Does God Still Heal? - Emotional Healing - Moving Beyond Treating the Symptoms, Part 2

When you hear people talk about the Christian life like this overflowing love and joy, regardless of all the difficulty or circumstances or emotions, do you privately think in your mind, I mean, what planet are they living on and are they being real or just phony?

Is it possible in the midst of difficult, painful, even depressing emotions to experience God? Join us today. Thank you for being with us for this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip serves as our Bible teacher for this global teaching and discipleship ministry, helping Christians develop an authentic faith. Well, in just a minute, we'll pick up in our series Does God Still Heal? with the remainder of Chip's talk, Emotional Healing, How to Move Beyond Treating Symptoms. And you know, we don't often make the connection between emotional pain and divine healing, but today Chip will share several examples that will open our eyes to the truth of that idea. So if you're ready, here's Chip with a second half of his message from James chapter five.

You know that cross that some of you have around your neck or that cross that you see in the Bible? While you were yet a sinner, while I was yet a sinner, Christ died in your place. God demonstrated his love for you. He cares about you.

He's for you. And what I've put here is a number of lament Psalms. When you feel depressed, doubt and circumstances, Psalm 13. When there's guilt and shame, when you've really done something wrong and Psalm 38, he just talks about I've sinned, I've been in folly, I did this, I did this. And he talks about all of his emotions and then he stops. But he remembers God's character and his forgiveness and his love. And then he resolves to trust. In Psalm 56, he's persecuted.

It's unfair. In Psalm 73, he's getting a completely raw deal. And he comes to God, he says, surely you're good to Israel, but today I almost checked out of following you. Why? Because I'm watching evil people get good stuff and I'm getting killed. I tell the truth. I'm being pure.

I'm following you. I'm doing what's right. And my life's going this way and they lie and they cheat and every sin you can imagine and their life is going great.

He says, my foot almost slipped. See, if you don't process those kinds of thoughts, then what happens is down inside this little voice says, you know, living the Christian life, it's not worth it. I mean, all those other sales reps, they're lying.

You know, some other people in business, they're padding stuff. You know, there's people over here. And God says, he processes that. And he said, I would have betrayed all the people that will come after me, the generation of my children. My testimony would have gone down the tubes. My relationship with you. He said, but then I perceived their end when I went into the sanctuary of God and God revealed, you know, it looks good now, but he pulls out the rug.

Bang. I remember having my first powerful lament experience when happened to date a girl and her life was going this way and my life was going that way. Still very much loved her hope that our visions would align. And I'll never forget the night where after a college basketball game I came up the stairs where I always did and she walked out the door with another player who I knew. I'll say no more.

And I remember being so mad at God. Okay, there's four girls to every guy. I'm living in the midst of the sexual revolution.

I've committed myself and I'm living a sexually pure life and my girl who I thought I might even marry is going out with that guy. And I just said, this is it. This is it. This is so unfair. This isn't worth it. And I don't suggest you do this, but I mean, in the raw of the moment I said, God, I'll give you about three or four chapters to speak to me tonight or I'm done.

I mean, I'm done. So I went through, you know, Psalm 69, nothing. Psalm 70, nothing. 71, nothing.

73. And I read Psalm 73 and at the very end was this moment of perspective. I mean, literally, I can tell you talk about a counselor. It was like very words that came out of my mouth were in that text. And at the very end, God says this. He says, Lord, my heart and my flesh may fail, but you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

He says, on earth there's nothing I desire beside you. As for me, the nearness of God is my good. And I have made the Lord God my refuge that I could tell of all of his works. And what I realized was all that emotion was about I thought another person could complete me.

And I saw it going a different direction. And that became a core passage where God has counseled me and taught me, you know what, Chip, even when you get married or even when you have kids or this, there is not another person. There's not an event. There's not money. There's not success. There's not something or someone out there that can fill the deepest void and the hole inside your heart and your soul.

It is designed for me and me alone. And that's why we talk so much about surrender. Because unless you make room for him to be all, he isn't in your life. He just becomes your kind of little self-help genie so you can get God to do what you want him to do to work out what you think will work for you. And have you noticed that doesn't work? And then we get all this anxiety as we're trying to, you know, it's really hard to manipulate the God of the universe.

