Latest / Your Hope-Filled Perspective with Dr. Michelle Bengtson podcast / How Easter Transforms our Mental and Emotional Battles - Living in Resurrection Hope

Transcript

How Easter Transforms our Mental and Emotional Battles - Living in Resurrection Hope · Your Hope-Filled Perspective with Dr. Michelle Bengtson podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: Life Audio.
0:05
Speaker 2: Have you ever noticed how Easter morning feels light and bright.
0:08
Speaker 2: It's not necessarily because the sunrise seems extra colorfuler because
0:13
Speaker 2: the church lilies release their fragrance. It's because something shifts
0:17
Speaker 2: inside us and whispers, hope is still alive. This hope
0:22
Speaker 2: isn't fragile, and it doesn't evaporate when bills pile up,
0:25
Speaker 2: or when anxiety keeps you awake at night, or when
0:27
Speaker 2: the ache you prayed would be gone is still there.
0:30
Speaker 2: We're talking about resurrection hope, the nitty gritty kind that
0:35
Speaker 2: Jesus bought for us the moment he walked out of
0:38
Speaker 2: the tomb. Easter has everything to do with the battles
0:41
Speaker 2: happening in our minds and emotions today. We are talking
0:45
Speaker 2: about the kind of hope that transforms us. It's not
0:48
Speaker 2: the pastel colored nor is it the once a year
0:50
Speaker 2: kind of hope, but in everyday hope. Welcome to your
0:54
Speaker 2: hope filled perspective, where it's our goal to restore hope,
0:57
Speaker 2: renew minds, and empower listeners to live in your God
1:00
Speaker 2: given identity. I'm your host, Doctor Michelle bankson Board, certified
1:04
Speaker 2: clinical neuropsychologist, author, speaker, and companion on this journey to
1:09
Speaker 2: emotional and spiritual wellness. I'm delighted you've chosen to spend
1:13
Speaker 2: a few moments of your week with us. Today we
1:16
Speaker 2: are going to be talking about how Easter transforms our
1:19
Speaker 2: mental and emotional battles when we live in resurrection. Hope.
1:23
Speaker 2: We'll dive into this right after this brief word from
1:26
Speaker 2: our sponsor. Today we're exploring how to live in resurrection, Hope,
1:34
Speaker 2: not just to celebrate it. We want to talk about
1:36
Speaker 2: how Easter transforms our emotional and mental struggles. Shame, stress, anxiety, discouragement,
1:44
Speaker 2: fear or depression does not get the final word. Jesus
1:48
Speaker 2: didn't just rise for the world. He rose for you,
1:52
Speaker 2: for the battle in your chest, the thoughts that don't
1:55
Speaker 2: have an off button, and for those dark places that
1:58
Speaker 2: still shout lies direction. Isn't only a historical and theological event,
2:04
Speaker 2: It's a mental and emotional revolution. Romans eight eleven says,
2:09
Speaker 2: And if the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from
2:12
Speaker 2: the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ
2:15
Speaker 2: from the dead will also give life to your mortal
2:18
Speaker 2: bodies because of His spirit who lives in you. Let's
2:21
Speaker 2: let that verse settle in our hearts and minds. The
2:24
Speaker 2: power that resurrected a dead body is the same power
2:28
Speaker 2: God places in our inner Christian world to bring back
2:32
Speaker 2: to life, hope, peace and joy when they feel gone.
2:36
Speaker 2: Yet Christians often live like Easter is a spiritual anniversary,
2:40
Speaker 2: not their present reality. We celebrate the resurrection, but then
2:43
Speaker 2: we go back to living mentally exhausted, emotionally beat up,
2:47
Speaker 2: and spiritually discouraged. So joining me in this conversation today
2:51
Speaker 2: about the power of resurrection hope is my co host
2:54
Speaker 2: Jessica Nrukohl. Welcome back, jess Thanks.
2:57
Speaker 3: I'm so glad to be here, and I'm excited to
2:59
Speaker 3: talk about this this topic I feel really strongly about
3:03
Speaker 3: because I see in my work as pastor and at
3:07
Speaker 3: our church, I see so many people who show up
3:10
Speaker 3: for Easter or Christmas, and then I don't see them again,
3:13
Speaker 3: and I miss them, and I keep thinking what they're missing,
3:17
Speaker 3: and it makes me sad. And so that's why today
3:20
Speaker 3: is such a good topic. You see, once Easter is over,
3:23
Speaker 3: it's like we forget that the resurrection means nothing is
3:27
Speaker 3: too broken for God to restore, or that our story
3:30
Speaker 3: is never finished even on our worst day, and that
3:33
Speaker 3: defeat doesn't have to be our last chapter. When we're
3:37
Speaker 3: anxious or overwhelmed, we can often think we shouldn't feel
3:40
Speaker 3: that way because we're Christian. We shame ourselves into thinking
3:43
Speaker 3: we should be stronger. But living in resurrection hope meets
3:48
Speaker 3: us right in the struggle.
