I’m going to be vulnerable with you. Once a month I struggle with feelings of depression as part of my cycle. Sometimes it lasts for minutes, other times it lasts for days. I have found a trick to beating these feelings or at least stuff them away until the time passes, but I’ve recently encountered some people who truly have to deal with regular bouts of depression, or rather seem to be stuck in it. From my limited experience and watching others, this is what I wrote in my journal last night:
“Depression. It’s rampant throughout the world. It’s not just visible, some people hide it. It’s a lonely, dark place. It’s full of lies, doubts, fears… But the root? It’s HOPELESSNESS. It cripples, blinds, and leads astray. It destroys everything good in a person. How to get out of it? I’m not quite sure. Is it a place? An emotion? A feeling? Or is it a season or valley which one must walk through? A desert perhaps? Or only a tool which satan uses against us? Which if this is the case how weak my sword is in fighting the thoughts that arouse! Or rather how weak I am in using the sword! O Lord save me from this state and bring me back to a hope filled place. I need rescued; I need something to cling to. Rescue me Lord!”
Another place I wrote:
“Why is it so easy to dwell on the fears and doubts that crowd someone’s mind? Maybe that’s just it. If it crowds their mind, there isn’t enough scripture and truth to dwell on instead.”
Depression saps one of all their energy, all their will and desire, and all their motivation. They have no hope. They have either 1) Dwelt on lies and fears of the enemy so much that they have lost all reason to live or 2) They have forgotten their Why.
I’ve talked a lot about knowing your Why and yet again I’m reminded of how important it is. Ask any depressed person Why they are on earth and I guarantee they won’t have an answer. If they do have an answer then more likely than not, the answer comes from their head and not their heart. Their heart is probably so full of lies and fears that it has sucked all desire to go on. Possibly they don’t feel loved or cared for. They may not have anything to look forward to. But one thing every depressed person has in common is this:
They have no Hope!
The definition of hope could very well be summed up in this: the desire to obtain something with at least some expectation of receiving it.
Hope comes from knowing WHO God is and believing that His Words are true and that He WILL do what He says He’ll do.
Depression starts in our mind (thoughts) which feeds our soul – home to our feelings, emotions, desires, and will. If our souls are weary and wishy-washy then the first step we need to take is to ask God to show us who He is, to help us “taste and see that the Lord is good.” (See Psalm 34:8)
Here are a couple scriptures you can look at:
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
Psalm 43:5
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; which the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
Hebrews 6:17-20
If you are stuck in feelings of depression, you must know that there is hope if you are a Christian, because God is the only one who does not lie and it says that if we come unto Him we “shall find rest unto [our] souls.” (See Matthew 11:28-30)
Love you guys, see ya next time, and Happy Running!
Be Still and Run 