Have you noticed that? But as you get raw and honest, as you remember his character, and then as you choose, and by the way, you don't feel like it. You choose. But if you choose and verbalize, and I would suggest that something that some of you might do to experience great healing is go to the drugstore and buy one of these. It's a spiral notebook. For the last probably 30-some years, when I'm trying to get stuff out of my head, I write it down. And there's something powerful. David wrote it.

You know what this is? This is David's journal, later put to music. And so lest we be, you know, hypothetical, I thought to myself, what's the last lament song? I was here early praying and saying, God, you want to heal us. And so this was Sunday, the 14th of February.

I need to deal with my anger and my attitude. I came home and wrote in my journal, confessed my sins, gave thanks, addressed some emails, and got back to some people with my best sense of God direction and some questions they ask. I remember years ago, you, Lord, giving me a window of rest in preparation for the beginning of seminary, the summer of 1979 in Dallas. I constantly busied myself, looked back realizing that I missed your gift. I have the strange feeling that I'm doing much the same now. This is a time to get fully refreshed, to be okay with doing nothing, to let my body and my emotions recover and heal from the intensity of the last two years.

And probably if I'm honest, maybe the last 10. Help me Almighty God to stop, receive your love and grace. Help me to enjoy you. Lord Jesus, rather than discover some big thing you want to teach me or discover some big hidden thing that's wrong with me, or justify my existence by gaining some great new insight while I'm down, would you help me to be still and be with you?

As you full well know, I'm frustrated and I'm not handling things well despite progress with my back. Have mercy on me, my Father. Help me receive your love and enjoy your presence and simply not accomplish anything. To cease striving and know your God. That's a lament.

It's a lament. I was angry, mad, sad, frustrated, can't sit down, can't stand up, can't read. I actually got this little contraption off the internet so I could put my iPad and I lay on my back so I can read and do something, you know? But I'm not in control. So what do you do? Like eat more? Watch more TV?

Make phone calls? Or get real with how you really feel? And then remember who God is. And all I can tell you is a little moment of healing. When I got done, it was like, you know, it's like those of you that have boyfriends or girlfriends or those of you that are married and something comes between you and you kind of have it out. Sometimes we patch things up right in relationships but we don't really get down. It's like, oh, I'm sorry, you're sorry, I'm sorry, can we be okay? Which means let's both forget it. And there's other times where you say, you know, I felt really bad when you said such and such, it really hurt my feelings.

And honestly, I was pretty ticked off. And when you really get the truth on the table and you really do forgive each other, isn't there an amazing connection that happens afterwards? That's what God wants.

That's what He wants with. That's how healing occurs. There's a second kind of prayer that God uses to fill your emotional tank. There's a prayer that helps us when we're down. But notice He says to us, if anyone is happy, and you know what?

When we're happy, sometimes we get all jazzed up and so zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, and you want to start doing all kind of stuff. And there's something He wants individuals to do, not just corporately, but alone and with Him, that allows you to capture the happiness and the goodness and the love and the acceptance and to take it from an intellectual thing that you believe, and something that you've now experienced, and let it pour down into your heart and build up a reservoir so that all the painful withdrawals of life that are going to come, that you would just have this sense of reservoir of life. And I don't understand psychologically or even spiritually how it happens, but there is a correlation between truth going from your head to your heart through the process of singing, especially singing about who God is. In fact, Ephesians chapter five, you might jot it down, 18 to 21, were commanded to be filled with the Spirit. And then it says the evidence of the overflow of the Spirit is speaking to one another in songs and hymns, singing and making melody in your heart toward the Lord. Colossians 3, 15 and following will take the same structure and say, I want you to be filled with the Word of God. Let the Word of God richly dwell within you. And then when the Word of God, the truth of God is richly dwelling within you, guess what? Singing and making melody in your heart toward God. These kind of prayers that fill our emotional tanks have three parts as well, and they're called psalms of praise. Psalms of praise.

