How the Bible Speaks When You’re Mentally Hurting: Finding God in Every Genre

When silence and solitude fail, Scripture still speaks. In this heartfelt conversation, Dave Quak and Jess Quak explore how the Bible connects us to God when our minds and emotions feel heavy. From poetic laments to prophetic promises, discover how every part of God’s Word can bring peace, perspective, and presence.

What We Cover

1. Why Genres Matter When You’re Struggling
 Understanding the Bible’s genres helps you read with clarity, find the right voice for your situation, and avoid misusing verses that were never meant to weigh you down.

2. Psalms (Poetry): Naming Feelings & Finding Language for Pain
 Psalm 42 becomes a mirror for your soul—moving from dryness to desire, from ache to worship. Poetry helps name what hurts and opens a path toward healing.

3. Narrative: Solidarity with Imperfect Saints
 Elijah, David, Jonah, and Esther show that God’s promises are stronger than our failures. Their stories remind us we’re not alone when we feel messy or misunderstood.

4. Wisdom Literature: Safeguarding Your Mind
 Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes teach timing, boundaries, and relational grace—how to respond with wisdom when life feels chaotic.

5. Prophetic Books: God’s Call, Compassion & Comfort
 From Isaiah 61 to Hosea, we see God’s relentless pursuit of the brokenhearted. Prophecy invites us to pray for mercy and trust in His plan for restoration.

6. The Gospels: Meeting Jesus in Real Life
 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John each show a different facet of the same Saviour—personal, powerful, and present. For the anxious heart, Jesus remains the centre of hope.

7. Apocalyptic Texts: Hope Beyond Fear
 Daniel, Ezekiel, Revelation—visions written to persecuted people. They’re not about panic but perseverance: the final word is still love, not fear.

8. The Big Takeaway
 Therapy and medication matter. But Scripture is the one place you can always meet God’s voice. When your mind is hurting, His Word is still alive and waiting.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro: when solitude doesn’t work
 03:15 Why Bible genres matter for mental health
 04:27 Psalms & Psalm 42 – naming your feelings
 08:39 “Why, my soul, are you downcast?”
 11:06 Narrative – imperfect saints & solidarity
 16:05 Wisdom literature – mental wellbeing guardrails
 20:36 Prophetic books – context & comfort
 25:16 Gospels – Jesus for every personali

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Transcript

 Thanks for tuning in to Sunburnt Souls. My name is Dave Quak, and on the show we speak about life and faith and our mental well-being. And I am here once again with Jessica Quak. Jess, how are you going?

00:00:09:11 - 00:00:10:13
 Jess Quak
 Hey. I'm well. How are.

00:00:10:13 - 00:00:33:04
 Dave Quak
 You? I'm good, I'm good. We are here to talk about how to connect with God when you're feeling mentally unwell, and especially in a way that is guaranteed to work every time, because not all of our strategies will work every time. For example, yesterday I was feeling so sick of it and I wanted to go get some space and I particularly wanted to get some silence and solitude.

00:00:33:06 - 00:00:57:17
 Dave Quak
 So my son had an event up at the Broadwater Parklands, and so I thought, you know what I'll do? I'll drive him up there. Find a nice place in the shade overlooking the broad water, and just chill out there and have a bit of silence. Now, yesterday was the Indy 500, or whatever they call it now, the Gold Coast 500, which is a bunch of race cars racing around the track.

00:00:57:18 - 00:00:58:17
 Dave Quak
 Did you know that just.

00:00:58:23 - 00:01:01:03
 Jess Quak
 As I did.

00:01:01:05 - 00:01:05:14
 Dave Quak
 You didn't want to tell me that before I left time? I did want to tell me. Or you did tell me.

00:01:05:14 - 00:01:06:08
 Jess Quak
 I did tell.

00:01:06:08 - 00:01:28:07
 Dave Quak
 You. Oh, I don't remember. And then anyway, I got up there and I thought, okay, so I can hear the cars go down. Well. So I drove further up north and then parked away from the cars. And then two helicopters hovered above my car filming the Indy race. Now, have you ever tried to chill out when there's two helicopters hovering above your car?

00:01:28:09 - 00:01:35:19
 Jess Quak
 Yeah. Helicopters definitely. Not, quiet, solitude inducing noises.

00:01:35:24 - 00:01:54:12
 Dave Quak
 Even here, I get annoyed when a kid goes missing because I have the the like the helicopters are gone, you know. Mr. Bailey, please return home or whatever. And you're like, come on, kid, just go home so we don't have to listen to this, you know? I mean, yes, we hope the kid finds its way home, but, like, it's no need to pull out the whole helicopter, right?

