WHY DO I HAVE TO BE SO DEPRESSED?
Psalms 42:5-7 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put
your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast
within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon - from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
Every one, every Christian goes through times of depression. Back in 2000 I had five by passes on my heart, and then a few years later I had a couple of stents put in my heart too. I should have enough updated plumbing to get me through for a hundred years and maybe then some. Of course I am kidding about living so long, but with all the heart work the doctors warned me I might have problems with depression and I still do. Depression ran in my family anyway just like the heart trouble. Probably the depression was a sign of the heart problems to begin with.
Depression can be strange in that a person can get depressed for absolutely no reason at all. And no matter what the cause or if there is no cause it is never fun. Watching a funny movie like the “Three Stooges” can make a person laugh on the outside, but on the inside things doesn’t change much. When the movie is over we either find a new movie or go back to depression. And the depression can come and go for no reason at all. Manic depression can make people go from great extremes of happiness to extremes of depression, even to the point of wanting to end their own life. There is medicine people can take, but they have side effects as well. For years following my heart surgery I took medicine for my heart and for depression. The medicine took away my depression, sometimes made me a wild and crazy guy like Steve Martin. I didn’t really go crazy, but sometimes I would say what was on my mind and that up some people even if it was true. Since I retired I have stopped taking the anti-depression medicine. It took me about two and a half years to get my body regulated back to being without it. At first I was very depressed most of the time. Now it has evened out better, but I still struggle with it some days worse than others. My loved ones especially my wonderful wife Beckie is very understanding, and that helps a lot.
While depression can be part of our make up like it tends to be with me, it can be caused by things and certainly one of those things is Satan, the powers of darkness and the evil of this world. Much of suicide is caused by demonic attack on a person. Demons can attack a person's body or use things around them. They can use family, friends and almost anything to bring depression on someone. King David suffered from depression and so did King Saul. Both were men that God used in mighty ways, but it seemed that they could be pulled down as far as God would lift them up.
Sooner or later we all face depression. It is part of life. What we need to remember like with any other problem we have in life, Jesus can and will help us if we only ask. It doesn’t have to be a spiritual reason, he can handle it all. The problem most of us face is we think we can handle it on our own. Even if we need to take medicine, we need to ask Jesus to help the medicine to work correctly and not have any side effects. James 4:2 reminds us that we have not, because we ask not. The powers of darkness will tell us that we will never get over it, and we shouldn’t bother Jesus with silly matters because he is very busy.
Lier, lier, pants on fire! Isn’t that what we used to say when we were little? Well, Satan is a liar and soon his pants will be on fire! Remember what David reminded us, and that our hope is in God. The Lord loves us more than we know or understand. His help for any need in our life is simply a prayer away. So remember when life's problems come your way, go running to get in the lap of Jesus!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, sometimes life's problems can seem like they are more than we can handle. But we know that they are not more than what you can handle. We thank you even in advance knowing that because of your victory our victory is sure. We love you Jesus. Thank you for being so good to us!
