A selfish person always finds it hard to get un-depressed. Even with medication. That's because all sources of happiness lie entirely in the circle of himself, so when he is sad all his resources run dry. A person who is unselfish has other wells to draw from besides those that lie in himself. Take out your purple pen and I'll tell you what to do.
- First, go to God. Through prayer, God is always there and always supplying solace to our sorrows.
- Second, there is comfort in God's word. How much do we miss because we are simply too lazy to search the scriptures for God's promises? (Uh-oh!)
- Third, there is encouragement in community. David was so depressed in Psalm 102 that he wrote verse 4.
The worst kind of trouble is heart trouble, and it's the hardest to get out of. Nothing pleases us if our heart is unsettled, sad, and not right. So the only way David could comfort himself was in this thought:
Psa 102:13 Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.
In other words, even though HE was depressed, the CHURCH was prospering. Even though he was depressed, someone else was getting saved. However low he got, at least Zion would arise! (Woo-hoo!) What does that mean?
Psa 102:15-16 So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.
Stop taking everything so personal, and viewing everything individually. Learn to satisfy yourself with God's gracious dealings toward the church and his people as a whole. The things that are dearest to Jesus, should they not be dear to you? Even though it is real dark right now, can you not rejoice in the triumphs of the cross and the preaching of the gospel?
Or have we forgotten about doing that? Did we forget that this is the only realistic option to faith, and will preserve us from falling into distrust? Don't let your sadness be compounded by selfishness. Look outward and look upward. Your own personal troubles are forgotten when you look—not only at what God has done and is doing—but at what he is yet willing to bring in answer to the prayer of faith.
Try this. Faith and focus. Focus on the right things by faith. Whenever you are sad in heart and heavy in spirit, forget yourself and your small, selfish concerns, and seek the glory of the cross. Seek it. When you bend your knee in prayer, do not limit it to the circumference of your own small life (sufferer though you are), but send a longing to God for more revival among his people. Then your own soul will be refreshed. Why? Because
Psa 102:17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.
4 comments:
These are just the words I needed at this very minute! Thanks for letting God use you.
You clearly know nothing about clinical depression. These are the kind of dangerous, ill-informed, fundamentalist, platitudes that would be very likely to push a truly ill person over the edge. I find this sort of attitude very worrying indeed. I'm sure you mean well, but plaese think before you publish stuff like this.
Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
Being somewhat familiar with both clinical depression and the methods used to treat it, I was careful (for example) to say nothing that would discourage someone who is under a doctor's prescription from taking medication.
Most (though not all) clinical depression is tied to serotonin depletion in the brain. One of the more helpful medical advances is a new range of SSRI's (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors) that can often restore balance in brain chemistry so that someone can receive counseling.
Knowing that a truly ill person needs much more than pious platitudes, I was careful to take the same (often successful) approach of the professional psychotherapist or psychologist: get the patient to re-focus, off of things that they cannot themselves control. Get them out of the victim mindset. Regardless of the training and philosophy of the therapist (Jungian, Freudian, realist, etc.), most schools of thought would agree
(1) In addition to drugs you need discussion
(2) In addition to processing the past you need the right focus in the present
So it sounds like maybe somebody missed taking their Prozac.
(Excuse me, my mother's calling. I'll put it on speaker.)
Well stated. We run for all the answers except the obvious. Could it be that God uses times of loneliness to draw us closer to him. Appreciate your take on the truth...using biblical truth to draw us to a reality, a problem and a way out.
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