3:49
Speaker 2: Oh exactly. Easter isn't a bandage. It's really a breakthrough,
3:54
Speaker 2: and it announces the defeat of mental and emotional battles.
4:00
Speaker 2: Get practical, and let's explore what resurrection hope looks like
4:04
Speaker 2: in our emotional battles. Just share a time when the
4:08
Speaker 2: nitty gritty hope of the resurrection met you in an
4:11
Speaker 2: emotional battle.
4:12
Speaker 3: Bills create a lot of anxiety in me, just the
4:15
Speaker 3: whole making ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck. I used
4:19
Speaker 3: to say I could squeeze two pennies together and get
4:22
Speaker 3: another halfpenny to come out of it. I mean, I
4:24
Speaker 3: was was frugal and I was smart with what we
4:28
Speaker 3: had each month. But every time tax season rolled around,
4:32
Speaker 3: I would lose sleep and I would worry, and I
4:34
Speaker 3: would wonder do we have enough tax detections? If we
4:38
Speaker 3: don't and we have to pay the irs something, how
4:42
Speaker 3: are we going to do that where's that money going
4:43
Speaker 3: to come from? And it would just consume me, like
4:46
Speaker 3: consume my thoughts. And I finally had to ask myself
4:51
Speaker 3: if the worst case scenario happened and everything fell apart,
4:55
Speaker 3: where would God be? And the Resurrection Hope has taught
4:59
Speaker 3: me to say that even if we're destitute, even if
5:03
Speaker 3: I can't pay that bill, even if all hope is lost,
5:07
Speaker 3: I know that God can raise it again. Resurrection hope
5:11
Speaker 3: doesn't promise me an easy life, but it does promise
5:15
Speaker 3: me God's presence, which then settles my anxious heart.
5:19
Speaker 2: I like your attitude of even if because most of
5:23
Speaker 2: us are living in the midst of some kind of
5:27
Speaker 2: even if. Right now. It's that tension between knowing that
5:32
Speaker 2: Jesus said, in this world you will experience trouble, but
5:36
Speaker 2: take heart because I've overcome the world. That reminds me
5:40
Speaker 2: that resurrection hope means the darkness is not permanent. You
5:45
Speaker 2: and I did an episode about a year ago about
5:49
Speaker 2: what it must have been like to be the Disciples
5:53
Speaker 2: on Friday when Jesus was killed, on Saturday when they
5:57
Speaker 2: were all alone without their masters, and then Sunday when
6:02
Speaker 2: Jesus was resurrected. The disciples thought that Saturday's silence must
6:06
Speaker 2: have meant that God was done, but he was really
6:09
Speaker 2: working behind the scenes. And I think that's a perspective
6:12
Speaker 2: for all of us to keep, because in the midst
6:15
Speaker 2: of even if it can feel like God is silent,
6:18
Speaker 2: it can feel like God's not working. It can feel
6:21
Speaker 2: like maybe we got it all wrong, or it could
6:24
Speaker 2: feel like maybe God's not even there anymore. I remember
6:27
Speaker 2: feeling way down over a decade ago by depression, and
6:32
Speaker 2: that was such a dark season in my life, and
6:36
Speaker 2: there was so much shame attached to it because I'm
6:39
Speaker 2: the doctor. I've treated thousands and thousands of patients in
6:43
Speaker 2: my career with depression, and yet there was shame because
6:47
Speaker 2: I didn't keep depression from coming upon me, when in reality,
6:51
Speaker 2: we can all be targets of depression, anxiety, fear, discouragement,
6:56
Speaker 2: and most definitely shame. And I remember when I was
7:00
Speaker 2: physically bedridden for five months. That's when the depression really
7:04
Speaker 2: got a foothold, and I remember thinking, if this is
7:07
Speaker 2: going to be my life, I'm not sure that I
7:10
Speaker 2: want to continue living because it was so dark and
7:13
Speaker 2: I could see no way out of my own making.
