I'm Not Doing Well- Support // Sunday, September 20, 2020
/
Sunday, September 20, 2020
I’m Not Doing Well - Support
How should we respond to someone who is struggling?
1. Like Jesus
Luke 4: 40 (NASB) While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them.
Jesus was a healer to the most despised sick ones.
Mark 5: 2 - 5 (ESV) …when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.
Mark 5: 15 (ESV) …they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind…
We don’t discount people who suffer from emotional / mental struggles.
1 Corinthians 12: 26 (ESV) If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
What can we do?
1. Have realistic expectations
John 16: 33 (NLT) I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
2. Let the professionals do their job.
Proverbs 11: 14 (ESV) Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
Proverbs 12: 15 (NLT) Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others.
3. An episode does not define a person.
Mark 5: 20 (NLT) …he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.