[__ Prayer __] Prayer for my mental health

[AngelsAmongstUs]

As soon as everything opens up again in 2017, I plan to switch shrinks. A woman, this time, and one who specializes in anxiety/abandonment issues. I feel like it's time for a change and psychiatry isn't all bad provided you get the actual help you need. I have tremendous issues with sleeping; please pray for me about that. Please pray about my PTSD - the flashbacks, the bitterness about my tormentors moving on unscathed. Please pray that I'll get help with all my issues and become a happier person.

I already ought to be; I consider Jesus my Savior, I have a job until next April, I have a home, food, a loving family... But my mind is a maze of unresolved issues and I'm paranoid all the time. Please ask God to bring me peace and comfort.

Blessings on all on Christmas. He is born for us!

 

[Pegasus]

As soon as everything opens up again in 2017, I plan to switch shrinks. A woman, this time, and one who specializes in anxiety/abandonment issues. I feel like it's time for a change and psychiatry isn't all bad provided you get the actual help you need. I have tremendous issues with sleeping; please pray for me about that. Please pray about my PTSD - the flashbacks, the bitterness about my tormentors moving on unscathed. Please pray that I'll get help with all my issues and become a happier person.

I already ought to be; I consider Jesus my Savior, I have a job until next April, I have a home, food, a loving family... But my mind is a maze of unresolved issues and I'm paranoid all the time. Please ask God to bring me peace and comfort.

Blessings on all on Christmas. He is born for us!

I prayed for you. May the Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

 

[Eugene]

.
Dear Sister AngelsAmongstUs, I surely will be in prayer for you. You mention something in your request indicating unresolved forgiveness such as "tormentors moving on unscathed," and near above all things that could be the very essence of your torment not allowing you to experience a peaceful life.

Please consider the following post that could bring joy to your life again. Blessings in Christ Jesus.
http://www.christianforums.net/Fellowship/index.php?threads/forgiving-someone-you-hate.53686/

 

[Christ_empowered]

hi there. I'm glad you're able to advocate for yourself and can find a doctor you can work with. that's very, very important.

I'll keep you up in prayer.

 

[Angel]

Praying for you

 

[GodsGrace]

Hi Angelsamoungstus
I'm sorry to hear of your problems.
It's wonderful to know that you are a saved person who has met our Lord Jesus.
Keep your eyes always on him. I find that this helps me to overcome many hardships.
May the Lord bless you and I'll certainly keep you in prayer.

Wondering

 

[daninthelionsden]

May your new doctor be a Christian and may he/she have your best interests at heart.

 

[Wrg1405]

I have tremendous issues with sleeping; please pray for me about that. Please pray about my PTSD - the flashbacks, the bitterness about my tormentors moving on unscathed. Please pray that I'll get help with all my issues and become a happier person.

You mention something in your request indicating unresolved forgiveness such as "tormentors moving on unscathed," and near above all things that could be the very essence of your torment not allowing you to experience a peaceful life.

Precious daughter of our Father and our sister. Know that we love you and that God loves you as much as he loves Jesus.

I read your OP then read the post by Eugene, he beat me to it. From my own experience he has hit the nail on the head. That nail in you is unforgivness.

I was fostered by a Christian couple, within a few months my foster dad set around to sexually abuse me. This whe on every night for 4 years.

I know exactly what you are going through. Flashbacks, bitterness, tormentor going unscathed, wanting vengeance, wanting peace, wanting release from the pain and the prison I was in. Like you it caused issues with my sleeping pattern. As regular as clockwork I would wake up at the same time at 3 in the morning with fears, hurt, pain and guilt.
Had this for 30 years. God healed and released this in me about 4 years ago.

It was a process that God took me through, walked with me in. Basically it came down to unforgivness in my heart that kept me prisoner. I did Freedom in Christ and that started the process.

A few times God said to me "you need to forgive now let us deal with it" I said "No"

Then God said to me "Bill which part of now let us deal with you that you don't get, I'm going with you, I'll work in this process if you will let me, will you let me"

I said yes and he walked with me, talked with me along this painful walk.

I won't go into the details of this walk but to cut a long story short my abuser was still in my life at the time, and I still saw him, only because I loved my foster mum dearly who had no idea what was going on.

God was faithful to his word. For the last 5 or so years I've slept every night and not woken up at the normal time.

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”
― Lewis B. Smedes, Forgive and Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

If we don't forgive then we are prisoners in a jail. A jail with a locked door, if we come before God and ask him to open the door, he will open it.

He is gentle, he is kind, he will walk with you at your pace and give you the strength to walk with him.

I'm going to post below something I sent out to my community group concerning forgiveness. I hope it helps.