7:17
Speaker 2: But God reminded me that his light breaks through any
7:22
Speaker 2: darkness that I feel. But it's a matter of will
7:25
Speaker 2: we stay there in His presence even while we're waiting
7:31
Speaker 2: to see that resurrection hope. Yeah, Friends, we'll continue our
7:35
Speaker 2: conversation about how Easter transforms our mental and emotional battle
7:40
Speaker 2: by living in resurrection hope after we take this brief
7:42
Speaker 2: word from our sponsor. Welcome back to your hope filled perspective. Today,
7:50
Speaker 2: Jessica and I are talking about how Easter transforms our
7:54
Speaker 2: mental and emotional battle by living in resurrection Hope. This
7:59
Speaker 2: makes me think about shame. Shame is one of those
8:02
Speaker 2: things that most of us carry. Maybe we made a
8:05
Speaker 2: mistake and we called ourself a mistake. Maybe someone else
8:11
Speaker 2: is a master at laying shame on our shoulders. And
8:14
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, Jessica, but shame grows really heavy.
8:19
Speaker 2: But the empty tomb of Easter is really in many
8:23
Speaker 2: ways like God's megaphone, saying shame doesn't get to define you.
8:28
Speaker 2: Jesus didn't walk out of that grave dragging your failures
8:32
Speaker 2: behind him.
8:33
Speaker 3: That picture that you just painted makes me think of
8:36
Speaker 3: a song that we sing in church. There's a part
8:38
Speaker 3: that talks about how Jesus broke our heavy chains and
8:42
Speaker 3: left them in the grave. Now, if he left them there,
8:45
Speaker 3: then why do we go back in and pick them
8:47
Speaker 3: up again? Once we receive Christ as our savior and Lord,
8:51
Speaker 3: he makes us new. Shame and sin don't determine who
8:55
Speaker 3: we are. Instead, we're beloved by God, chosen by Him
9:00
Speaker 3: for a purpose.
9:01
Speaker 2: Friends, if you didn't hear the episode that we recorded
9:04
Speaker 2: last year about the bleakness of good Friday, the wilderness
9:09
Speaker 2: of Saturday, and the victory of Sunday, I would encourage
9:13
Speaker 2: you to go back to listen to it. We'll put
9:15
Speaker 2: that episode in the show notes. But in thinking about
9:17
Speaker 2: that episode and then what we wanted to share with
9:21
Speaker 2: you this year, Resurrection Hope speaks to discouragement, and it
9:26
Speaker 2: tells us that God writes better endings, and every disappointment
9:31
Speaker 2: is just Friday, but every breakthrough is Sunday. Easter transforms
9:37
Speaker 2: our mental and emotional battles with discouragement because Resurrection Hope
9:42
Speaker 2: teaches us to wait for God's ability to turn things
9:46
Speaker 2: into new beginnings.
9:48
Speaker 3: I love that so much. In fact, I have a
9:51
Speaker 3: quote by C. S. Lewis hanging on my wall in
9:53
Speaker 3: my living room. That says that you can't go back
9:55
Speaker 3: and change the beginning, but you can change the ending,
9:58
Speaker 3: and it reminds me that I'm gonna make mistakes. I'm
10:01
Speaker 3: we always want to do over right, but in reality
10:04
Speaker 3: we don't really get doovers because what's done is done.
10:07
Speaker 3: But we can at this moment change how the ending
10:10
Speaker 3: is going to be. Whether it's okay, I chose bitterness
10:14
Speaker 3: over forgiveness. Oh well, then from this point on, I'm
10:16
Speaker 3: going to choose forgiveness. I'm going to work on forgiveness,
10:19
Speaker 3: because forgiveness this can be hard, right, It's easy to
10:24
Speaker 3: stay in that bitter place, but forgiveness that's where the
10:28
Speaker 3: freedom comes. And this quote you can't go back and
10:31
Speaker 3: change the beginning, but you can change the ending reminds
10:34
Speaker 3: me that because of the hope I have in Jesus
10:37
Speaker 3: Christ and what his resurrection accomplished, I can have a
10:41
Speaker 3: different and better ending. We can remember that if the
10:45
Speaker 3: grave didn't stop Jesus, our discouragement can't stop the story
10:50
Speaker 3: God is writing in our lives.
