Despite the result of Adam’s terrible decision, there is one thing God never took away from humans…the right to choose. It’s this power to think, choose, and make decisions that makes us responsible for what we say and do, and accountable to God for our actions and their consequences. Our decisions and choices affect us and those around us continually whether we like it or not.

Unfortunately, many people, if not most people, don’t accept or live by this truth. Like Adam, they play the “blame game” because it’s easier to blame someone or something else for whatever wrong they do than to take responsibility for the choices they make.

People have been taught to believe that their “mental illness” is a medical condition over which they have no control, which is given a fancy diagnosis behind which they shelter and hope that the drugs they swallow faithfully will cure their condition. So, they live as victims of people and circumstances, hiding behind other people’s words or behaviour as an excuse for their sin.

There is a plethora of mental “diseases” filling hundreds of text books which psychiatrists, who having spent many years studying and practicing what they have learned, inflict on sufferers to no avail. Patients are locked up in psychiatric facilities to keep them from harming others. Families wring their hands in despair because medical science is nowhere near to helping their loved ones overcome their condition even after years of treatment.

Imagine if all this research and knowledge were dumped for the Bible’s simple diagnosis…sin…and the powerful and effective remedy, faith in the blood of Jesus which provides forgiveness and peace!

God has never tried to hoodwink humans into believing that the devil or anyone else is responsible for what we do. He wrote it bluntly in His manual for living.

Ezekiel 18:19-20 NLT
[19] “‘What?’ you ask. ‘Doesn’t the child pay for the parent’s sins?’ No! For if the child does what is just and right and keeps my decrees, that child will surely live. [20] The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own righteous behavior, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness.”

That’s clear, isn’t it?

You see, Jesus attributed everything bad we think or do to unbelief in Him which is what God judges. So, sin and all its consequences, are the fruit of refusal to turn away from selfish, sinful behaviour and to entrust our lives to Jesus.

Does this also include “mental illness”? Surely it must because mental issues are the outcome of sinful behaviour…feelings of fear, guilt, and shame. These hidden emotions produce all kinds of “disorders” which psychiatrists try to treat with counsel or medication instead of uncovering the roo cause.

John 3:18-20 NLT
[18]“There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. [19] And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. [20] All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.”

Since people love their sin and refuse to turn away from their unbelief, the consequences are death…to peace, contentment, and freedom which are the fruits of choosing to live in the light, in the truth of who God is and what He has said.

The devil, who is the powerful influence over the world’s systems, has lied to us. He says that selfish indulgence is the way to live, so people choose selfish indulgence and blame others when they feel bad.

Jesus promised a rich and satisfying life to those who believe in Him.

John 10:10 NLT
[10]”The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.”

How can we have this life?

John 10:9 NLT
[9] “Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.”

We can only enter into this abundant life by, first, trustingvJesus’ promises for the forgiveness of all our sin, the very reason for our mental disorders, second, cleansing from all our wicked ways and, third, the new life Jesus gives to those who follow Him.

Who is the thief? In the context of Scripture, the religious leaders, who led people astray by their wrong teaching. The same can apply to anyone, including medically trained people, who teach us that we are “sick” and need their treatment to recover.

So, what’s the real problem with us?
We have chosen to look for the rich and satisfying life by ignoring God’s way and trying to do life on our own. Bad choice. It doesn’t work… never will! God created us in His image, to live in harmony with Him, His way. Any other way leads to disintegration, falling apart.

How, then, can we overcome the issue of bad choices?

To be continued…