Truth Therapy

Renewing Your Mind with the Word of God

Peter J. Bellini

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781625648334
• eBook ISBN:
  9781630877439
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Our world is inundated with war, poverty, disease, economic crises, terrorism, unemployment, fatherlessness, addictions, divorce, abortion, sex trafficking, racism, depression and anxiety, information and stimulation overload, and the list goes on and on. Where do people find relief? How do people find true peace and hope? Do they find it? Do they even find it in church, or do they endlessly and hopelessly search? Truth Therapy is a devotional strategy for spiritual formation and discipleship that employs scripture, basic Christian truths, the names of God, and faith affirmations blended with cognitive-behavioral theory. It is an intentional approach that tackles many of the maladies of our day that impede believers from growing and overcoming in Christ, such as stress, worry, fear, depression, and anxiety. The fundamental premises of Truth Therapy are that lies bind us, but the truth sets us free. The lies we believe are the primary weapons used to defeat us, while the truth we believe can be the key to setting us free. Truth Therapy provides a framework for identifying and evaluating the lies we believe and replacing those lies with the truth found in the word of God for every area of our life. Truth Therapy can be used in multiple settings, such as personal devotions, group devotions, small group study, discipleship, counseling, and in intercession.

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An Introduction to Truth Therapy

Truth Therapy Key Texts

• Isaiah 26:3 (NLT)—“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”

• Isaiah 55:9 (NLT)—“For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

• John 8:32 (NIV)—“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

• Romans 8:6 (NIV)—“The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”

• Romans 12:2 (NIV)—“Do not conform to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

• 1 Corinthians 2:16 (NIV)—“For, ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”

• 2 Corinthians 10:5 (ESV)—“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

• Ephesians 4:24–26 (ESV)—“Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

• Philippians 4:8 (NLT)—“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”

It seems that everywhere I turn I hear of persons suffering from depression and anxiety. The conditions range from mild to clinical. Mental illnesses do not discriminate. In my experience as a pastor and a seminary professor, I have found that depression and anxiety attack the young and the old and those in between. Depression and anxiety shroud the lives of the rich, the poor, and the middle class. I have seen factory workers, CEOs, lawyers, the unemployed, pastors, doctors, accountants, police officers, contractors, and persons from every vocation be touched by these crippling conditions. In fact, mental illness does not discriminate between gender, ethnicity, race, geographic location, sexual preference, class, status, or profession. Depression and anxiety are equal opportunity employers. From the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), it is estimated that 26.2 percent of Americans over eighteen years of age suffer from a diagnosable mental illness.1 Depression is the leading cause of disability in the United States among those ages fifteen to forty-four.2 Of the people over eighteen in the United States 18.1 percent or around forty million people in a given year have some form of anxiety disorder.3

Let me share a story of a good pastor friend of mine that fell into severe depression and anxiety. He had spent the better part of twenty years in ministry planting new churches, turning around old dead churches, and starting new contextual ministries. He was in his middle thirties and at the peak of his pastoral ministry. He was a Spirit-filled, charismatic, dynamic preacher, teacher, and leader. He was also a prayer warrior and an insightful intercessor that operated fluently in the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 12), especially prophecy and healing. He had a powerful deliverance ministry, liberating hundreds from demonic oppression. I mention his credentials and giftedness because we often stereotype, pigeonhole, or judge people that go through depression or another type of major setback. We would like to think that somehow they were “less than” and therefore more susceptible. However this pastor understood and experienced the power of God to save, heal, and deliver. It was not for a lack of faith that he entered into a dark night of the soul.

Vic, not the pastor’s real name, was in many aspects a well-balanced minister who exercised regularly, took time off when needed, and was in a couple of different accountability groups. He had it all—gifts, graces, charisma, character, fruit, skill and success—and yet one day he had a panic attack. Vic never saw the signs prior to the panic attack. He was accustomed to living sacrificially and at times ignoring his own needs in order to serve others, as most pastors do. Besides this blind spot, he was fairly balanced in his life and ministry, but like most ministers he was carrying a lot of stress, burdens, and hidden struggles and did not know how, where, and with whom to process it all, in spite of being in accountability groups. It is difficult for pastors to find a safe space to disclose their private life.

Vic had never experienced anything like a panic attack before. He told me that he felt like he was having a heart attack and was ready to call 911. As the panic mounted, he rested on his bed, trying to pray and relax, and eventually he fell asleep. Following the panic attack, he was not the same. He told me he began to feel fearful constantly and found himself worrying about everything, even the most trivial matters. It was like that panic attack opened up several other inner issues that he had pent up. Vic would get occasional panic attacks that seemed to come upon him at any time and in any place. He was afraid to go outside and leave the house out of a general overwhelming sense of fear and for fear of the panic attacks.

He found his mind often flooded with confusion, as he would forget things and struggle to accomplish tasks that used to be routine. When he would panic, his thoughts would race and pull him into a vortex of hopelessness. Vic found himself trapped in a prison of negativity from which he struggled to escape. He found it difficult to sleep at night. If he could get to sleep it would be for only a few hours and not too deeply.

He had other ailments as well that accompanied his anxiety and depression, such as irritable bowel syndrome, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, chronic pain, fatigue, dizziness, and forgetfulness. These conditions and symptoms persisted in different combinations irregularly for a couple of years. I list these symptoms and details about Vic’s condition because I have encountered too many who have had similar struggles, and I know that many readers also have or had similar struggles.