10:53
Speaker 2: That's so good, Okay, So let's turn our attention to
10:58
Speaker 2: bringing resurrection hope into our daily rhythms now as we
11:02
Speaker 2: talked about before the break, so often we appreciate Easter
11:07
Speaker 2: on the day, but by the time Monday rolls around,
11:11
Speaker 2: we're back to living the same life that we lived
11:13
Speaker 2: before Good Friday. So let's bring that resurrection hope into
11:16
Speaker 2: our daily rhythms. The first thing I would suggest is
11:20
Speaker 2: to rehearse the resurrection every morning, not just on Easter.
11:25
Speaker 2: Take every sunrise as a mini resurrection power. When you
11:30
Speaker 2: wake up, whisper something like the same power that raised
11:35
Speaker 2: Jesus lives in me today. What this does is it
11:39
Speaker 2: helps reset your mental lens inside your brain. Instead of
11:43
Speaker 2: waking up thinking I'm overwhelmed. What if we started the
11:47
Speaker 2: day thinking God has equipped me for anything I will
11:50
Speaker 2: face today.
11:51
Speaker 3: That's powerful. I love the idea of when we see
11:54
Speaker 3: a sunrise to remember that Easter sunrise. Long time ago,
11:58
Speaker 3: I used to wake up so early and my husband
12:01
Speaker 3: and I would take our little family to sunrise service. Well,
12:04
Speaker 3: you know, in the spring, it's like seven am, but
12:07
Speaker 3: at five am, I'm usually sleeping. But what if what
12:10
Speaker 3: if this year we made a point to see the
12:13
Speaker 3: sunrise and to remember, Wow, that that same power lives
12:18
Speaker 3: in me. I think it would change. I think it
12:21
Speaker 3: would really change our everyday moments now. Second, we want
12:25
Speaker 3: to fight thoughts with truth and not willpower. Will power
12:28
Speaker 3: says try harder, or pull yourself up by the bootstraps,
12:32
Speaker 3: or keep a stiff upper lip. And maybe where you're
12:35
Speaker 3: from you have different sayings that tell you to just
12:39
Speaker 3: buck up right or as my sometimes I would tell
12:42
Speaker 3: my kids, suck it up, buttercup. But you see, resurrection
12:46
Speaker 3: Hope says to lean on the Holy Spirit and sewod. Corinthians,
12:51
Speaker 3: Chapter twelve, verse ten says that is why, for Christ's sake,
12:54
Speaker 3: I delight in weaknesses and insults, in hardships, in persecutions,
13:00
Speaker 3: in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
13:05
Speaker 3: You see, will power is relying on our own strength. Right,
13:08
Speaker 3: this verse that Paul writes talks about celebrating our weaknesses,
13:13
Speaker 3: not because we're weak, but because we're relying on God's
13:17
Speaker 3: strength and power. So in that thought, that depressed thought,
13:21
Speaker 3: or that anxious thought comes, we can respond with resurrection
13:25
Speaker 3: truth that if Jesus can conquer death, he can handle
13:28
Speaker 3: the fears, anxiety, and depression that we're dealing with today.
13:34
Speaker 2: The third recommendation I would make is to let God
13:38
Speaker 2: rewrite the meaning of our pain. The Cross was the
13:43
Speaker 2: worst tragedy in history, yet God made it the doorway
13:49
Speaker 2: for us to have victory. I talk about sacred scars
13:52
Speaker 2: and how God doesn't waste our pain, and I think
13:56
Speaker 2: it's so important for us to remember that our pain
13:59
Speaker 2: is not pointless or purposeless. Resurrection hope looks for God's
14:04
Speaker 2: fingerprints even in the places we would rather escape. Quite frankly,
14:10
Speaker 2: our pain can help someone else see purpose in their pain.
14:15
Speaker 2: Send Corinthians two three through five reminds us Praise be
14:19
Speaker 2: to the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
14:22
Speaker 2: the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
14:26
Speaker 2: who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we
14:30
Speaker 2: can comfort those in trouble with the comfort we ourselves
14:34
Speaker 2: received from God. For just as we share abundantly in
14:37
Speaker 2: the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
14:42
Speaker 2: So resurrection hope looks for God's fingerprints even in those
14:47
Speaker 2: places we would rather avoid.