In these you recount gain. You recount, wow, this is what God did. Second, then you recall God's character. The pattern all through psalms of praise, 50% or about 75 of the 150 psalms are psalms either of declaration or prescription of the praise to God. And they talk about what he's done and they recount his works.

And then that moves them to recall his character. And then finally, to resolve, to thank or to praise him. 41 times in the psalms alone were commanded singing to the Lord, singing to the Lord, singing to the Lord.

And I don't know how it works and just confession for all the people that did not raise their hand. I feel weird when I sing out loud personally. And I feel weird singing to God.

I mean, it doesn't come naturally. But as I've learned to praise God, as I sing and praise God, something very powerful happens in my emotions. Something happens in my perspective.

There's a strength and a filter that I began to look at life and difficulty and pain and problems and because all of a sudden I'm praising and affirming the goodness of God and the wisdom of God and the power of God and the love of God. And I'm taking that from an intellectual knowledge to down deep in my soul. This is what is true. And it's not just true out there. It's true in me. And the Spirit of God takes the word of God in the songs and it begins to bubble up emotionally inside of me and you. It's why I think Paul and Silas in the midst of great adversity, they're in prison and they're realizing God's in control. He's got this. And they start singing.

Remember that? Sometimes singing births forth great power. They sing for a while, then the earth starts shaking and there's an earthquake. God wants to bring some breakthroughs in our lives. And I would encourage you, maybe He starts with you singing some songs to Him. The other thing it does, singing to God is a very intimate thing, isn't it?

I think maybe that's why I'm uncomfortable. I've for years listened as my wife has put our little kids to bed and now grandchildren and I can hear the rocker and I can hear her voice for all these years into the ears of those babies. And I watch what happens to them as she sings.

And Zephaniah 3.17, this is phenomenal. Not only do we sing to God, He says He sings over us. Is God that personal and that intimate? See, I think He's not a formula. He's not the force. He's not out there. He lives within you. Says the Lord, God is mighty. He quiets you with His love.

He rejoices over you with singing. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And Chip will be right back to finish his talk. But quickly, are you aware there's a spiritual battle happening right now? Now that's not meant to scare you, but rather to motivate you. Stick around after the program as Chip talks about an effective tool we have that will prepare and equip you to fight back against our enemy.

You don't want to miss it. But for now, let's get back to our series, Does God Still Heal? And so I put here some times that we feel kind of very encouraged. And if you would, open your Bible to Psalm 103. I think it's probably the classic Psalm, at least for me.

Or maybe it's the one that God has used the most when I have been so discouraged. And Psalm 103 gives us the pattern of recalling His acts, then shifting to His character, and then giving thanks. Praise the Lord, or bless the Lord, O my soul, and all of my innermost being, praise His holy name. Bless or praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not one of His benefits.

And then He lists them. Who forgives all my sins, who heals all my diseases, who redeems my life from the pit and crowns me with love and compassion. He satisfied my desires with good things so that my youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel.

And then notice He's listing. He's healed me. He's forgiven me. He's strengthened me.

He's looking at all the acts. And then He has the shift where He goes, you know, He made known His ways, what He's really like to Moses. He made all of His acts, the Red Sea, the manna, the water out of the rock to Israel. Who was faithful?

Who after it all got said and done, who continued to follow? See, God's acts will never sustain you. You feel like if He would do a big miracle, if He would heal your leg, if He would bring your son to the Lord, if some big miracle means some big thing, if something would right size up instead of down in terms of your finance, if He would just do some big miracle, I got news a month from now, you'd have another big one He really needs to do. It's God's ways that sustain you. But the way you learn His ways is you recount the specific things that He does, and then you step back and you look at His character.

Notice what He says now. He says, the Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness. He will not always accuse nor harbor His anger forever. He doesn't treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far as He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. You see where He went? He went from God did these things to this is who He is. And when you begin to sing and you would begin to believe that, are you ready for this? He's not down on you.

Didn't He say that? The Lord is compassionate. He's slow to anger. He's the most patient being in all the universe. Just as we as human fathers have compassion on the children, so the Lord has compassion on us as we fear Him and walk before Him.

