Dealing with Depression

Psalms 119:25-28 ESV

 

“My soul clings to the dust;

    give me life according to your word!

When I told of my ways, you answered me;

    teach me your statutes!

Make me understand the way of your precepts,

    and I will meditate on your wondrous works.

My soul melts away for sorrow;

    strengthen me according to your word!”

 

Give Me Life, I Pray!

 

In this world we will have trouble, heartaches, despair, sadness, difficulties, pains, and sorrows. If we are not careful, they can weigh us down. They can overtake us, and we may give in to them and yield to them rather than surrendering our lives and our circumstances over to the Lord.

 

One of Satan’s greatest weapons he uses against us is to get us to internalize our suffering and to let it take us out rather than us trusting the Lord Jesus with our life’s circumstances, allowing him to work his will and his ways in our lives and in our life situations.

 

Satan likes to remind us of all that is negative, because he wants to weigh us down with the cares of this world. He wants us to have a pity party and to feel sorry for ourselves and to let that get the best of us. Because, if we do that, we are rendered ineffective in our walks of faith in Jesus Christ.

 

We are defeated! And that is because we have taken our eyes off of Jesus and we are looking at the waves splashing around us instead, and so we begin to sink, like Peter did. And this is where we then call on the Lord in our despair, and if we let him, he will lift us up.

 

But the sad reality is that many Christians (or professing Christians) remain with their souls clinging to the dust rather than them reaching out to the Lord Jesus, for him to give them life according to His word. They remain in the “woe is me” state of mind, and they never gain the victory.

 

So, we need to be those who, when trouble comes our way, turn to our Lord for our help and support. We need to trust the Lord with our circumstances, believing that he is fully sovereign over our lives, and that nothing comes into our lives but what he allows it, and he will bring good out of it.

 

When I Told of My Ways

 

When we are honest with ourselves and with the Lord regarding what we are thinking, feeling, and experiencing, and when we cry out our suffering to him, in prayer, and we trust him to lift us out of our circumstances, which are overtaking us, he will hear our cries, and he will answer.

 

But notice with me here several key words. The first one is “honest.” We have to tell the truth. If we are not honest with God, he will not hear our prayers. For, he knows if we are lying. We can’t fool God! We may be able to perform well for others, but the Lord sees right through all fakery.

 

The second word is “trust.” If all we do is just unload our misery onto the Lord, but we have no intention of changing, then we are not trusting in the Lord. We are just wanting sympathy. We are just wanting someone to commiserate with us, but we don’t really want to be delivered.

 

So, we are wasting our breath if we have no intention of changing course or of being delivered from the weight of our misery. If we want the Lord to help us come out of the “woe is me” mindset, then we have to yield control of our lives over to him, and we have to cooperate with him in what he is doing.

 

Like James said, if we pray for wisdom, but not in faith, and then we doubt that God will answer, then we are double-minded, unstable in all our ways, and we should not suppose that we will receive anything from the Lord. It is a lot like one of us asking others for counsel but then never heeding the counsel given (provided it is good counsel) (See: James 1:5-8).

 

Make Me Understand

 

So, we are going through a trial, and we are praying to the Lord, and we are asking him for life, and for him to teach us his ways that we may walk in them. And we are praying for understanding of the ways of the Lord, and for him to strengthen us in our weakness, according to his word.

 

Are these just words we are speaking? Or do we mean what we are praying?

 

The evidence will be in what we do, won’t it? If we genuinely want to have a different mindset, another attitude, a changed heart, and a response unlike what we have had before to our circumstances, it should be evident by what we do in response to what the Lord Jesus shows us. True?

 

Therefore, we won’t let the difficulties of this life undo us. We won’t let them take us out. We won’t yield our minds, our attitudes, and our actions over to these circumstances, but by the grace of God we will rise above our circumstances, and we will stand strong in our faith despite our difficulties.

 

We will get into God’s word and study it in context, and then we will walk in the ways of the Lord and obey his commands. We will do what he shows us to do. We will believe in his sovereignty over our lives, and we will trust him with our circumstances. They won’t have power over us!

 

We will keep on in keeping on in our walks of obedient faith in Jesus Christ. We will do what he has called us to do, and we will rest in our Lord and in his love and grace. We will commit our ways to him, and we will trust him to work all things out for good for us who love (obey) him and who are called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28).

 

We will do the will of God despite how we are treated in return. We will accept that God has our best in mind and that he has a plan and a purpose for everything that he allows in our lives. No matter how hard it gets, and no matter what pains we experience, we will keep trusting and obeying our Lord.

 

Living by Faith

 

Lyrics by James Wells, 1918

v. 4 by Robert E. Winsett, 1918

Music by J. L. Heath, 1918

 

I care not today what the morrow may bring,

If shadow or sunshine or rain,

The Lord I know ruleth o’er everything,

And all of my worries are vain.

 

Living by faith in Jesus above,

Trusting, confiding in His great love;

From all harm safe in His sheltering arm,

I’m living by faith and feel no alarm.

 

Though tempests may blow and the storm clouds arise,

Obscuring the brightness of life,

I’m never alarmed at the overcast skies—

The Master looks on at the strife.

 

I know that He safely will carry me through,

No matter what evils betide;

Why should I then care though the tempest may blow,

If Jesus walks close to my side.

 

Our Lord will return for His loved ones someday,

Our troubles will then all be o’er;

The Master so gently will lead us away,

Beyond that blest heavenly shore.

 

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