14:49
Speaker 3: Let's just sit here for that, with that, just for
14:51
Speaker 3: a moment. Resurrection Hope looks for God's fingerprints even in
14:57
Speaker 3: places we'd rather avoid. I don't know about you, but
14:59
Speaker 3: I like to run away from pain. And what this
15:02
Speaker 3: is really calling us to is to sit in our
15:06
Speaker 3: pain with God looking for evidence of him. And I
15:10
Speaker 3: can promise you that even if it doesn't look like it,
15:12
Speaker 3: he's there. So forth, let's expect God to bring life
15:17
Speaker 3: from dead places. Many of us carry secrets in our
15:22
Speaker 3: hearts where we've given up hope. Maybe it's that relationship,
15:26
Speaker 3: Maybe it could be our emotional health. We've been struggling
15:30
Speaker 3: for so long that we think that, well, this just
15:32
Speaker 3: must be my life. Or maybe we've lost our purpose
15:36
Speaker 3: and we've given up that. Well, I guess I'm just
15:39
Speaker 3: going to exist. I don't really have purpose. But God
15:42
Speaker 3: brings dead things back to life, and I love the
15:46
Speaker 3: truth found in Isaiah forty three to nineteen. It says
15:49
Speaker 3: that see, I am doing a new thing. Now it
15:52
Speaker 3: springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making
15:56
Speaker 3: a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
16:00
Speaker 3: God is making a way, and that means he's working
16:04
Speaker 3: where we cannot see him. He's working in our hearts
16:07
Speaker 3: and in our perspectives. He's working where we feel dry
16:12
Speaker 3: and where we feel like there's barrenness and there's no
16:16
Speaker 3: place there's absolutely no way that life could grow. He's
16:19
Speaker 3: making a way to bring life back. Michelle Ware, have
16:23
Speaker 3: you've seen God bring life back to your heart? Well?
16:27
Speaker 2: If I go back to that story that I was
16:29
Speaker 2: sharing about the darkest time in my life, what I
16:34
Speaker 2: didn't share is that when I felt so desperate, I
16:38
Speaker 2: was very honest with God and I told him I
16:41
Speaker 2: didn't like the position I was in. I didn't want
16:45
Speaker 2: this to be my life. I didn't want this to
16:48
Speaker 2: be my experience. But if I had to go through it,
16:53
Speaker 2: I wanted it to count for something. I wanted something
16:56
Speaker 2: good to come out of it. Being on bed rest
17:00
Speaker 2: for five months and not being able to be the
17:03
Speaker 2: doctor and help other people was really difficult because I
17:07
Speaker 2: found myself even asking, so what purpose do I have
17:11
Speaker 2: if I can't be that person, if I can't do
17:14
Speaker 2: what I know I was called to do, what value
17:18
Speaker 2: do I have? Out of that desperate time came my
17:23
Speaker 2: book Hope Prevails, Insights from a doctor's personal journey through depression.
17:28
Speaker 2: The Lord taught me so much about himself. The Lord
17:33
Speaker 2: revealed lies that I had been believing about myself, and
17:38
Speaker 2: he showed me that when we're addressing emotional battles, like anxiety, depression, discouragement, shame.
17:47
Speaker 2: We cannot afford to discount the spiritual aspect because we
17:52
Speaker 2: live in a physical world, but there's also a spiritual
17:55
Speaker 2: world going on, and we don't wrestle against flesh and blood.
17:59
Speaker 2: And I can tell you that had I not gone
18:03
Speaker 2: through that dark time of depression, that book was already
18:07
Speaker 2: contracted before I fell into the pit. So had I
18:12
Speaker 2: not experienced the darkness of depression, that book would have
18:16
Speaker 2: been very cold and sterile and clinical and quite frankly,
18:21
Speaker 2: probably not very helpful.
18:22
Speaker 1: Right.
18:23
Speaker 2: But because I went through it, and because the Lord
18:26
Speaker 2: opened my eyes to aspects of the healing that I
18:30
Speaker 2: hadn't previously considered. Now when people read it, I get
18:34
Speaker 2: emails or I get reviews of people saying, you can
18:37
Speaker 2: tell she's gone through it, because it's like she's reading
18:40
Speaker 2: my mail. And that is the good that came out
18:43
Speaker 2: of a very dark time. That was when God brought
18:47
Speaker 2: life back, because he answered my prayer and he brought
18:51
Speaker 2: good out of it. But it doesn't mean that we
18:54
Speaker 2: want to experience pain. But it goes back to what
18:57
Speaker 2: we were saying earlier, just about look looking for God's
19:00
Speaker 2: fingerprints in the midst of the desert. Can you share
19:05
Speaker 2: a time when you let God rewrite your pain?
19:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm I was sitting here listening to you share
19:10
Speaker 3: your story, and I was thinking about how God really
19:14
Speaker 3: doesn't waste anything if we give it to him. Right,
19:19
Speaker 3: we could just hold our pain and keep it close
19:22
Speaker 3: to our heart and never let him have access. But
19:24
Speaker 3: then then we never experience his comfort, and then we're
19:29
Speaker 3: not able to comfort others. I was sitting here thinking
19:32
Speaker 3: about my issues, and I call it issues because it
19:36
Speaker 3: was really an unhealthy relationship with people's approval and chasing
19:41
Speaker 3: after it like chasing the wind. And let me tell
19:44
Speaker 3: you what, you can't catch the wind, and you're never
19:45
Speaker 3: going to catch people's approval. And yet I desperately wanted
19:49
Speaker 3: people's approval, desperately wanted people's approval so much so then
19:53
Speaker 3: I'm going to age myself here. But there was a
19:56
Speaker 3: character a Gumby, and he could.
20:00
Speaker 2: You might have to explain Gumby for our younger audience.
20:04
Speaker 3: Well, Gumby was a character that you could just twist
20:07
Speaker 3: his arms and twist his legs to whatever shape you
20:10
Speaker 3: wanted him to be. I would do that to myself
20:13
Speaker 3: in order to gain someone's approval. Two things happened. Number One,
20:17
Speaker 3: it created a lot of pain because no matter how
20:19
Speaker 3: much I changed myself or how perfect I tried to be,
20:22
Speaker 3: I still experienced rejection. And then secondly, it really made
20:26
Speaker 3: me lose sight of who God intended me to be
20:31
Speaker 3: and wanted me to be. And so I like to
20:34
Speaker 3: say this that I spent probably my twenties, my first
20:39
Speaker 3: we'll just say, thirty years of my life trying to
20:41
Speaker 3: figure out what people wanted from me. And then there
20:44
Speaker 3: was a time where I was so tangled up that
20:46
Speaker 3: God would and it hurt. I'm just going to say,
20:48
Speaker 3: it really hurt to be rejected, and it would hurt
20:52
Speaker 3: to almost make myself invisible in order to be perfect
20:57
Speaker 3: for whoever's approval I was chasing after. But the true
21:01
Speaker 3: pain ended up is because I started expecting that God
21:05
Speaker 3: needed me to be perfect, and then I would place
21:09
Speaker 3: all these expectations on myself, and then I would feel
21:12
Speaker 3: further and further away from God. And if there isn't
21:15
Speaker 3: that the most painful thing that I think I've ever
21:17
Speaker 3: experienced is probably when I felt rejected by God. And
21:22
Speaker 3: instead what he showed me is that I was actually
21:26
Speaker 3: rejecting myself, and in that rejecting of myself, I was
21:32
Speaker 3: pulling myself further away from Him. So when I really
21:36
Speaker 3: realized the power that rejection had over me and how
21:39
Speaker 3: it was really harming my relationship with the Lord, he
21:43
Speaker 3: took me on this journey of about four to five
21:46
Speaker 3: months where he just peeled the layers of scar tissue
21:51
Speaker 3: off my heart. And that hurts, right, that's painful. But
21:56
Speaker 3: what came out of it was this new understanding of rejection,
22:01
Speaker 3: and this new understanding of placing God's approval is my
22:05
Speaker 3: top priority. And when I do that, I'm able to
22:08
Speaker 3: live this open, armed life towards people who could approve
22:14
Speaker 3: of me or reject me. And in so doing, I've
22:17
Speaker 3: been able to write a book reframing rejection. How looking
22:21
Speaker 3: through a different lens changes everything, because if we're looking
22:26
Speaker 3: at things through biblical worldview that isn't clouded by our
22:30
Speaker 3: opinion or our pain, we're then able to see people's
22:34
Speaker 3: approval and rejection through completely different lens, where no longer
22:38
Speaker 3: do we have to experience that life altering pain. That
22:42
Speaker 3: can change how we relate to others, ourselves, and God.
22:45
Speaker 3: And I've been able to comfort others. I've been able
22:48
Speaker 3: to walk other people through friendship breakdowns, parent and child relationships,
22:53
Speaker 3: and it's been a glorious witness of God's work in
22:57
Speaker 3: my life of where I experienced comfort just like Sewod
23:01
Speaker 3: Corinthian says, and then I've been able to comfort others.
23:06
Speaker 2: That is resurrection hope. That is getting through the darkness
23:11
Speaker 2: of Friday, walking through the wilderness of Saturday, and getting
23:17
Speaker 2: to the victory of Sunday.
23:18
Speaker 3: Yeah.