Some of the guilt and the shame and where you've been and what you've done. As far as the east is from the west, when God sees you on this day in this room, He's removed them. He loves you. He looks at you through the blood of Christ, the righteousness of Christ. You're precious, loved, adopted, loved.

He's got a plan for you. He's abounding in steadfast, loyal love and kindness. When you begin to sing that, you'll start to believe it and you'll start to feel it. I found myself in like manner a few days ago and I didn't call him a psalm of praise, but actually I sort of mixed them. When I feel my emotions starting to go down and me starting to lose perspective, Hebrews 13, 15 says, let us offer a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And often when I can feel just, you know that blue funk? You're not depressed, but just, you know what? And you can kind of feel like, you know, I'm just about one person's bad attitude away from not having a very good day. Does anyone not have that? Or, you know, one traffic light or someone who cuts in front of me, you know, you can just feel the little edge building and you think to yourself, I don't want to have a day like that.

What I find is I do something like this and just as far as quickly and just jot them down. Jason, my son called me Sunday dash. Thank you, Lord. Preaching calendar you gave it to me as I've been praying the last four or five weeks. I've got it laid out through Thanksgiving. Thank you, Lord.

I was able to actually sit down and record coffee break. Thank you, Lord. You gave me real clarity on my unique contribution to the future as I've been reading and thinking. Thank you, Lord.

Jerry called and offered to help and partner with a big project. Thank you, Lord. Dr. Chung's generosity and kindness and time with the ice packs, the pillows, the nutritional supplements. Thank you, Lord. I'm improving physically. Thank you, Lord.

Had fun in connection with Teresa yesterday, Friday and Saturday. Thank you, Lord. I was moved to ask a few friends to actually text in their social media since I don't do that stuff and to promote the book. Thank you, Lord.

They did. Thank you for speaking to me when I was praying. Thank you, Lord, through the memory verses.

I listened to this series on how the best get better. And you showed me specific application. Thank you, Lord. I've got a whole nother page.

I've got a whole nother page. When I got done, my emotions were completely transformed. God wants to fill your reservoir. And so you'll notice I put some passages for you to get you going.

God's goodness and love, Psalm 136, God's mighty acts, Psalms 145, God's faithfulness and creation, Psalm 146 to 150. Now turn the page and I want to summarize because people sort of drift into areas that I think get dangerous. So let me bring balance. Number one, conclusion is ups and downs are normal. In fact, I used to be really upset because I feel like, you know, my life and my emotions.

And then I read the Psalms and realized, guess what? Welcome to the NFL. Everybody is. No one's doing great all the time or feeling great all the time. So if you have ups and downs, welcome to humanity. Number two, emotional health demands we move from the silencing of our symptoms. What we want to talk about is you can't silence your symptoms. Ask yourself, what are the things that you do to just quiet it down?

And whether it's eating or work or addictions and just say, you know what? That's really not the problem. Prescription drugs is not the problem. The Internet is not the problem. Work is not the problem. Your ex is not the problem. Your kids is not the problem. Your health issues is not the problem.

There's something feeding that. And God wants to heal that. Three, emotional healing is a gift from God. So go to the counselor before you go to many counselors. Before you pick up the phone and share your story and share it in a group and share it here, share it. Go to the counselor. It's not either or, but go there first.

Number four, getting stuck is also normal. And God uses people in conjunction with prayer to mend our emotional wounds. We are competent to counsel one another.

Life change happens in small groups. Professional biblical counselors are necessary and wonderful. We need one another. It's not, oh, you only pray.

It's yes, I come to God first, but he's going to use people in multiple ways and he's going to use me in their life. And finally, some wounds at times demand extended and specialized care. Some of these things are physiological. Some people need antidepressants and should be on them. Some people need specialized treatment.

We have this idea. Is it emotional? Is it mental? Is it physical? Answer, yes.

Yes. Do you realize the power of what's going on in your mind and how it affects your body and how what you're thinking affects your relationship with people and God? You are a wholeness. And so it's complicated. So we need the best medical attention, the best spiritual and the best emotional. And I don't know what's going on with you and you don't know what's going on with me. So let's not judge one another about the processes, where they're at and the kind of care they might need.

