WHEN DEPRESSION TRIES TO CONSUME YOU

I read a statement today that simple said, “Sick of crying, tired of trying, yes, I may be smiling, but inside, I am dying!”. That broke my heart, as I was reminded of my own past depression and how it can eat at you and eat at you, until it has eaten away your strength and you have no energy left to fight it; and yes, one can most defiantly feel that way, when depression tries to consume you.

I learned two things about depression in my own life as I struggled through it and found that with God all things truly are possible. The two things that I learned became instrumental tools in helping me to overcome it then and to fight off any depression and gloom that has come my way since. First I learned that depression is a physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional response to something that is wrong. Second was that the key to getting better, is to find out what that something is and work on it. There are no easy answers, but for the most part it is multifaceted and you must search for the triggers that send you into those gloomy moments that often times can turn into hours or even days. Whatever the cause, depression can be devastating and impacts our whole person, as well as those we love. Sometimes depression can cause a distrust in God that will even make the situation worse in respect to our faith. God never leaves us helpless and hopeless, but it will always be up to us to choose hope that brings us life. John 10:10 says that Jesus came that we “might have life, and might have it abundantly”. Depression is most certainly not, abundant living. Any time or anything that can take away our peace, the enemy is glad to help out and heap on us untruths and anxieties on the negative side of our situation.

 

By taking some time through prayer and the right kind of soul searching, you can decipher what your depression is trying to tell you. Once you learn what triggers your gloom and depression you can use those skills to recognize future bouts and more quickly identify the problem and make you less vulnerable to depressive episodes. For the most part, the word depression is a generic word that we use to describe how we feel when we are down in the dumps, under a lot of stress, sad or have been hurt. For most of us, we move through those bouts rather quickly because we are convinced that it will pass and we will change our direction and way that we view our sadness. But for many, especially those of a melancholy temperament like myself, we can tend to move slower and may even need extra help in getting through a rough time during those bouts. Depression can manifest itself in many ways. We can feel the effects of it in a physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual form. Each form causing different symptoms. The key is to know that we are not alone and that we must work through it and not soak in the sadness of that which we may not be able to change or control. Millions of people battle depression at some point and find that there is victory as they look ahead and stay out of the past.

 

When a person is born again, God takes up residence within them. He brings with Him the promise of a greater joy and peace than they have ever known. But they must choose to walk in it. Many people of faith have experienced periods of deep depression. Even the Bible tells us of some of them like Moses, David and so many others. These truths are worthy and meant to show us how God's love continues even during the sad times in our lives and that He will eventually bring great hope to those who place their hope and trust in Him. In the Garden, Jesus Himself grieved over the most horrific sadness that anyone could, nor would ever experience. Yet, His saddens was lifted when He said to the father, not My will but Yours be done.

 

Sometimes it is just a matter of moving through the sadness agreeing with God that while you may not understand it or want it, you will accept it in humility and long to learn from it. Hebrews 12 tells us to endure hardships as discipline. While our sadness may or may not have been brought on by our own actions, never the less, we are to view them according to verse 7 that way, and verse 11 tells us that no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on the scriptures says, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace by those who are trained by it. I think that we often look over the part about, “being trained by our hard times”. Hebrews 12:12-13 concludes with instructions to strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees, making level our paths, so that we may not be disabled, but healed. Somewhere in the instructions of verses 12 and 13 we fail to practice that which would help us tremendously in overcoming our sadness and depressions. May I encourage you today sweet friend to get your Bible out and sit down and study those verses, meditate on what God may be trying to reveal to you and call you out of and He will come to your rescue in due time, that is the first step.  The second step is to work on that which you may need to deal with. Your faith will lead you to God, but you must put your trust in Him and leave the details at His feet.

Loving on you today,

Bren

RESPONDING TO OFFENSES

As I have grown in my spiritual walk with Christ through the years, I have noticed some distinct changes in my life, my attitude and even in my responses to others as I have felt the painful hand of hurt and offense, touch my heart. When I choose the road less traveled and embrace the reality of my situations and think about them in terms of how God may be looking at them and not what my mind churns up about them, I am relieved from the pressure of having to have an answer concerning them. I am learning, that my only response in any matter, is to show the love of God and trust Him in things that I do not understand, knowing that in due time, He will reveal to me what I need to know and understand. Every offense against me, can be used as an opportunity to reflect the Character of the one that lives inside me, if I will only change my perspective.

One day a young nurse was complaining to her pastor that she had been offended by some patients, “Thank God for that” her preacher replied, in which the young woman said, “What do you mean by that, preacher?”, “Why, if you were carrying a vase and someone bumped into you, that which is inside the vase could possibly spill out on them”, he said, and “As we go through life and people bump into us, we have the opportunity to spill out the Lord Jesus on them” he concluded.

