Expert: Pastor Don Carpenter - 2/23/2006

Question
Hello Pastor Carpenter. My name is Laura and I am 21 years old. I suppose I am technically a Protestant but I have not been to church since I was 7 years old. However, I have never stopped believing in God and I pray several times a day. I have been feeling a bit lost lately. Not unloved by God, by any means, but I feel like I'm not asking Him for help in the right way. Lately I have been suffering from what doctors are calling Generalized Anxiety Disorder and it's driving me, well, crazy. I've been begging God to take it away and heal me, but I have stayed the same. It's making me very sad to feel so anxious and nervous, because I'm normally incredibly happy. I want to be ME again, and I know I need God's help. I'm just not sure I'm asking him the right way, or praying right or something. Please give me some comforting advice, I really need it! Thank you so very much!
Laura

Answer
Hi Laura,

Thanks for this great question. I am sorry for my late response.  Mental ilness can be very confusing spiritually.  Let me help with an illustration.  If you had diabetes, an chemical imballance in your liver, you would pray about it...but you would also take insulin.  Many anxiety disorders are manifestations of a chemical imballance in the brain that can be corrected chemically through medicine.  We would not expect the person with a deffective liver to "get right with God and start producing insulin!"  It is unreasonable then to think that one with a chemical imballance in the brian could just "Get right with God and stap out of it....quit worrying!"  With that in mind, the thing that does complecate matters is that you may be suffering chemically and that is corrected chemically...but you may also have distructive thought patterns....and that is handled spiritually.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)  5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;  
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

If you have been prescribed medicine...take it.  Then get into a regular session of Bible reading.  Prayer is not enough...Pray is when you talk to God, Bible reading is when God talks back.

Isaiah 26:3
3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.   
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

I hope  that this helps you.

In Christ
Pastor Don