08 September 2010
This is the assurance we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 1 John 5:14
"I have been deeply depressed," wrote a young woman in her mid‑twenties, as she scrawled a letter on the back of a place mat in a restaurant. "My father committed suicide and I'm very unhappily married. I really don't know what to do." Scores of people are like that. Possibly you, too.
For various reasons‑‑troubled marriages, guilt, anxiety over the future, feelings of insecurity, frustration, inadequacies, and what-have-you‑‑we are succumbing to a vicious cycle of concern, anxiety, self‑pity, and then depression. "Snap out of it, friend"‑‑more nonsensical or foolish advice could never be given, but neither is it necessary to have psychotherapy or the services of a psychiatrist to overcome your depression.
In this series, I've been giving you some "depression stoppers"‑‑truths from Scripture that will help you stop depression. The first is to come to grips with your identity as a believer in Jesus Christ. "Who are you?" You have been adopted into the family of God as His own son or daughter when you became a Christian. This means that you are important to God‑‑not simply a number, or a faceless individual lost among the masses of people on earth, a non‑entity who has only what he or she can grab. Read the fourth chapter of Galatians along with Romans 8 to have a greater understanding of your importance to our heavenly Father.
The second important truth that stops depression is the understanding that God--not fate or chance--controls the ultimate destiny of our world. When it comes to the future and the issues which tend to depress us, our response must not be worry, rather it should be to accept by faith the promises of the Word stating that God will not leave us nor forsake us in the storm (see Hebrews 13:5). Laying hold of God in prayer links us to the assurance that God is still in charge of the world and our lives as well.
Recently, a high‑ranking government official spoke to a nucleus of individuals about the state of world affairs, which, believe me, is pretty grim. But then concluding his remarks this very knowledgeable individual said, "And what should our response be as believers who know the Word of God?" It should be that of joy, for Jesus said, "When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near" (Luke 21:28). Joy‑‑not depression!
Few people who can accept the fact that God is in control ever become depressed, and no people who are depressed have any real joy in their lives. Much of our depression centers around concern for self‑‑what will happen to us, how we look, why we aren't as beautiful or as successful as someone else‑‑yet in the family of God there is no competition.
At least three times we are told in Scripture, "There is no respect of persons with God." He will accept you and forgive you just as you are, and then He will give you His Holy Spirit to help you to become the person He wants you to be. Depression seems to rule out the possibility of God's personal intervention. It ignores truths that you really know to be important, that God does hear and answer prayer, that He can change the circumstances that depress you.
Depression stopper #3 then, is that we, as God's children, can bring our needs to Him and pour out our hearts before Him, asking His intervention. "Have we trials and temptations?" asked Joseph Scrivens, "Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged, Take it to the Lord in prayer." "This is the assurance we have in approaching God:" wrote John, "that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us" (I John 5:14). Appropriating this great truth is a certain "depression stopper."
Resource reading: Luke 7:18-25