 

You see, we have the choice when we are offended to spill out anger, bitterness, jealousy and revenge, or broken and contrite hearts. This is how God’s Character inside His children spills out into the world. We may never be called to suffer an agonizing death for our faith. But any time that we quench the fleshly nature in us that is constantly warring to show it’s ugly face, by yielding to that which compels us to do the right thing, then we are denying the flesh it’s gratification of glory, thereby, bringing honor to the One who deserves it.  When we allow our perspective to reflect or mirror the embodiment of Christ in us, then any suffering that we may undergo will be worth it. Think of how the world would be, if we would walk more cautiously in trying to eliminate our critical attitude’s that repels others away from us ,when we respond to them in a wrong way, no matter what they have heaped on us. Proverbs 19:11 tells us that, “A man’s wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.”  Godly wisdom helps us to have tolerance for the person who has offended us and gives us patience to find God’s plan to restore the situation. God always has a plan of restoration.  Sometimes we just need the patience to believe it will happen.

 

Will you today sweet friend, face your trial that you may be going through with an attitude of good cheer, humility and a godly patience with the one who has wronged you and above all else, have the faith that God will honor you by your seeing things from His perspective and not your fleshly way of responding to a bad event. Matthew 7:5 tells us to first, remove the beam from our own eye, then we can see clear enough to help remove our brother’s speck ….the part about removing my beam in order to see the situation clearly, gets me every time. I can only see clearly, when I remove that which is causing me not to see the situation clearly. Most of the time, we must detach ourselves from the initial or onset of our  offense and step back to see the situation more clearly. How you respond to your offenses will reflect the strength of your walk, in Jesus!

Loving on you today my friend,

Bren

TO HAVE A FAITH LIKE THAT

When was the last time that you share your Testimony of what God has done for you….(not just a simple “God has blessed me” kind of remark) but something that reflects your faith in the will of God no matter what the outcome was and only He can be glorified in it. Maybe, something has happened in your life that has blurred your spiritual vision and you think has hindered your faith. Have you been discouraged, disappointed in someone and somehow allowed God to become part of that equation? Maybe because of some disappointment in your life, you have used it as an excuse to walk away from God or God’s people because you have lowered your expectations of God so that you won’t be so disappointed the next time. Sweet friend, your doubting will continue to grow and take over your influence of God’s faithfulness to what you believe about Him and what you believe He has said, and if you are not careful at some point you will begin to murmur and complain and become your own stumbling block in overcoming your lack of faith and trust in the One that you once believed in and trusted. God never walks away, we are the ones that so quickly turn from Him, because we allow our disappointments to shadow over what God does and does not do for us when we should be saying to ourselves and others, “…Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this did not Job sin with his lips” Job 2:10. Our doubting God can turn to anger towards Him if not careful, and will eventually separate us from seeing the truth as it really is. If your faith can cast out your doubt, then what do you think that your doubt will cast out? Guard your faith and build it up by feeding it the Word of God, for it will be most useful to you during troublesome times that are sure to come! How is it that we can appear to have faith and yet unbelief in a situation. Often times we are not sure if that little bit of faith that we have is sufficient or not and feel like the man in Mark 9:24 when he told Jesus that he had faith, but He needed the Lord to help his unbelief. Sometimes, it is because we may know that God can do a thing, but we question if He will do it for us.

 

The fact that the father asked Jesus to help his unbelief, shows that while he knew that he had some faith, he wasn’t sure how much faith he had to have in his situation in order to get his son healed of demon possession. In desperation he casts any doubts or fears that he may have had upon Jesus and begged for mercy and help. Why did Jesus grant this man’s request? Did he not say that he had unbelief? The answer lies in the man’s own confession when he said that he believed. Jesus said in Mark 9:23 ”If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth”. Jesus was not requiring some type of measurement of faith from the man, but simply, an "if thou wouldst believe" kind of faith.  We must recognize the power that Jesus offers and releases to us if and when we will simply, believe. Even the disciples wavered in their faith and the Lord rebuked them for it. They were not able to heal the young boy because of their own lack of faith. The light was not going off in their heads at that point that they, were trying to heal the boy in their own power and words.

 

That is the very reason that many of our own prayers are not answered, because we are praying within our own power over a situation with wrong motives. I hate to hear people tell other people something like, “you did not get your prayers answered because your faith was not strong enough”. I hate to disagree with them but, my Bible says there is only one kind of faith and that is the kind that you either have or you don’t have. The disciples learned this as well when one of them ask Jesus in Luke 17:5-6 “The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. Jesus never taught degrees of faith. On the contrary, Jesus taught that you either had faith or you didn’t. Jesus taught that the faith as a grain of mustard seed was more than sufficient to accomplish all that we might need or expect from God. It is fascinating to learn that the mustard seed is a tiny seed that produces one of the largest plants in the world. The black mustard plant in Israel grows to be over 12 feet tall. Jesus purposely chose to use the mustard seed as an illustration because of this very fact. Faith, no matter how small, will open the windows of Heaven and call forth the grace of God into our lives, if we will only surrender it in a child-like faith trust, that reaches out it's arms to Jesus and says, "Jesus, help me up where You are". To have a faith like that......

 

Loving you today sweet friend,

Bren