00:01:54:14 - 00:02:13:18
 Dave Quak
 Anyway, so silence and solitude didn't work. And then I thought, I'm going to go get some comfort food. And so I went to go get some comfort food at the Thai restaurant that Google Maps said was open. It wasn't open. So I went somewhere else. And then a chip stabbed into my recently removed tooth hole. Whatever you call that.

00:02:13:20 - 00:02:29:14
 Dave Quak
 And I was just so sick of it. All I wanted to do was get connected to God instead of having all these other crazy things happening. And I should have just done what I knew I should have done from the start, which is terrible English the way I said that. But I should have just opened the Bible.

00:02:29:16 - 00:02:51:06
 Jess Quak
 Yeah, yeah. Not that those things aren't good. Especially getting some silence is something that you do. You want to be able to do that? But when we ask for God to speak to us, we can guaranteed be spoken to because His Word is him speaking to us. Every time. Yeah.

00:02:51:08 - 00:03:14:19
 Dave Quak
 Yeah. And so you're not going to get some like, brilliant wave of revelation or some new scripture or anything from us today. Just encouragement to go back to the word no matter where you're feeling. And so what we want to do is actually pull apart a few different genres that are found in the Bible, and how you can find help with your mental wellbeing in amongst all the different genres, because there's a whole different, you know, gaggle of ways to find God in the Bible.

00:03:14:19 - 00:03:15:01
 Dave Quak
 Right?

00:03:15:02 - 00:03:44:12
 Jess Quak
 Yeah. And it's actually one of the most important things you can learn when approaching the Bible for a lot of people, the Bible is super confusing. It can be really intimidating to go to the Bible because if you just open it up anyway, you might find yourself reading something without context and understanding of how it's meant to be read, and it can really throw you off or throw you down a path that, isn't what God intended.

00:03:44:14 - 00:04:07:02
 Jess Quak
 And it might even be, you know, detrimental to your mental health if you're taking it the wrong way. So, thankfully, we live in a time where we have access to so much teaching, where we can find a way to to figure out a little bit more of, like, the context and the genre and stuff, where we can then go.

00:04:07:02 - 00:04:27:01
 Jess Quak
 Yes. Okay. I can understand this better now, what it's saying to the original readers, what it might be saying to me. But also, how can I connect with my mental space that I'm in right now? And how can I allow God to speak to me in this place and move me to a place of mental health and flourishing?

00:04:27:05 - 00:04:27:19
 Jess Quak
 Yeah.

00:04:27:20 - 00:04:37:10
 Dave Quak
 Yeah. So let's start with the Psalms, because I know that you, my friend, are a student of the Psalms. And unless I'm wrong and haven't been listening. Psalm 42 is your favorite song.

00:04:37:16 - 00:04:52:19
 Jess Quak
 I do love Psalm 42. I am a little bit of a bandit for saying things are my favorite, but there's more than one. Yeah. So yeah, but definitely Psalm 42 is right up there. It is one of my very favorite.

00:04:52:19 - 00:04:54:02
 Dave Quak
 Why do you like it?

00:04:54:04 - 00:05:25:22
 Jess Quak
 I love the way that you can walk through the psalm with the psalmist, takes you on a bit of a journey, and because it is, a psalm, it's in the poetry sort of arena and poetry like music today. It's so good at painting pictures and being able to put yourself into the story. Because of the nature of poetic language, it can sort of speak to you in, in a way that's like a narrative.

00:05:25:22 - 00:05:57:02
 Jess Quak
 Can't like a recipe's not going to speak to you the same way a song is going to speak to you. And it's not that they have, more or less valuable information within them. It's just set the way that they used in life is different. And so and processing emotions, particularly going to the Psalms, can be really helpful because you hear a lot of different perspectives from a lot of different people at a lot of different times and situations in life.

00:05:57:02 - 00:06:15:12
 Jess Quak
 So whether you're happy or sad, you're undergoing persecution or you're really questioning what God's about or you're just really angry, there is a Psalm for you. You have to help you process it and to help walk it through with God.

00:06:15:15 - 00:06:42:00
 Dave Quak
 Yeah, that's Psalm 42 says, as it starts with as the deer pants for streams of water. So my soul pants for you. My God, I know you've always like that. Even when we first got together, we were in a more traditional church and they used to sing, st depends for. And that's probably on double speed compared to what it was at the start.

00:06:42:00 - 00:06:44:23
 Dave Quak
 But you love that as the deer pant y.

