Bipolar and Faith: Tattooing Scripture on Your Heart

Bipolar and faith go hand in hand for me. If I didn’t have an abiding faith in God, I am not sure I would still be alive. I don’t understand how people navigate bipolar disorder without Jesus Christ firmly at the center of their lives.

I don’t remember a time when I didn’t believe in God. My faith was always lying in wait for me to embrace it. It was inherent. It felt like God chose me, and when I was old enough to understand, I chose Him back.

Bipolar disorder gives you so many reasons to give up. When suicidal ideation occurs, it is easy to forget what your place in the world is. I don’t know about you, but when things go wrong in my life, my mind goes straight to I wish I were dead.

Bipolar and Faith

Jesus Christ is the grounding force in my life. He is my safe harbor. He is my rock and salvation. During my darkest moments, it is God who carries me through. When nothing else in my world makes sense, I cling to the truth of His word.

Today I will show you how to apply scripture to help you harness the courage, peace, and hope found in Jesus Christ alone. I will show you how to navigate bipolar with faith.

What’s the best way to apply scripture to your journey and navigate bipolar with faith? Tattooing scripture on your heart to sustain you during the darkest moments of your journey.

Here are five scriptures every person who has bipolar should tattoo on their heart:

1.“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18 ESV).

It is important to remember that God is close to those who feel broken. When depression descends and my world becomes murky and gray, it is hard to feel His presence. God seems far away, and the Devil feels near with his accusations that “I will always” and “I will never.”

When you are crushed in spirit, there is a part of you that feels like God is remote and indifferent to your heartache. In those moments when you can’t feel God’s presence, stand on the promise of this truth: God is ever present even when you can’t feel it.

Just because you can’t feel God’s presence doesn’t mean He’s not there. God does not always use grand gestures to show He’s stepped in.

Often, God is a silent friend walking beside you—sometimes two steps ahead or two steps behind. In fact, in the moments you feel most alone and feel you can’t take another step, it is God who quietly carries you until you reach the other side.

2.“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10 ESV).

I love that this scripture says, “I am your God.” When battling bipolar disorder, it is easy to fall into the trap of believing that Jesus Christ is a remote God who does not care about your emotional upheaval.

Jesus is a personal God, and He is relational. He is not reveling in your pain. Jesus is waiting for you to draw near to Him, so He can draw near to you. He is waiting for you to embrace His supernatural strength and claim it for yourself.

When you do, your suffering won’t necessarily end immediately. Jesus doesn’t always eliminate your challenges instantaneously, although He could. Instead, He will walk you through your struggles until you reach the other side—no matter how long it takes—whether it is a day or 20 years.

Call out to Jesus today and grasp the loving hand He is reaching out to you. Allow Him to pick you up when you fall down and lead you in the direction that brings life, not death.

3. “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12 ESV).

Hope is an elusive feeling, especially when you live with bipolar disorder. When you are navigating the darkest moments of your mental illness journey, it is hard to believe that your life will ever get better. And just when you think things can’t get any worse, they do.

During those difficult moments, activate the hope and patience provided by God alone by releasing an avalanche of prayers. Remember that in the moments when meaningful prayer seems impossible, the two words, “Help me,” become your perfect mantra.

The reality is that if you live with bipolar disorder, there will always be ups and downs. There will be periods of unrelenting symptoms.

You have a choice to make. You can take a step back from God as you navigate your grave circumstances, or you can cling to the hope found in God alone and find a tiny ray of light to walk towards.

4. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Corinthians 1:2-5 ESV).

Your pain has a purpose. Don’t you want to throw up in your mouth a little when you hear that trite phrase? I must admit sometimes I do because I have experienced pain and suffering that seemed to lack meaning.

When you live with bipolar disorder, sometimes it feels like your pain has no purpose. But the truth is that you learn more from your valley moments than when you are at the top of the mountain.

Two things happen when you walk through trouble holding firmly onto your faith. First, you have the benefit of God’s comfort as you endure the trial. He provides comfort that transcends understanding. And second, once you encounter God’s comfort experientially, you can support others who face similar struggles.

The trick is to open your eyes and see that you are not alone in your suffering. Everyone suffers, and if you use your experience with suffering to empathize and support others, your pain has served an eternal purpose.

5. “And for those who live in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined” (Matthew 4:16 NLT).

Bipolar disorder casts a deadly shadow on your life. The overwhelming darkness of your symptoms obscures hope. Suicidal ideation creeps in. Your brain becomes an unsafe place. Death seems like an attractive option.

So, what can you do to fight the darkness that threatens your mind and your life? How do you move forward when you feel hopeless?

If you take one moment to look up at God instead of focusing on the blinding darkness, you will see a glimmer of hope. It is like a tiny lightbulb switches on, and something miraculous happens as you look at it.

The darkness cracks wide open as the goodness of God’s love shines through. Where you could only see interminable darkness, the light is now bright as the noonday sun.

The Takeaway

These scriptures are beautiful. They are words to live by, but let’s be real for a minute. When you are going through the worst moments of your bipolar journey, it is hard to stop and reflect on God’s truth. Sometimes the symptoms consume you, and you can’t focus on anything else.

Those are the times it is essential to have scripture tattooed on your heart. Even if you are a faithful believer of Jesus Christ, there will be moments in your walk where you doubt Him or don’t believe a loving God would allow such pain.

Jesus Christ is bigger than your uncertainties. Your anger does not diminish His love for you. Jesus welcomes those moments when you wrestle with your faith because that is when it grows bigger and wider and deeper.

Don’t run away from Jesus when faced with the struggles and despair of bipolar. Instead, run toward Him and let Him comfort you as only He can. Harness the power of His perfect peace to carry you through the trials and tribulations of bipolar with faith, courage, and hope.

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