23:19
Speaker 2: Friends, we're going to take a short break for a
23:21
Speaker 2: brief word from our sponsor, but when we return, we'll
23:24
Speaker 2: talk about how Easter transforms our mental and emotional battles
23:28
Speaker 2: because of resurrection Hope. We'll be right back. Before the break,
23:36
Speaker 2: we talked about rehearsing the Resurrection every morning. We talked
23:41
Speaker 2: about fighting our thoughts with truth versus willpower. We talked
23:46
Speaker 2: about letting God rewrite the meaning of our pain and
23:50
Speaker 2: expecting God to bring life from dead places.
23:53
Speaker 3: And as we wrap up this episode, we want you
23:56
Speaker 3: to remember that resurrection hope is not a feeling and
24:00
Speaker 3: it's not the result of good mental health days. It's
24:03
Speaker 3: the victory in Jesus that's what enables us to tap
24:08
Speaker 3: into the strength of this kind of hope that is
24:11
Speaker 3: strong enough to take on our emotional and mental battles.
24:15
Speaker 2: It's the unshakeable truth that Jesus wins and darkness doesn't.
24:20
Speaker 2: Anxiety doesn't, depression doesn't, shame doesn't. Easter is not a
24:25
Speaker 2: holiday we recognize once a year, friends, It's actually the
24:29
Speaker 2: reality that we live in, and if we allow it to,
24:32
Speaker 2: it can transform every inner battle, not by removing the struggle,
24:37
Speaker 2: but by giving us a power greater than a struggle.
24:41
Speaker 2: Let's remember Romans eight eleven. And if the spirit of
24:44
Speaker 2: Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,
24:48
Speaker 2: he who raised Christ from the dead will also give
24:51
Speaker 2: life to your martdal bodies because of his spirit who
24:54
Speaker 2: lives in you, jes If a listener of viewers resonating
24:57
Speaker 2: with our conversation today, what hopefield you want to leave
25:01
Speaker 2: them with?
25:01
Speaker 3: I would love to encourage you to step into that resurrection. Hope. Anxiety, depression,
25:08
Speaker 3: our emotional and mental battles, they keep us locked in
25:12
Speaker 3: that silence of Saturday we referenced in our episode a
25:15
Speaker 3: year ago. But God is calling you out of the
25:19
Speaker 3: darkness and into the light. But you've got to take
25:22
Speaker 3: the first step, and sometimes when we're stuck in darkness,
25:26
Speaker 3: the light seems really bright. But if you can just
25:30
Speaker 3: take a baby step towards Jesus today to know that
25:33
Speaker 3: you're not alone, that there's others who have left the
25:36
Speaker 3: darkness behind and are now walking in that light. That
25:39
Speaker 3: God's going to give you the strength to do it too,
25:42
Speaker 3: and he'll be there to help you. He'll walk with
25:45
Speaker 3: you every step of the way, and the fact that
25:48
Speaker 3: he wins is an anchor thought that you can hold
25:52
Speaker 3: on to.
25:53
Speaker 2: Friends, let me pray for you as we close out
25:55
Speaker 2: this episode. Father God, I just thank you for the
25:58
Speaker 2: power of resurrection and hope. Lord, I thank you that
26:01
Speaker 2: Easter is not just a holiday, it is a way
26:05
Speaker 2: of life. If we will take our eyes off of
26:08
Speaker 2: our dark situations and keep our focus on you, because
26:12
Speaker 2: you are the light of the world. It's because of
26:16
Speaker 2: Jesus's resurrection that we have hope. Lord, help each listener
26:20
Speaker 2: and viewer to look for your fingerprints in the situations
26:23
Speaker 2: they face today. Help them to remember that hope is
26:27
Speaker 2: always present because you are still on your throne. You
26:31
Speaker 2: the one who raised Jesus from the dead and raise
26:34
Speaker 2: us out of the darkness. That we find ourselves in. Father,
26:38
Speaker 2: thank you for the sacrifice of your only begotten son
26:42
Speaker 2: so that we would be forgiven, so that we could
26:45
Speaker 2: have a relationship with you, so that we could live
26:48
Speaker 2: from a posture of resurrection hope in our everyday lives. Lord,
26:52
Speaker 2: we love you, we praise you, we worship you, because
26:56
Speaker 2: you are worthy. In Jesus name, I pray in I
27:00
Speaker 2: hope that there was something in today's episode that resonated
27:03
Speaker 2: with you. And if there was, or if you know
27:05
Speaker 2: someone who's struggling with some form of mental or emotional darkness,
27:11
Speaker 2: would you please consider sharing this episode with them so
27:14
Speaker 2: that they too will have a biblically based hope filled perspective. Friends,
27:18
Speaker 2: we would love to hear from you. We'd love to
27:20
Speaker 2: know which episodes resonate with you most and what other
27:24
Speaker 2: topics you would like us to consider. You can contact
27:27
Speaker 2: us through the contact button on my website, Doctor michelleb
27:30
Speaker 2: dot com. We look forward to being with you for
27:33
Speaker 2: another episode again next week, but until then, it's my
27:37
Speaker 2: prayer for you that you live in resurrection hope and
27:40
Speaker 2: that as a result of that, you have a hope
27:43
Speaker 2: filled week.
