Defeating Depression

Too many people suffer from depression today. It always seems to be the happiest people that are the most depressed. Of all the cases we hear about in the media that is probably true. 

Happiness cannot be found in a job, a spouse, a home or in acquiring some level of financial success. Personally, I believe you can not be truly happy until you are in union with your Creator and doing what you were intrinsically gifted to do. People wrestle with success. They become dependent on other people or things. On jobs and circumstances. Others become hyper-dependent on substances which can lead to addiction and other dark behaviors. 

We don't have to live overwhelmed. I also believe that we don't have to be stuck on meds that change more than the symptoms we fight. It's not the load you are carrying that harms you...it's the way you carry it. God loves us: He loved YOU so much that he sent his son to become sin and die on a cross for your sins and weaknesses. You can be strong only when you surrender control of your life to Him. It's his strength that kicks in when you are weak. You must get tapped into the understanding that his death was for you to be reconnected(reconciled) to him. Real love, genuine peace and life sustaining joy are only a few of the benefits of trusting in Christ and his gospel. He will help you carry those heavy loads. 

Fight the desire to isolate and insulate yourself when things feel like they are crashing in on you. Integration with others can help you start to move towards things that bring life and find a way out of the dark. And that way my friends is Jesus.

Psalm 13 can also bring some comfort:

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?

    How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

    How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look on me and answer, Lord my God.

    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,

and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”

    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love;

    my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I will sing the Lord’s praise,

    for he has been good to me.