00:06:45:01 - 00:07:10:19
 Jess Quak
 Yeah, I actually, it probably goes back to in your Christian walk, you can have these moments where you have a real revelation of the person of God, and who he is and his nature. And when I was quite young, I probably was 7 or 8 or something. And the worship team were practicing before church one day, and I was walking past.

00:07:10:19 - 00:07:55:15
 Jess Quak
 And the lyrics of this psalm really spoke to my inmost being, where I was like, yes, this is these words are speaking to my soul and longing just to be with God, to be in his presence, to be finding all my fulfillment and satisfaction in him. And it really, for me at that time, he gave me, an understanding and the words for what I was feeling, and then continued to over the years, just unfold for me in many different ways, in many different seasons.

00:07:55:17 - 00:07:56:11
 Jess Quak
 So, yeah, so.

00:07:56:11 - 00:08:01:08
 Dave Quak
 It was like articulating what you were kind of already feeling and giving a framework for that.

00:08:01:10 - 00:08:24:17
 Jess Quak
 Yeah. And just for Holy Spirit, just in that moment, using the words of Scripture to then open my heart to hear them to be, yes, this is God's plan for you is to be able to have that fulfillment. And it's okay if you have those times when you're feeling dry or you're feeling like you're getting a longing that's not being met, but that's okay.

00:08:24:17 - 00:08:39:21
 Jess Quak
 God's in that too. And his heart is to meet you and to feel you. And it only is in him that you find the satisfaction. So it's that real, back and forth with the scriptures as well as the back and forth with you and God.

00:08:39:23 - 00:09:00:13
 Dave Quak
 I love that verse five says, why my soul? Are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him. My Savior and my God. When I read that, I'll get a bit confused by the different tenses and who's speaking and saying what. What do you make of that?

00:09:00:15 - 00:09:28:17
 Jess Quak
 Well, he's speaking to his. So the the psalmist is speaking to the wholeness of what's within him, the very depths of their being and going, you're really there's a disturbance is an emptiness. There is, a real deep longing and sorrow there. And speaking to the psalmist is speaking to that part of themselves and going, hey, this is your feelings.

00:09:28:20 - 00:09:50:13
 Jess Quak
 And it's it's kind of that. And you'll even find that, you know, with Psychology Today, is that okay? Let's name the feeling, to get a bit of an understanding of where you're at. This is kind of a bit of that process where it's like, okay, how am I really feeling deep, deep down, what's the ultimate underneath layer that is driving where I'm at?

00:09:50:13 - 00:10:17:12
 Jess Quak
 And so this is what the psalmist is doing, right? Deep, deep underneath it. The psalmist is feeling this disquiet and this this downcastness, but then speaking the truth of God to the inmost parts of their being and saying, look, God is here and he's still worthy of praise, and he's still going to meet you here. No matter what your circumstances are feeling like.

00:10:17:12 - 00:10:27:19
 Jess Quak
 Yes, you're feeling this way, and that's okay to feel that way. But look, this is how we're going to respond to what is true as opposed to what you're feeling in this moment.

00:10:27:21 - 00:10:46:17
 Dave Quak
 That's awesome. And the Psalms can teach us that. Yeah. You know how to go from a place of brokenness to restoration. And, you know, we don't assume that the psalmist at the end of this psalm has his life or her life all in order, or that's the end of their problems. But it is a part of the process of growing closer to God and more fully in their, in their life.

00:10:46:17 - 00:10:55:03
 Dave Quak
 And and we can speculate in their mental well-being, too, because getting closer to God and having fulfillment there is going to benefit your mental well-being, right?

00:10:55:04 - 00:11:06:13
 Jess Quak
 Oh, absolutely. Because we are whole people. Our mental well-being is attached to our spiritual well-being and our physical well-being and emotional well-being. It's all wrapped up. Yeah, yeah.

00:11:06:15 - 00:11:29:08
 Dave Quak
 And there's a lot of poetry and psalms and, you know, other books. There's also lots of narrative in the Bible where we don't only just encounter the person of Jesus, but also his stories of you know, the heroes of the faith and the people like Abraham and Esther in the Old Testament legends and everything. Yeah. So when we say narrative, we're talking about the stories of the people like the, you know, the the running.

00:11:29:10 - 00:12:01:18
 Jess Quak
 Yeah. And this is probably where you really find your groove with finding. I know when Dave and I both preach together and I know for him he loves preaching in a narrative, a person, a story. Because for him, it stories connect with you. Don't they dive in for a lot of people, that's hearing stories connect. That's what this podcast is, is really meeting that need for people to live story.

