Hello dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Psalm 42:5 "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him For the help of his countenance." (ASV)
Christmas should be a time of joy for everyone in American (and in all free countries) but it isn't a time of happiness for many people who suffer from depression. It seems Christmas is the time of year when a lot of depressed people commit suicide; I don't completely understand it but suicide statistics prove it's true.
I remember years ago when I suffered (what we then called a "Nervous Breakdown") and my husband checked me into a private hospital where I underwent almost three months of intensive care by a very well known psychiatrist and his recommended psychoanalyst (who gave me an I.Q. and mental evaluation test). I was depressed because of many things --- one being my father had shot and killed my mother. I also felt overwhelmed with having to raise seven kids by myself. I said, "by myself" only because my husband (God bless him) worked six days a week 10 to 12 hours a day.
We lived in the country and I had no close friends (none I felt I could trust with my feelings). I was isolated and lonely for a friend who could sympathize with and encourage me. Not that my husband didn't try his best, but it's not the same - women need women friends and men need men friends - I believe it's the way God designed us. We need someone we can trust with our most heart-felt emotions and someone who will be a loyal friend. Someone who will not only sympathize with us but encourage us. We need someone who will be honest and open with us. If you don't have such a friend then you need to ask God to bring someone like this into your life.
My wonderful Christian doctor told me the best therapy for anyone was to sit down with a trustworthy friend and talk over problems. He told me that depression was the most common emotional ailment there is and he said talking about troubles with a friend helps put adversities into perspective (I have lived by his advice ever since). What a wonderful revelation it was to me and his advice has been a big part of my maintaining a certain level of sanity ever since! LOL
Furthermore, my doctor told me that depression was a form of suppressed anger because we feel we don't deserve whatever is happening to us. At first, I rejected his theory because I didn't think I was angry at all! Since then I have come to realize I was very angry over many, many things that had happened, and were happening in my life.
When one is severely depressed they can not see the forest for the trees (forgive the cliché) but it's so true. We can not see our anger for the depression! But once the anger is revealed we can then deal with it. Some types of depression are easy to figure out (like my mother murdered and my feeling alone in raising my children) but most reasons for depression is often difficult to pin down. Not knowing why we are depressed is a stumbling block to getting better.
My psychologist also told me every person reacts differently to each situation because of their personality and their background (their childhood). Each and every person is unique and you suffer in your own unique way because there's no one else who has the same personality with the same background as you do. However, there is one common thread about suffering... we all experience it and there are varying degrees of suffering. While some may experience the very same type of loss or tragedy each person will have a different reaction and suffer different degrees of pain over it.
Psalm 42:5 "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him For the help of his countenance." (ASV)
As I've already stated, suppressed anger (depression), is one of the most common ailments there is. The best antidote for depression is to meditate on God's goodness. Meditating on God's Word and His goodness will take your mind off your present situation and give you hope of your situation improving. Meditating on God's goodness will focus your thoughts on God's ability to help you, rather than your inability to help yourself. Read the Bible's accounts of God's goodness and meditate on them - it's one of the quickest ways to be uplifted.
Secondly, if you truly want God's help then you've got to realize God's purpose for you ---and it's the same purpose our Father in heaven had for His only son.
Jesus told us what His Father's will was for Him: John 6:38 - 39 "For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that sent me, that of all that which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day."
We are not here to do our own will but to do the will of our Father in heaven! Whatever has happened to you is our Father's will and you must bear it under grace and with hope in the only person who can rescue you! Jesus did not follow his human desires but trusted His Father who knew what was best for Him. We must do the same... trust our Father who knows what is best for us. Don't think for one second that Jesus didn't realize what he was going to suffer! He knew full well what was going to happen but He trusted His Father to give Him the strength and grace to bear it all.
All Christians were given to Jesus as the reward of his sufferings, for his death was the price by which they were redeemed. Paul says in Ephesians 1:4-5 that, "he hath chosen us in him (that is, in Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." Isn't being saved the most wonderful blessing? and it shows us the goodness of our Father in heaven, amen?
Think about Paul who suffered so much and even asked God to deliver him from an affliction:
2 Corinthians 12:7 - 9 "And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I should not be exalted overmuch. Concerning this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
What a testimony!
"The word which Paul uses is worthy of special notice. It is that this "thorn in the flesh" was given to him, implying that it was a favor. He does not complain of it; he does not say it was sent in cruelty; he does not even speak of it as an affliction; he speaks of it as a gift, as any man would of a favor that had been bestowed. Paul had so clear a view of the benefits which resulted from it that he regarded it as a favor, as Christians should every trial." (Barns commentary)
"How could David be lifted up with pride after the murder of Uriah? How could Peter after having denied his Lord with a horrid oath? Thus, many a Christian is suffered to fall by the temptation of Satan to show him his weakness and to keep him from pride; many a fall is made the occasion of the permanent benefit of the offender. And perhaps every Christian who has been much favored with elevated spiritual views and comforts can recall something which shall be to him a standing topic of regret and humiliation in his past life. We should be thankful for any calamity that will humble us; and we should remember that clear and elevated views of God and heaven are, after all, more than a compensation for all the sufferings which it may be necessary to endure in order to make us humble." (Barns commentary)
Is It Raining Little Flower?
Is it raining, little flower?
Oh, be glad of rain!
Too much sun would writher thee;
Soon 'twill shine again.
Though the sky is black 'tis true,
Yet behind it shines the blue.
Art thou weary, tender heart?
Oh, be glad of pain;
Sweetest things in sorrow grow
As the flow'rs in rain.
God is watching, thou'lt have sun
When the clouds their work have done.
Lucy Larcom (1824 - 1893)
Lastly, let me urge you to stop watching ungodly TV shows! Would you be watching them if Jesus were sitting beside you? They will depress you and hurt God's Holy Spirit Who lives in you. Start listening to uplifting music! Don't you realize what music does to your soul? It's a proven fact that music is one of the most influential medians in the world. What we watch and what we listen to is who we become inside ...and it's who we are inside that matters to God!
"Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us."~~ HEBREWS 12:1
"Anything that dims my vision of Christ, or takes away my taste for Bible study, or cramps my prayer life, or makes Christian work difficult, is wrong for me, and I must, as a Christian, turn away from it."
~~ J. Wilbur Chapman (1859-1918)
"The Lord bless thee, and, keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace " ~ Numbers 6:24-26.
In His tender care always,
Dot
Acknowledgements
* A lot of my studies are done using my Life Application Study Bible (KJV) by Tyndale House Publishers and I heavily rely on the explanatory notes for each verse I use because I can not explain them better.
* I often rely on my New American Standard Bible by Thomas Nelson Publishers for double checking the meaning of the verses I used in the King James Version. Not that I think the NAS Bible is better than the KJV Bible, but it gives me more insight into some of the KJV Bible verses.
* Most of my studies are done using the E-Sword program from this site: http://www.e-sword.net/ I downloaded all their commentaries and bought others. The maps and teachers aids are so valuable that I can now do a study in half the time I took before. All the quotes from commentaries by great Theologians came from the E-Sword program.
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