is telling us to do something He didn’t do. Or how about this from Psalm 27:14 – “Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!” Whoa, waiting even brings strength to my heart?! While this promise might imply my emotional, or spiritual heart, but since our health is connected and inter-related, it very well could mean that by waiting on the Lord my physical heart could be strengthened as well!
Budget
So many scriptures quickly come to mind when I think of Jesus and budgeting – particularly budgeting with His finances. He tells us to give, He tells us to store up for ourselves treasures in Heaven, not here on earth. He especially tells us not to put anything above Him, especially money – He tells us we cannot put into priority both Him and money – one or the other. He even tells us to pay our taxes “give to Ceasar what is Ceasar’s.” But if we are to give to Ceasar what is his, God also commands us to give to Him what is His – and here is the thing, He is so generous with us, that even though all of our possessions are His, He is only asking for us to tithe back to Him 10%, although He loves a cheerful giver! As Dave Ramsey shares: some may ask “is that on my gross or net?” Dave’s answer is: it depends, do you want to God bless you on your gross or your net?! Good answer Dave! The bottom line here is this, you simply can’t outgive God. His provisions are never-ending.
In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus also shares the parable of the master who goes away and tasks his workers with stewarding his money for him while he is gone. Two of them double what has been entrusted to them by putting the master’s resources to work – the Bible doesn’t specifically say how, but I’m sure any honorable way, or the way that God has called you to do. But what He hasn’t called us to is to squirrel it away like the third servant did. The Master was not pleased with this and took what he did entrust to the third servant and gave it to the others. We are to be good stewards with whatever God has entrusted to us – our finances, our possessions, and yes, even our body and our health.
I don’t know, I haven’t seen anywhere in the Bible where Jesus “borrowed” from anyone. And yet He also never seemed to lack even though He made it clear that “the Son of man has no place to lay His head.” (Matt 8:20). He certainly didn’t stress about how He was going to pay for anything. He never made the statement that He had “too much month at the end of His money.” Jesus was in balance with His budgeting and finances.
Career
Perhaps a better word here would be serving, purpose, or calling, or even work. Jesus obviously didn’t go to college, but as a young man He studied his earthly father, Joseph’s trade of carpentry work. Just like any other manual trade – if it was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for us! But maybe some of us were called to a more formal study environment like college. If that is what God has called you to do, then obey and do it. But if He has called you to it, He will be the one to provide the financial plan and means to pay for it as well. Long term debt is not an option. And defaulting on your loans to allow your fellow taxpayers to pick up the tab definitely is not what God had planned for you. The bottom line is Jesus was a servant for His Father. He lived each day doing only what the Father showed Him to do, in order to fulfill His purpose here on this earth. If Jesus served His Father, so should we.
Goal-Setting
Jesus didn’t do any more than the Father told Him to do– nothing more, nothing less. If only we would follow this example. When we are doing anything else other than what the Father, is telling us to do, especially for self-promotion and/or financial gain, we are simply operating out of the flesh and our own selfish desires – even things we think are “good.” We have such a “works” mentality, and think that the more we do, the better we are, the more God will love us. But there is nowhere in the Bible that directs us to be busy 24/7 plus. Even Jesus took time away from the crowds to rest and be still with the Father. When we are doing only what the Father is guiding us to do, nothing more, nothing less, we will have the strength, energy and clarity of mind to complete our assignment for the day.
Goals should be set with our God-given purpose and direction in mind. We should aim to fulfill them in God’s timing – and not just fulfill them but even start them to begin with. Some things that I believe with all my heart God has called me to do have been on my heart for almost 30 years – but His timing on these assignments has yet to gain much traction in my life.
In order to know when to start each action step and to know what they even are, we need to daily spend quiet time in the Presence of the Father to hear His direction for the day. Just like Jesus, there is no need to do any more than the Father is directing us on any given day.
Purpose
Jesus walked out His purpose – to do the will of His Father Who is in Heaven; to save the sinner; to bring light to a dark world; to preach the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven. Once again, He was intentional. Jesus was only on this earth for a total of 33 years. It wasn’t until He was about 30 years old that He performed His first miracle, but He was teaching in the synagogue at just 12 years old. It’s not about how long you serve your purpose, it’s about being intentional with the time you are given to do it. Jesus was intentional, and yet walked a healthy balanced, life. I never read or even ever heard anyone preach that Jesus “called in sick” one day! In fact, He was fulfilling His purpose even in His last moments before His agonizing death on a cross – the sinner who hung on a cross to the right of Him was forgiven of his sins when he repented to Jesus, hanging there on the cross, Jesus still did His work – He forgave the sinner and that sinner is now living out his life in Heaven for eternity. All because Jesus fulfilled His purpose.
In Summary
These are just some of the many examples of how Jesus lived His life wholistically, especially as it pertains to our mental health. I now challenge you to search His Word for even more examples of ways that Jesus kept balance in His life so that He could be the perfect example of what our life and health should look like as well.
Next week we will look into how Jesus maintained balance with His emotional health, even in the face of abuse, abandonment, betrayal and death.
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Here are the other blogs in this series:
“How Committed Are You to Your Wholistic Health?”
“How Do You Know When You Get There?”
“Are You Ready for 2025?”
“How Disciplined is Your Budget?”
“Are You Burning the Candle at Both Ends?”
Pursue Your Purpose