Food for ThoughtPsalm 42:5 Depression
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

Psalm 42:5 New International Version (NIV)

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God

Many of us go through times of deep depression. It is a time where retreating into a lone place feels safe.  Depression is a place of intense emotional darkness and pain. This emotional pain can manifest physically.  Retreating inward is a refuge away from judgments and criticisms.   

Even David, "a man after God's own heart," encountered these seasons. He loved and obeyed God, but still experienced the depths of despair. These were times when he questioned the Lord the most. It wasn't that he didn't trust God, it was that he didn't understand what was happening to him. David had enemies on every side. Even his own son Absalom tried to dethrone him and make himself king. Saul, the king whom David served with all his heart, betrayed David and tried to kill him.

God took these difficult opportunities to prune David’s heart and create in him a godly character. God had big plans for His servant. He was calling him to be the ruler of His kingdom on earth. David was known as a warrior, a psalmist and a king. The enemy targets people in these positions and David was under constant harassment.  Regardless of the situation, David's hope was solely in God and this is who he lifted up his voice to in those desperate moments. Hoping in God is to believe that He will not leave us groping in the darkness.  His hand is eternally reaching out toward us.

There are so many reasons for depression. We must learn that through our tears and our pain of depression that regardless of why it is there, our Savior didn’t stop at the cross. He has continued to save us from ourselves.  God is God regardless of our circumstances or feelings.  God remains constant and we can believe in the truth of His love and rely on the fact that He, His character, His love, His mercy toward us, never changes. He is for us. So whether we bring depression upon ourselves with our own actions or it is brought on by times of grief or disappointment or even a physical imbalance, one thing for certain, God will surely save us out of those dire emotions and raise us up in His joy again.

Challenge: When you are feeling depressed or lost, who or what is the first person or thing you turn to? Is it God? If not, try doing that. When you feel the beginnings of depression coming upon you, surrender it to God so that it moves in the direction God is moving it with the purpose He wants to accomplish through it.

God bless,

Marni

Go on to: Psalm 42:7
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lamb-rightThe purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.