Recently, I was able to hear George Barna from the Barna Group present at a conference and this statistic stood out to me above all. Current research suggests if you believe in the following 7 tenants of the Christian faith your chances of developing a mental illness decrease to 2%:
1-God is eternal, omniscient, and the Creator. I would never look at a master artist and question his creation or tell him it would work better another way…Trust the Creator and worship him NOT his creations.
2-Humans are sinful by nature. We all screw up by nature. We are not perfect.
3-Jesus freely offers and gives forgiveness of sin and eternal life.
4-The Bible is true. Rest in this, it is freeing.
5-Absolute truth exists. Just FYI, if you say “absolute truth doesn’t exist”, that statement in itself is an absolute truth…
6-Success is defined by obedience to God. Period…
7-The purpose of your life is to know, love, and serve God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
If you think about it, sense can be made of it all. So much pressure of life is taken off of the individual when we have a solid belief in something greater than us, something beyond what we can see in this life, and a hope of a life without sin.
Knowing the absolute truth that God is sovereign, the creator who sees and knows all, and understanding that humans are sinful but we have Jesus who forgives sin gives me hope. I also know that hiding God’s word (the Bible) in my heart combats bad thoughts/lies with truth. Finally, walking in obedience to God and knowing his purpose for my life gives me peace.
Talk about and teach these truths to all you know,
Dr. Atwell