00:12:01:18 - 00:12:06:18
 Jess Quak
 So how for you, Dave? What's what's the story where you go. Yeah that's.

00:12:06:24 - 00:12:18:05
 Dave Quak
 Yeah I, I love biblical narrative because as someone who can sometimes feel a little bit insane, I feel like I'm in good company. When I read the Bible.

00:12:18:07 - 00:12:19:11
 Jess Quak
 That.

00:12:19:13 - 00:12:42:03
 Dave Quak
 There are so many people that are unhinged walking for God. And it's it works. And you know, I feel and I don't feel that way because I'm trying to be them or whatever. I just feel so much like camaraderie with Elijah and David and you know, Jonah and all these people who lived with their emotions on their sleeves.

00:12:42:09 - 00:13:03:19
 Dave Quak
 And God still used them mightily and they weren't 100% perfect. And so I think there's solidarity is a big thing in mental well-being where you don't feel like you're alone. Yeah. You know, it's breaking stigma. I don't know how stigma got so stuck in the church when it comes to mental illness, considering the Bible and the people in it.

00:13:04:00 - 00:13:09:09
 Dave Quak
 Yeah. You know, like how how can we read that and think that it's not okay to be a little bit unhinged?

00:13:09:10 - 00:13:15:03
 Jess Quak
 Yeah. Well, there's the whole basis of Christianity is that we're not. Okay. Yeah. We need a savior.

00:13:15:03 - 00:13:16:00
 Dave Quak
 Yeah, we're bright.

00:13:16:05 - 00:13:18:02
 Jess Quak
 Colors and yeah.

00:13:18:04 - 00:13:43:18
 Dave Quak
 It's an ordeal. And everybody in is an ideal. There's that one good guy and everyone else kind of just blows it. Yes. And other than Jesus, like, those narratives don't make sense. You know, even pre Jesus when David's messing it up. But he's still prophesied to be in the line of the, you know, the tribe of Judah and that he's supposed to be on the throne and like all of that, is that God's promises are bigger than our failures.

00:13:43:18 - 00:14:07:21
 Dave Quak
 And God's, you know, the way he calls us is far stronger than our ability to mess it up. Yeah. You know, and so I just love it. And I also especially love Jesus there. He wasn't unhinged. He wasn't, you know, someone you'd call unstable. But Jesus, he was just real. Yeah. And he connected with people. And he loved on him.

00:14:07:23 - 00:14:10:23
 Dave Quak
 And he was way better than I think we paint him out to be.

00:14:11:01 - 00:14:11:11
 Jess Quak
 Yeah.

00:14:11:15 - 00:14:25:02
 Dave Quak
 You know, he's just the best. And now that I've gotten to know him, not just know about him, I just love him a lot. And so for me, it helps in my mental well-being knowing I'm in good company. Yeah. Absolutely does.

00:14:25:04 - 00:14:42:21
 Jess Quak
 And knowing that God loves you and has a plan for you and can use you on your best day, as well as on your worst day. Yeah, and that he cares about not just the king of the country, but the broken widow or hurting outcasts. Yeah, he loves him all.

00:14:42:21 - 00:14:53:24
 Dave Quak
 Yeah, yeah. And the more I'm around Christianity, the more I'm drawn towards that. You know that lady who made Elijah bread? Oh, I'm. You know, I'm not Elijah. I don't want to be him. I'd rather be the bread making widow.

00:14:54:00 - 00:14:54:20
 Jess Quak
 He's just that.

00:14:54:24 - 00:15:07:05
 Dave Quak
 Just kind of the thing was faithful. Yeah. Go to and neverending jar of oil or whatever it was, you know, and I'm like, because there's just so much pressure when you're the big week, when you're the guy, you know.

00:15:07:09 - 00:15:27:03
 Jess Quak
 Yeah. But yeah, I think that's what it's trying to teach us ultimately as well. Like, hey, that none of us are the one who's meant to carry it all. It's meant to be God. Yeah. Who carries it all. And even the way that he weaves history together and he meets people where they're at rather than where we would prefer them to be.

00:15:27:05 - 00:15:49:11
 Jess Quak
 It's, it's such a beautiful show of the the nature of God. I've got to be honest, I find sometimes the narrative a little bit hard because I do get a little bit frustrated with the grace of God. Hey. Oh, like, oh, come on, God, these people this time is tough. And then I'm reminded I'm one of those messed up people.