Know that God is for you, he is gentle, kind, compassionate and that he can heal you and wants to heal you.

You are his precious daughter, the apple of his eye.

Much love and grace to you.

Your brother in Christ.

Bill

 

[Wrg1405]

Tonight's command is about forgiveness.

Matthew 18:21-22
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

The Bible has plenty to say about forgiveness. Where the Old Testament focuses mainly on God's forgiveness of individuals or groups, the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels also address how human beings can and should forgive each other.

The word forgive in the bible can be translated as follows.

To send away
to send forth, yield up, to expire, to let go, let alone, let be, to disregard, give up a debt,
forgive, to remit to give up, keep no longer.

In certain contexts, forgiveness is a legal term for absolving or giving up all claims on account of debt, loan, obligation or other claims.

Psychologists generally define forgiveness as a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness.

What is forgiveness?

It is a conscious choice that we make. Whether the person who hurt us apologises or not.
It is a shift in thinking towards someone who has hurt you.
It is letting go of the need for revenge and ill will.
It is choosing to remember no more what has been done to you.
It is acknowledging the pain and hurt you feel and walk in.
It is giving it up to God allowing him the right to take care of justice, his perfect justice.

What forgiveness is not.

It is not reconciliation.
It does not mean you have to restore a relationship.
It is not waiting for an apology before forgiving.
It is not always having to tell someone that we have forgiven them.
It is not just merely forgetting.
Is is not condoning or excusing what has been done.
It's not allowing the offence to recur again and again.
It does not replace justice. If an act against you is criminal you are free to instigate legal justice.

Consequences of unforgiveness.

Unforgiveness is a chain that will wrap itself around you. It will pull tighter and tighter. It will sap the very life out of you. It will make you miserable, angry, resentful. It will affect you health, cause anxiety, which leads to high blood pressure, release chemicals in your body that further increases anxiety, depression along with with physical symptoms of heart palpitations, breathing problems, tingling in your fingers and feet, not being able to sleep, not being able to function. These physical symptoms bring fear that further compound the physical and emotional symptoms.

MORE IMPORTANTLY IT AFFECTS YOUR RELATIONSHIPS, with other people that we have no need to forgive. We can withdraw or guard against friendships, be grumpy, irritable, mistrust and so on.

If it affects our relationships with other people you can guarantee it will affect our relationship with God.

The fact is, in the eyes of God unforgiveness is a sin. It can hinder our prayers, it will hinder our spiritual growth and it will hinder our witness.

Consequences of forgiveness.

First of all it helps with all the health issues mentioned above.
We see relationships with those around us in a different light.
We may see relationships restored.

The above are tangible benefits.

When we repent (make a conscious decision to forgive) of unforgiveness then we feel better about our relationship with God, we feel closer to God, we find it easier to come before him, speak to him, spend time him.


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Forgiveness is a one time event (what I mean is that at some point you choose to give it up) yet dealing with the consequences can be a process.

When we acknowledge the hurt and pain and any other negative emotion, the act of merely forgiving does not necessarily heal the negative aspects that we suffer.

This is where we are to bring it before God and ask him to heal us. These chains God wants to break, to heal, restore to you an inner peace, replace anger with love.

If we have allowed chains to wrap themselves around us they start to loosen when we allow God to work. When our chains are gone then we have FREEDOM.


This is the ultimate consequence and priceless benefit of forgiveness. Forgiveness is not just about better health and life satisfaction. It’s not just an aid for reducing stress and fighting depression. It is about becoming by grace what God is by nature: a person who loves, a person who forgives, a person who cares for the salvation of the entire world, one soul at a time.


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Theologian Lewis Smedes writes, "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. (Martin Luther King, Jr)

Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness. (H. Jackson Brown, Jr.)

When you forgive, you in no way change the past - but you sure do change the future. (Bernard Meltzer)

To err is human; to forgive, divine. (Alexander Pope)

Footnote:

Secular psychology in the 1980's started to incorporate the principle of forgiveness into counselling. Even in the secular world there is a realisation that forgiveness plays a major part in the lives of those they counsel. So a biblical principle is slowly working its way into the non religious world around us.

They do however focus on the aspect of letting go, it's health benefits and coping mechanisms for anger etc. There are even documented steps to forgiveness programs that they follow.

Where they stop though is the fact then we have a Father who wants to heal pain an hurt. Our Father does not want to give us coping mechanisms he wants to dig it right out of us and replace it pure unadulterated love.

When I have talked to non Christians who struggle with hurt and pain I talk about forgiveness in the secular sense but then say, "Why cope with it when God wants to heal it?

The majority accept the concept of forgiveness but not God healing it (that comes down to faith)
Nevertheless revealing the need to forgive in the first place is the right thing to do.