During those couple of dark years, Vic went to two general practitioners, a specialist, and a couple of psychiatrists and therapists seeking answers. It was a challenging time for him because although he believed in medical science and encouraged medical treatment for his parishioners, he struggled to acknowledge his own weaknesses and needs. He felt that he was a strong person and that he was strong in Christ. Most of his battles were won in prayer and trusting in God. He was reluctant to seek help from doctors, especially mental health professionals, but he ran out of options.

Prayer did not seem to work, nor prayer and fasting. Intercession did not seem to change things. Vic began to wonder if his condition was demonically induced. So he went through many deliverances sessions and also executed regular intense spiritual warfare on his own as well as with teams of prayer warriors. Many anointed ministers laid hands on him and prayed prayers of faith and healing. Vic searched his soul and repented of every sin from A to Z. Sometimes he would pray as much as six hours a day. Yet, nothing changed. Nothing seemed to work. He still felt depressed, anxious, and defeated.

The doctors prescribed various medications and counseling sessions to combat the depression, anxiety, and other collateral symptoms. Relief though was not found readily. He was treatment resistant at first. Vic tried nearly a dozen different antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds with minimal symptomatic relief. Because both the spiritual and medical treatments produced little results, Vic fell into greater depression and hopelessness. Like so many in depression, he became “depressed about being depressed.” He would tell me that there were days he just wanted to give up and die. Nothing made sense. Nothing had meaning. Nothing seemed to work. Everything he had enjoyed no longer brought him joy, not even God, his family, or ministry.

Vic was burned out from ministry and burned out from life. He had severe anger and pain from the aftermath of years of being an agent of change and a casualty of conflict in the local church. He began to realize how all of the hurt, wounds, and pent-up anger that came from fighting battles in “church wars” within dysfunctional church family systems that created and perpetuated control, abuse, pettiness, and anger had taken its toll on him. The unhealthy dynamics within dying churches and the accompanying spiritual warfare were too much. Vic helped to birth new churches, many new ministries, and new ministers and was now experiencing a type of spiritual post-partum depression. He felt no satisfaction from all of his labor but instead was overwhelmed with alienation, rejection, and worthlessness as years of church conflict and spiritual exertion came crashing down on his esteem.

He shared with me his greatest burden at this time. He felt burned out from God. It was difficult to pray, to worship, to preach, to teach, to counsel, and even to be around people to minister. The very things that fueled him and gave him energy were a drain. Every pastoral duty including waking up on Sunday took a miracle from God. However, he felt so distant from God, as if God had given up on him. He similarly felt burned out from his family. The exhaustion affected every area of Vic’s life. It was no longer refreshing to spend time with his wife and children. When he was at home he would often just sit alone and not talk to anyone for hours. He felt all was lost, and that he could no longer make a contribution to his family. When he hit rock bottom he felt like quitting and giving up on God, his family, his ministry, and himself.

Vic’s “dark night of the soul” lasted off and on for around two years before he began to see a glimmer of hope. He said it was not any one thing alone that he could put his finger on except the grace of God. His regimen included prayer, study, worship, exercise, meds, counseling, and each of these contributed holistically over time to his restoration, though there were no immediate and tangible results until he was blessed with a breakthrough.

First, his doctor found the right med that was a newly released antidepressant. Vic said it alleviated around 20 percent of the symptoms. Although 20 percent was hardly a cure, it was considerably more relief than he had experienced over the last two years. I also invited him to begin to study and practice intentional deep breathing. He was somewhat skeptical at first, thinking it was not a “Christian” practice. I shared with him how intentional deep breathing can be done without Eastern religious implications and that many in the medical field highly recommend it for its physical and mental benefits apart from any religious belief or practice.

I also informed him that the Eastern Christian church had been practicing intentional deep breathing while praying (the Jesus Prayer) for over fifteen hundred years (the Hesychastic tradition). He reluctantly conceded and found that it helped immensely. It allowed him to become aware of his body and its stress, and it provided an effective means to de-stress and detoxify. I highly recommend it and teach it to my seminary students as I had taught it to my parishioners. The practice deflates the body and mind of anxiety and depression and recalibrates brain chemistry and cognitive processes to function at a healthy steady rhythm. Personally, I have found that fifteen minutes of quality intentional deep breathing provides deeper relaxation and rest than an eight-hour night of sleep.

Vic’s testimony was that the intentional deep breathing worked better than the meds. However, in his estimation, what seemed to work best was the reading and practicing of Truth Therapy that I had recommended. Truth Therapy was a smaller work than this current edition and was self-published and distributed to members of my church and friends, including Vic. Vic felt that Truth Therapy gave him the tools needed to break the stronghold of depression and to prevent anxiety and depression from taking control of his life again.

As Vic began to implement the principles and practices of Truth Therapy, he began to experience more victory in this thought-life and more victory, peace, and joy in his emotional life. Within a few months he no longer experienced most of the symptoms that had ailed him over the last two years. Depression and anxiety would remain a temptation that still occasionally came knocking on his door, but he now had the tools to overcome. The exercises and strategies within Truth Therapy provided Vic with the tools and framework to work out some deep-seated issues of pride, self-reliance, and anger though repentance, faith, and dependence on God.

Where is Vic now? He has been off of antidepressants for around six years. Over the la...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Chapter 1: An Introduction to Truth Therapy
• Chapter 2: A Need for the Truth
• Chapter 3: Principles of Truth Therapy
• Chapter 4: Stinking Thinking
• Chapter 5: New Creation in Christ
• Chapter 6: The Names of the Triune God
• Chapter 7: Confessing Our Faith: Affirmations
• Chapter 8: Conclusion
• Bibliography