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(This is a “Be Honest” email response to a person who sent a submission in, I am re-posting the response here in the blog in hopes of it helping others who are going through similar struggles.) -James Jennings
HT: I’llBeHonest
Anonymous,
You wrote: “My struggle is my illness , I have paranoid schizophrenia and it haunts me to think it is there , I am well medicated and can function in this world but it feels as though I am doomed . I repent a lot and pray regularly for the salvation of my soul … I know I am undone before and without God …”
We see in Mark 5 about a man with an unclean spirit. It says in verse 4 “No one had the strength to subdue him.” – My friend consider this, please, I beg and plead with you too. No medicine, no doctor will ever truly subdue you. No one pill or medicine has the strength to do such. Let us also consider verse 3 it said “And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain.” You know what the keyword there is? “anymore” this means at one point they could, but now they can’t. That should terrify you, because right now you may be bound somewhat by the medicine but one day it will no longer work. One day people will say of you “We used to be able to subdue Philip with these pills but they no longer work anymore!” Sin is no small game, it will continue to eat away at you and bring you into greater darkness. The true issue is a heart issue and a heart transplant is required, you must be born-again. (John 3:3, 2 Cor 5:17, Eze 36:25-27)
You said “I repent a lot and pray regularly.” The problem is not that you need to “repent more” or “pray more” the issue is you need to come unto Christ for rest (Matthew 11:28) and you need to believe in Jesus (John 3:36). You are trying to save yourself by your own works, your repentance and praying, won’t save you only the work of Christ will. It says that the man with a demon would cry out night and day (v5), now I don’t know what he was crying out exactly, but my point is this: You can do a lot of crying out and it will profit you nothing.
What happened to the man to set him free? Verse 6 says “And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.” – You must do likewise, you must run and fall down before Jesus Christ as your only hope. It says in verse 15 that the man was then “sitting there, clothed and in his right mind.” The most important clothes that he now had on was the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 50:10 – Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.
After the spirit was cast out of him the man told Jesus he wanted to go with Him. Jesus said “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” v19. How much the “Lord has done,” you see it is not about what you do but what God does and it is about God’s Glory. Isaiah 47:3 says – “whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Does it glorify God to go around telling others how much some medicine has done for you? Or how much self-effort you have exerted to try to stop doing things that you shouldn’t? No it does not, it exalts self, and more importantly the medicine cannot do for you what you need it to do, it will never work, only Christ can do the true work and then rightly so will God receive glory.
The question before you right now is this, will you ran and fall down before Jesus? Will you take refuge in Him alone and not your own works and performance? Salvation is all of Grace, we simply do not deserve such. God sent His only son into the world to live the perfect life that no one else ever could and then Christ died under the wrath of God on the Cross as a sacrifice for the sin of those who believe…those who believe, not those who “try to work their way to being presentable” but instead to totally trust Christ to supply the righteousness to their account so that they will be presentable by faith.
My friend, if you come to Christ you can be like the man in verse 19… going and telling everyone of what the Lord has done for Him. How he had mercy on you, but you must trust in Christ alone all other ground is completely sinking sand.
James