00:15:49:11 - 00:15:57:10
 Jess Quak
 And then I'm very, very grateful. But, his his patience is far beyond what we can fathom.

00:15:57:12 - 00:16:01:08
 Dave Quak
 And these are all that gave it a good crack. Oh, you really tried to get on your skin?

00:16:01:09 - 00:16:05:07
 Jess Quak
 Oh, absolutely. Generation after generation, right?

00:16:05:09 - 00:16:27:05
 Dave Quak
 Oh, man. What about, like, wisdom literature? Oh, yeah. You can have this because this is my. This isn't my go to, you know, like Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, Job, you know, the wisdom literature where it's just. Oh, I mean, come on off last week's you know, podcast, when we talked about blunt people, I feel like blunt people like these because Proverbs is like, this is how it is.

00:16:27:09 - 00:16:34:07
 Dave Quak
 This is what you do about it. Like, do you find healing for your mental well-being in the wisdom literature?

00:16:34:09 - 00:16:39:06
 Jess Quak
 I do, I think it is really good for safeguarding your mental well-being. Okay.

00:16:39:08 - 00:16:41:10
 Dave Quak
 So that preemptive sort of strike.

00:16:41:10 - 00:17:07:13
 Jess Quak
 Yeah. So depending on which wisdom literature book you're speaking about. So Ecclesiastes is perhaps a little bit more of the okay, this life is hard and it sucks, but let's see what God can do. Kind of processing element. And I mean, it's much more nuanced and greater than the that terrible summary. But, you can go there for that.

00:17:07:13 - 00:17:35:14
 Jess Quak
 And Job again, let's be faithful no matter what our circumstances. Who is this? God? What do we owe him as our creator? All of those things. How do we, Job is excellent for interpersonal relationships. So if you've got someone in your life who's having a Job moment who feels it's just seems like the whole entire life is falling apart.

00:17:35:19 - 00:17:56:17
 Jess Quak
 Job is great at teaching us. Don't be the kinds of friends that Job had, because they were there with him at the start in a really great way. They just sort of sat with him in his sorrow and in his grief. But then they started trying to figure out his situation for him, and they started to try and diagnose him.

00:17:56:19 - 00:18:25:03
 Jess Quak
 And they were doing it from a wrong place. And God in the end is like, hey, no, Job had nothing wrong. This wasn't a sin of his. This wasn't something that Job had done wrong. He was the right one before me. And in fact, you guys were terrible friends, and that was the wrong thing before me. Yeah. So if you're wanting to sort of have encouragement about how to walk with someone through them, you know, really hard times in life, job's great to go to that.

00:18:25:05 - 00:18:54:20
 Jess Quak
 But yeah, I do love Proverbs. It's been, excellent from my blunt personality, perhaps, but there is a lot of nuance in there as well, because it's teaching like the whole Bible is meditation literature. You're not meant to just take it as a lesson and go, you meant to come back to it time and time again and chew on it and see what it looks like in meditation is built for that.

00:18:54:20 - 00:19:17:16
 Jess Quak
 So even within some proverbs you have one say one thing and then the next one say something that seems to be completely the opposite. But what it's trying to teach you is that there are all these bits of knowledge that we can gain about the world by looking at the way that the Lord has created the world and relationships and and what is a good choice?

00:19:17:16 - 00:19:42:22
 Jess Quak
 And what's a bad choice? Wisdom is actually learning how to apply that knowledge in the right situation. So the right thing at the right time is when you get wisdom, you can have the right thing at the wrong time. And it's not wise. It can be an unwise decision. So it's making sure that you, coming back to God, for wisdom ultimately in and of himself.

00:19:42:24 - 00:20:04:14
 Jess Quak
 And yet it's also got just these, you know, great one liners, you know, don't preach, don't be a nagging wife, like a dripping tap, like, which can seem really harsh, but it's an excellent lesson in communication if you're just going to be nagging someone, then likely not going to hear what you're going to say. You need to approach it differently.

00:20:04:14 - 00:20:26:08
 Jess Quak
 Just saying the same thing at someone over and over is not the way to go about having great communication and loving communication. So with all of that, what scenarios to put yourself in, what scenarios to make sure you stay away from wisdom? Literature is so good for just that, safeguarding your mental well-being.

00:20:26:10 - 00:20:35:16
 Dave Quak
 I think that's really wise because sometimes you may not hear it from somebody else. But if you read it in Scripture. Yeah. Okay, maybe there is something to this. That's awesome.

00:20:35:19 - 00:20:36:02
 Jess Quak
 Yeah.