27:45
Speaker 1: Depression is now our greatest epidemic worldwide, greater than heart disease, cancer,
27:52
Speaker 1: and aids all put together. If you have looked for
27:55
Speaker 1: help with depression, you have found that there's a scarcity
27:59
Speaker 1: of biblically based resources that identifies the spiritual component that
28:03
Speaker 1: will actually help with the depression and also will help
28:07
Speaker 1: the loved ones who are trying to support the ones
28:09
Speaker 1: who are depressed. Over her thirty year career, doctor Benkson
28:13
Speaker 1: has treated thousands of individuals with depression and has even
28:16
Speaker 1: suffered from it herself. Because of her suffering, she understands
28:20
Speaker 1: the need to address the spiritual dimension of depression along
28:23
Speaker 1: with the physiological and emotional components. Doctor Benkson has written
28:28
Speaker 1: an award winning book, Hope Prevails, Insights from a doctor's
28:32
Speaker 1: personal journey through depression. For she shares with us her
28:35
Speaker 1: own experiences, and she combines decades of professional expertise in
28:39
Speaker 1: mental health with her personal insights so she can help
28:42
Speaker 1: us overcome depression. Script Jennifer Strickland, author of Beautiful Lies,
28:48
Speaker 1: had this to say about Hope Prevail's Hope Prevails is
28:51
Speaker 1: a treasure trove of scripture, music, and medicine for the soul.
28:55
Speaker 1: This book shares truth upon truth for anyone encountering the
29:00
Speaker 1: obscurity of depression. Is a very important work that should
29:04
Speaker 1: be held in the highest regard in any family library.
29:07
Speaker 1: Most of all, it is honest. Michelle genuinely opens up
29:11
Speaker 1: a window of her heart, shamelessly revealing her own darkest
29:15
Speaker 1: hours in order to shine at light of hope for
29:18
Speaker 1: you and me. If you or anyone you love touch
29:21
Speaker 1: even the fringe of depression, I highly recommend this work
29:25
Speaker 1: as a key doorway to your journey towards joy, peace
29:29
Speaker 1: in the full life we can have in Christ. Hope
29:32
Speaker 1: Prevails is available from Amazon dot com and other fine
29:36
Speaker 1: online retailers, or your website at doctor michelb dot com.
29:42
Speaker 1: You can obtain your copy today and begin your healing
29:45
Speaker 1: journey from depression. Thank you for joining doctor Banks and
29:53
Speaker 1: to your hope build perspective. We hope you are encouraged
29:56
Speaker 1: by her authenticity, vulnerability, and bibli truths. If you enjoy
30:01
Speaker 1: today's conversation. When you take a moment right now, open
30:05
Speaker 1: up your podcast app and look for the subscribe button
30:08
Speaker 1: right next to our podcast profile image. We think this
30:11
Speaker 1: podcast is best enjoyed with friends, so tell a friend
30:14
Speaker 1: and click share in your podcast app. And send a
30:17
Speaker 1: friend our link to share hope with them. If you
30:20
Speaker 1: have a comment, question, or suggest a topic for a
30:23
Speaker 1: future show, reach out to our staff at info at
30:26
Speaker 1: Hope Prevails dot org. For additional resources. Information about doctor
30:30
Speaker 1: Bankson's books where free downloads, or to contact her to
30:34
Speaker 1: speak at your next event, please visit doctor Mishelbe dot com.
30:39
Speaker 1: Until next time, May you have a hope filled week.
30:45
Speaker 2: I'd like to take just a second to thank the
30:48
Speaker 2: team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on
30:51
Speaker 2: this podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you'll
30:54
Speaker 2: find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.
30:58
Speaker 2: They've got shows about prayer, Biblesta, the parenting, and more.