"My child's mental health struggles mean they can't really encounter God until they're more stable."
How it sounds in your head: She's on three medications for anxiety and depression, in therapy twice a week, barely functioning some days. How can she hear God's voice through the mental fog? Maybe once she's healthier, more stable, thinking clearer—then she can really connect with God. Right now she's too broken.
"The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit."
-- Psalm 34:18Enemy convinces you God can't reach through mental illness, making medication and stability prerequisites for encounter instead of God meeting people in their brokenness.
The mental health fog is real—you've watched her struggle to function, to think clearly, to feel anything but numb. It seems impossible that God could break through when her own brain chemistry is fighting her.
Lived naked in tombs, cut himself with stones, screamed day and night, broke chains, so violent no one could pass that way—severe mental torment and demon possession making him completely non-functional. Yet Jesus spoke ONE WORD and instantly the man was clothed, in his right mind, sitting peacefully—complete mental restoration in one encounter.
I REFUSE the lie that my child is too mentally ill to encounter God. IT IS WRITTEN that the Lord is NEAR to the broken-hearted—He doesn't wait for stability to show up. The man of Gadara was naked, cutting himself, screaming in tombs, and Jesus spoke one word that brought instant soundness of mind. IT IS WRITTEN that Jesus came for the sick, not the healthy—mental illness is not a barrier but an invitation for His nearness. My daughter doesn't need balanced brain chemistry to hear God's voice—He wrote her brain and can speak through the fog, the medication, the depression. She is covered by the BARAK blessing, and God is pursuing her in the dark places, not waiting for her to find the light first.
The Father doesn't wait outside the mental health fog hoping she'll come out so He can reach her—He's IN the fog with her, IN the depression with her, speaking through the medication and the therapy and the broken brain chemistry. He's whispering identity in the numb moments and breakthrough is coming whether her serotonin cooperates or not.