00:20:36:06 - 00:20:56:20
 Dave Quak
 Prophetic literature. So there's a lot of prophetic literature in the Bible. I find this, one of the harder genres to read. Like I find like reading Isaiah and Ezekiel and stuff, pretty hard going. I know it's awesome because there's lots of great prophecy in there. So like I was I, 61 says, you know, he sent me to bind up the broken hearted.

00:20:56:22 - 00:21:19:03
 Dave Quak
 And then that's a prophetic word about Jesus, who then claims that's that's him. And so I see the power and the awesomeness of it. Yeah, but how could one read passages like that or other prophetic literature and just be set free in their in their mental health? Like I just, I am literally asking because I don't know the link.

00:21:19:05 - 00:21:49:19
 Jess Quak
 Okay, so really important for prophetic literature and that's a lot of it. I mean, you can pretty much go from Psalms on. Would most of that will be either wisdom or prophetic literature? A lot of the stuff with the prophetic literature is really important to understand the context, because it was prophecy that we read about, but it was spoken to an original audience and it had to make sense to that original audience.

00:21:49:19 - 00:22:12:24
 Jess Quak
 So you need to know the context for which it was spoken into. And once you understand what the context is, and often 99.9% of the time the context is, hey, you are people who have gone away from God and he wants to restore his relationship with you, and this is how he's going to go about it. And it can be a number of different ways.

00:22:12:24 - 00:22:32:04
 Jess Quak
 It can be, okay, he's sending another nation in and they're going to discipline you. They're going to show you how powerless you are without me. They're going to show you that you think you're in the right with me. But you're not. And when that happens, you will know that I am God, and then you will change the way you think about me and about life again.

00:22:32:06 - 00:22:52:08
 Jess Quak
 And then you're going to come back to me. And when you do that, I'm gonna open my arms up to you, and I'm going to receive you, and I'm going to pour out my love on you, because my love is never changed. I'm still going to choose you even though you have rejected me. So that's one way. Another way is, you know, maybe they're going to be taken into exile.

00:22:52:08 - 00:23:16:24
 Jess Quak
 It might be that the prophet himself is living out just a cold to go. Hey, God wants you to be faithful because he's faithful to you. And they live out that prophecy. Like Hosea, you you see, his life actually becomes a message from God of how good God is like as a husband. And the bride, which is the nation, is just so unfaithful.

00:23:16:24 - 00:23:39:06
 Jess Quak
 But he remains faithful and always trying to bring that restoration. And then another type, which is probably one of the last, but one I see is a really important thing, especially for our mental health, is how God speaks to a prophet about his plans for the nation. And he might say, look, the nation is turning their back on me.

00:23:39:06 - 00:24:05:15
 Jess Quak
 They're hurting the poor. They're hurting the weary, the people who I want them to take care of. They don't taking care of them. So I'm going to do something about it, and I'm going to bring another nation to wipe them out. But then the prophet comes before God on behalf of the people and prays and says, God, because of your name and your goodness and because this nation is so small, will you have mercy instead?

00:24:05:17 - 00:24:32:09
 Jess Quak
 And then God does. Yeah, time and time again. And so in that with our mental health, that's a, a call for us to listen to God's heart for the poor and the broken and the needy. And if we are those people to know that he actually cares so, so much about that, that he'll overturn a nation to ensure that we get cared for.

00:24:32:11 - 00:24:53:07
 Jess Quak
 And then as people who are in a community where there's a lot of brokenness because of people living lives that are just so against what God would have, how they would have us live, it's a call to prayer, and it's a call to stand before God and say, come on, God, bring your mercy, pour out your spirit, bring people to restoration.

00:24:53:09 - 00:25:16:06
 Jess Quak
 And then ultimately, with all these prophecies, it comes back to there will be a time when there will be someone who can come and not only change the law to try and make people live in the way that God would have us live, but going to change hearts that you would desire to live the kind of life of flourishing that God's designed us to live in, and that is Jesus.

00:25:16:08 - 00:25:17:06
 Dave Quak
 So gorgeous.

00:25:17:06 - 00:25:26:22
 Jess Quak
 Yeah. So I love that in that way. We enter into this story in that way, and then we can enter into the story of what this is who Jesus came to be for us.

00:25:26:24 - 00:25:50:02
 Dave Quak
 Yeah, I love that. What about Paul's letters and all the letters. So not just Paul's but Peter's and all of that as well. Yeah. The that they're the ones that have a lot of direct quotes. So when people like have quotes like do not be anxious about anything or cast your anxieties upon the Lord or whatever. A lot of those, from Paul and Peter and, and the epistles.

