Frequently Asked Questions
What is the heart behind Christ-Life Resources?
The Christ-life is a focused pursuit to be with God relationally, recognizing Jesus as your life and trusting Him to live His life through you.
Christ-Life Resources offers biblically based, Christ-centered resources to individuals, churches, and ministries who desire to disciple people through the challenges of life while emphasizing the Christ-life. Many groups offer biblical resources. Many counselors offer Christian advice. Christ-Life Resources is distinct in that it offers resources that emphasize knowing God and allowing Him to live His life through believers in Christ.
When these truths begin to take hold in the hearts of Christians it’s the starting point of so many other changes. There is exponential growth as God changes their character from the inside out. The Bible comes alive in ways they’ve never known. People tap into the strength of God that sustains them during the darkest times. They awaken to a life of joy that circumstances cannot disrupt. Worship comes alive. Relationships come alive. The promises of God come alive.
For many people, it will be the first time in their Christian experience that they’re living the words of Christ: “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).
Should you consult a physician?
It is always a good idea to consult your family doctor regarding your overall health. There are many connections between the physical body and your emotional well-being. A person’s overall diet, sleep patterns, vitamin intake, exercise, and general health can be determining factors for depression, fatigue, anger, anxiety, and other challenges. There are clear links between chemical imbalances in the body and emotional health. When in doubt, go to the doctor.
That being said, it may be beneficial to get a second or third opinion. It’s not uncommon for doctors to prescribe drugs for spiritual or emotional issues. While this site does not encourage people to take unnecessary drugs, we DO encourage people to take the medications that are clearly linked to physical or chemical issues within the body.
Are the Holy Spirit and the Bible enough to bring emotional and spiritual health?
Sometimes our instinct is to look within ourselves to get emotionally and spiritually healthy. We scrutinize our past, take personality tests, and spend a lot of time thinking, talking, and journaling about ourselves, as if self-awareness and self-expression had inherent healing powers. But emotional and spiritual health won’t be found by making ourselves the focus.
Other times we look to science and psychology to heal us, as if losing our tempers or never feeling God’s peace were simply matters of blood chemistry and internal wiring. We search for that one technique that will teach us to cope. But the best the world has to offer will do us no good apart from the grace of God.
Still other times we simply give up and believe that we can never get better, that something has been irreparably broken inside. This is a lie that’s meant to destroy our faith and steal our joy. Nobody is too broken for God.
Emotional and spiritual health is possible, but it comes from God Himself, specifically through His Word (the Bible) and the Holy Spirit. The Bible has real answers for us, containing “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 3:1). It teaches us the Gospel, showing us how to be in right relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, is the only way we can have true spiritual health. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we get to know God better as we read the Bible, and we learn to love Him more. As our love for God grows, the Holy Spirit makes us more like Christ, who is Himself the perfect example of spiritual and emotional health.
The Bible isn’t simply giving us information as other books do. It is literally “breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16), and the power of God is in the Word of God. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the Bible revives (Psalm 19:7) and purifies our souls (Ephesians 5:26). It guards us from sin (Psalm 119:11). It pierces through to our secret thoughts and draws out what is hidden (Hebrews 4:12). It brings joy and delights the heart (Jeremiah 15:16). It accomplishes everything for which God appoints it (Isaiah 55:11).
When we doubt the Bible and the Holy Spirit’s power to bring us emotional and spiritual health, it may be because we don’t understand the problem. The issue isn’t that we’ve been dragged down by a hard life and personal difficulties that now need to be figured out and overcome one by one. In fact, focusing on our problems is a sure way to defeat.
The issue is how we stand before God. Do we stand before God reminding Him of all the things that we think have gone wrong and are still wrong, or do we let Him lead? Do we let God speak into our lives? Do we let go of our own perspective and embrace God’s perspective as revealed in the Bible?
In our brokenness, we keep turning back to what we need to be healed from, but God turns us to what He’s healing us for: freedom, clean hearts, renewed minds, and abundant life in Him. The emotionally and spiritually healthy person isn’t the person without problems, but instead, is the person who daily turns away from self and circumstances and focuses on God, even when it’s hard.
The Bible actually doesn’t call this emotional and spiritual health; it calls it maturity. As mature Christians, we’re growing in our emotional self-control, our sense of security, our ability to reach out to others instead of always looking to our own interests, our ability to cope with new challenges, and all the other things we associate with strong emotional and spiritual health.
Psalm 1:3 describes the mature person as being “like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” Like a tree with extensive roots continually soaking in good water, the psalmist says, there is a person who is nourished and satisfied, who moves through the stages of life growing as he ought to grow, who is resilient to changing seasons and unexpected weather patterns. This person is the picture of emotional and spiritual health.
Psalm 1 compares the unhealthy person to chaff that is swept away by external forces, without any form or substance anchoring him to the earth. Instead of producing sweet fruit that gives energy and life to others, there are only dry leftovers.
The difference between the two is that the first seeks God, specifically delighting in God’s Word as he meditates on it continually (Psalm 1:2). Like a tree made strong by adequate sun, the emotionally and spiritually healthy person lives in the light of God Himself. He may be weak with few resources of his own, but because God is his refuge, he meets life with eagerness, stamina, and skill.
If you have placed your faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, you have already been transformed into a new creation with a new identity. At one point, you were lost, separated from God, and forced to respond in your own strength to the challenges of life. But you are not that person any more. As you learn to walk like the new person you are, there may be things outside of the Bible that are good and helpful, but only the God who knows it all and can do it all can guide you into strong emotional and spiritual health. “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7).