Spiritual Depression

Psalm 42:11

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.

Good morning ladies,

I have been reading Spiritual Depression Its Cause and Cures by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and I think it is depressing me.

I got the book because I loved, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, which he also wrote and because I hoped by reading it I would find something that would help other women.

What I found out so far is that I understand spiritual depression far too well.

The first point Lloyd-Jones makes is that some people are just more prone to depression. Those people who think a lot and are introspective are far more likely to suffer from depression. Duh!

The problem with thinking too much is you tend to think about yourself and that is the surest way to end up depressed. The cure of course is not to quit thinking, but to think about God instead.

The next few chapters talked about allowing your past to rob you of your joy. His advice-get over it, you can’t change the past, God has forgiven you-move on.

Then he talked about worry (a personal favorite.) If Satan can’t keep you depressed thinking about the past, he’ll start you thinking about the future. But Lloyd-Jones reminds us that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind. Plus God has the future under control-you worrying about it doesn’t change anything it just depresses you.

Next was the chapter on feelings.

Feelings, he writes are variable and therefore it is VERY dangerous to allow them to control us, people who are controlled by their feelings at happy one minute and angry the next. Their joy does not come from the Lord, it comes from their circumstances and those change.

To overcome your feelings you must first realize the cause of them. Have you sinned? Are you crabby and hard to get long with because “God’s finger” is upon you? If that is the case, repent and listen to God.

If however you are depressed and sin is not involved then you need to have a good talk with yourself. Lloyd-Jones points out that too often we let our minds talk to us. It tells us how to feel and to think, but what we should do is talk to our minds.

It is a subtitle difference, but an important one. The Psalmist would often start out listing their woes and concerns but by the end they were telling themselves truths about God that would bring them comfort.

People who suffer from depression often let their feelings rule their lives rather than the Truth of God. If we are what we eat and what we think, we should be eating a steady diet of The Word of God, not of fear and worldly wisdom.

Love,
Jill