00:25:50:04 - 00:25:59:16
 Dave Quak
 And I think there's absolute merit in those verses in and in and of themselves. But I guess what's the point of, like the epistles and the letters?

00:25:59:17 - 00:26:00:13
 Jess Quak
 Yeah.

00:26:00:15 - 00:26:05:20
 Dave Quak
 In the context of us going to the word for encouragement when we're struggling.

00:26:06:00 - 00:26:29:18
 Jess Quak
 Yeah. But you've got to read it again in context. So you any verse that you really need to read it in context of the verses before and after it. Also the context of that book of the Bible, that letter where it was written, who it was written to, what they're going through, but then also the context of the rest of it, because so Paul will say, yeah, don't be anxious.

00:26:29:20 - 00:26:53:17
 Jess Quak
 But then in another letter that he'll say, he'll say, I am being poured out. I am so broken in my brokenness. God uses me. I mean, two Corinthians is all about how weak he's. But in that weakness, God is strong. So you need to keep reading. So don't just stop. Yes, meditate on it, but meditate on in light of all the rest of it.

00:26:53:17 - 00:27:05:13
 Jess Quak
 To keep reading, keep going. And if there's something that doesn't make sense, keep going through and have a look at the heart of it all, and especially in the light of the Gospels, which are a different genre again.

00:27:05:19 - 00:27:15:06
 Dave Quak
 And well, let's talk about that. So because they do fall a little bit on the narrative and we spoke about that earlier, but particularly the special because they're all about Jesus.

00:27:15:08 - 00:27:38:14
 Jess Quak
 Yeah, absolutely. And they're written from different points of view too, which is so cool. I really like that about the Bible, because, you know, you and I will look at a passage of the Bible, or we'll even watch a movie or listen to a song, whatever it might be. Our worldviews, our perspectives, just our personalities. You're a man.

00:27:38:14 - 00:28:00:07
 Jess Quak
 I'm a woman. You're older than I am. You're a different generation. To me, you're not that much different generation. You are actually a different generation to me. So we see things differently. And so we will bring to account different things that spoke to us. Yeah. And, and then God uses that in the when we share those things.

00:28:00:09 - 00:28:23:15
 Jess Quak
 And that's what the gospels do as well. So there's these four different perspectives on, on how important Jesus was and, and what he did and what the significance of those things are. And each one of the Gospels tells the same story of Jesus, but from different perspectives with different emphasizes. Because they're also written to different groups of people.

00:28:23:15 - 00:28:24:07
 Dave Quak
 Yeah.

00:28:24:09 - 00:28:46:06
 Jess Quak
 And so when we're reading them we can read them with this narrative. But there's also it's a, it's a gospel. So it's a good news story. It's a proclamation. It's a hey let me tell you about this messiah, this guy who is anointed to come and save us. Let me tell you who he really is and what he's done.

00:28:46:08 - 00:29:04:20
 Jess Quak
 Which is it's it's much more common type of literature back in the day when it was written. But, it's very, very cool to see the different emphasis that they each have. And so you generally tend toward man one more than the other. Which, which where would you your go to would be Mark wouldn't all of.

00:29:04:20 - 00:29:12:16
 Dave Quak
 Mark because it's short and punchy and there's deliverance happening in about two seconds. Like it's all on healing, deliverance, preaching like it's all happening. Yeah.

00:29:12:18 - 00:29:13:19
 Jess Quak
 So and then and then.

00:29:13:22 - 00:29:19:09
 Dave Quak
 You probably like John because it takes forever to read and it's meditative. Or is it John for you?

00:29:19:11 - 00:29:20:23
 Jess Quak
 I like Matthew and Luke.

00:29:20:24 - 00:29:23:11
 Dave Quak
 I'm not teasing John, by the way. I'm not going to tease. Yeah.

00:29:23:13 - 00:29:25:02
 Jess Quak
 Like, no, but you you.

00:29:25:02 - 00:29:26:00
 Dave Quak
 Did a long time to get.

00:29:26:00 - 00:29:47:18
 Jess Quak
 There. Yeah. So it's and as you read them, you just see the heart of Jesus come out in different ways. And so for different people it will be so for you who needs you've got this powerful personality who likes exciting things he loves and Jesus is that. And he is that then. And he is that for you now?

00:29:47:20 - 00:30:06:16
 Jess Quak
 For me, I think that's super cool. I really appreciate that about God, but I really love his teaching and I love the way that he stories woven throughout history and throughout the Old Testament. So when I'm reading Matthew and seeing all these links back to who he was prophesied about, and when I'm reading Luke, which was written by a doctor.