Okay? You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the message you just heard, Emotional Healing, How to Move Beyond Treating Symptoms, is from our series, Does God Still Heal? Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. Do you know someone fighting a lifelong disease, battling depression, or wrestling with their faith? In this insightful series, Chip tackles the question that haunts many. Is there real hope for those suffering physically, emotionally, and spiritually? Journey with Chip through James Chapter 5 as he unravels the true meaning of healing and what it looks like in our modern world. You'll also discover prayer's influential role in navigating life's most difficult trials.

You're not going to want to miss a single program of this meaningful teaching. Well, Chip's back in studio with me now. And Chip, when bad things happen, Christians generally fall into two camps. First, we'll see hardship as a part of life that we just have to deal with, while the other group believes it's evidence of demonic activity. Now take a minute to talk about these two viewpoints and share how a resource we've created will help our listeners better understand the spiritual realm. Dave, that is such a great question.

As C.S. Lewis rightly pointed out, the two great errors that the enemy wants us to believe is that he's behind everything or he's not a part of anything. What these spiritual warfare cards do is, first, I go through and about five or six cards give you the basic principles of spiritual warfare all through scripture. Then I go through and through the names of Satan, you can understand what his tactics are. So you can identify, oh, this really is from the enemy.

No, this happened because I made a bad decision or I sinned or I just got mad and that's on me. I think it's important to have a resource where you can discern what's spiritual warfare and what's not. And that's why we've created these cards.

We want it to be simple, clear, reviewable, and something that people could do in, you know, three or four minutes before they go to bed each night so they begin to renew their mind and prepare themselves for the battles that we go through day in and day out. Satan doesn't take vacations. He comes at us in very subtle ways. And the armor of God is really about preparing your mind, your heart, and your soul to be aware and to know how to respond when he comes at us.

Good word, Chip. Well, if you want to get your hands on our Invisible War scripture cards, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. This powerful resource will help you recognize the tactics of our enemy, embrace the security Christ offers, and effectively wield God's word. Again, for complete details about these Invisible War scripture cards, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003.

App listeners, tap Special Offers. Well, with that, here again is Chip. As we close today's program, there might be some of you that are thinking to yourself, you know, Chip, thanks for all these Bible verses and lament psalms, but you don't really understand. You know, I'm really, really hurting, and I want God to fix this.

And, you know, let me just share a couple of things. I've, in the last couple of years, had really severe back issues that led to major surgery. I laid on ice. It was really discouraging. I had everyone in the world tell me, you know, here's the remedy. I couldn't do things. I found myself really battling depression. And here's what I want to say. Yes, there is a right place and a right time for a good counselor, a good doctor, a close friend, but I do want you to know that God doesn't want to waste your pain and his agenda.

Are you ready? His agenda primarily isn't to fix you. I remember shortly after the surgery, and I had prayed and we'll talk about physical healing. I believe that God can supernaturally intervene.

I've seen him do that. I had people pray for me. And I remember about two or three weeks after the surgery, I remember thanking God that he didn't supernaturally intervene because in the two-year journey, the pain slowed me down and allowed me to address some issues in my heart and in my life that my Heavenly Father not only wanted to help me with and correct me, but wanted to love me through that would have never happened. Here's what I want to tell you. Emotional pain can be a gateway to the heart of God. Run to him.

Talk to him. I prayed the Psalms out loud. Everything I shared today has been real life experience for me and I want you to know that more than getting fixed and more than relief, he wants to meet you, love you, embrace you, encourage you, comfort you, and allow you to know him in ways that you couldn't apart from this pain. Today, here's your application. Open one of those Psalms and run to God.

Good challenge, Chip. And as we close, if you're going through a trying season right now, we want you to know we care about you and would cherish the opportunity to pray with you. Call us at 888-333-6003 to pray with one of our team members. That's 888-333-6003. Or if it's easier, email us at chip at livingontheedge.org. Again, that's chip at livingontheedge.org. Well for Chip and the entire team here, this is Dave Drewy thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge and I hope you'll join us again next time.