00:30:06:16 - 00:30:19:24
 Jess Quak
 So it's quite methodical. That really speaks to my way of thinking. So it's it's still Jesus. It's still but it's speaking to us in the way that our brains are each designed to be able to hear it.

00:30:20:01 - 00:30:39:24
 Dave Quak
 And we just came from a baptism and there was a brand new Christian. They're talking about how much he's just in love with who Jesus is. Just get to know who Jesus is and finding out. And he's loving the chosen at the moment, watching the chosen because it's like coming to life. And then, you know, only a few weeks into Christianity and just lighting up because of who our awesome savior is.

00:30:39:24 - 00:30:50:02
 Dave Quak
 Yeah. All right. Lost your honor. What if you keep reading and get to the end and find yourself in revelation? What on earth has apocalyptic literature got to say about our mental well-being?

00:30:50:03 - 00:30:53:12
 Jess Quak
 Okay, so you got your apocalyptic literature. There's not any.

00:30:53:15 - 00:30:54:24
 Dave Quak
 Listen, Daniel. Ezekiel.

00:30:54:24 - 00:31:31:24
 Jess Quak
 Yeah, yeah. So these are moments when sort of the veil between heaven and earth opened, and the person who's writing it sort of sees into the heavenly realms as one aspect. And another aspect of apocalyptic literature is that it is written also in a time and place where there's a lot of persecution for the readers. So a lot of it's written in almost a code, you'll see a lot of numbers, you'll see a lot of imagery that would have made total sense to the reader in the day.

00:31:32:01 - 00:31:56:11
 Jess Quak
 But for us, we do have a little bit of trouble. And so this is where, an element where it can be detrimental to your mental well-being. Reading the Bible, if you start going down these crazy rabbit holes. Yeah. And lose the bigger picture of what the entire Bible is trying to point you towards, which is Jesus, and restoration with him and restoration with others.

00:31:56:11 - 00:32:19:12
 Jess Quak
 So if you move away from restoration with God and others, and his love and living out his love, you are at risk of hurting yourself and others with a misunderstanding of what Scripture is about. So these are a little bit more I mean, absolutely brilliant to go dig into. And they can be a lot that can be gained from getting you out of it.

00:32:19:12 - 00:32:26:11
 Jess Quak
 But if you are moving away from the main point, it's something that you need to make sure you guide yourself against.

00:32:26:13 - 00:32:32:22
 Dave Quak
 Yeah, I mean, to be not the ideal thing to miss Jesus while reading the Bible, right? Yeah, but that's the point.

00:32:32:23 - 00:32:34:17
 Jess Quak
 Yeah, it's absolutely possible to.

00:32:34:17 - 00:32:38:13
 Dave Quak
 Do it is. And a lot of people have gone down rabbit warrens and never come back.

00:32:38:13 - 00:32:53:01
 Jess Quak
 Yeah. And there are people who may know the Bible back to front but don't know Jesus for himself. And so that's probably the big thing when coming to Scripture is to come to it with this humility and say, God, show me yourself in this.

00:32:53:03 - 00:33:25:12
 Dave Quak
 And that's the big point today, as we start winding up, is like, you know, there are all these cool ways to fight for your mental well-being as Christians. Like there's there's prayer, there's retreat, there's silence, there's solitude, there's, you know, all kinds of things. But it don't forget that the Bible's just waiting there on your phone, next to your bedside table, waiting to be encountered with and to be completely frank, it is the most surefire way to get help.

00:33:25:14 - 00:33:25:23
 Jess Quak
 Yeah.

00:33:26:01 - 00:33:31:15
 Dave Quak
 See your doctor? Yes. Go to see your psychologist. Yes, but getting the scripture to.

00:33:31:17 - 00:33:32:11
 Jess Quak
 Yeah.

00:33:32:13 - 00:33:42:22
 Dave Quak
 So I just thank you so much. And once again, it's been a joy having you here as we speak about Scripture and mental well-being. Could you pray for us? And we will go out of here and eat some delicious food?

00:33:42:24 - 00:34:12:24
 Jess Quak
 Absolutely. Thank you so much, God, that you want to be known and you want to make yourself known to us through your spirit and through your Word. And as we seek you in your Bible, in your Word. Lord, we just ask that we can see the magnitude of the love that you have for us, and that we won't only see it, but that we will be able to receive it and live it for ourselves in Jesus name.

00:34:13:01 - 00:34:14:07
 Dave Quak
 Amen. Amen.