Posts tagged as:

depression

Depression Does NOT Mean You Lack Fatih

by Sheryl R. Helms on February 12, 2010 · 0 comments

Scripture:

Psalm 13

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

1 O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever?
How long will you look the other way?
2 How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul,
with sorrow in my heart every day?
How long will my enemy have the upper hand?3 Turn and answer me, O Lord my God!
Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.
4 Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!”
Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.

5 But I trust in your unfailing love.
I will rejoice because you have rescued me.
6 I will sing to the Lord
because he is good to me.

Observation:

Read this.  Really read this.  Read it from your own perspective.  Read it as you were crying out to God and these were your own words.  Now tell me that the writer of these words was not depressed; did not feel absolute despair; did not feel as if God was taking a trip to Hawaii and left him to deal with his problems on his own.  Tell me that because he felt this way, he lacked faith.  David, the author of this outcry, was a man after God’s own heart.  He was a man of faith, yet he suffered greatly from depression.   As a matter of fact, if you really study the Bible, you will see that most great people of faith suffered from depression or anxiety at some point in their lives.  So why then, do so many “Christian” people and organization perpetrate the lie that it is because of LACK of faith?  I myself have been told that God has healed me and then when I continue to have symptoms, it is because I lack faith or because there is unresolved sin in my life.  That’s BULLSHIT, and a very destructive lie directly from the enemy.  Did David lack faith when he said, “BUT I trust in your unfailing love.  I will rejoice [despite the fact that I feel horrible and I can't feel Your presence anywhere in this universe] because you have rescued me.”  He goes so far as to “sing to the Lord” in the midst of his pain and anguish.  How can it be a LACK of faith to believe God is good, even when you don’t FEEL Him?  David hadn’t felt the goodness of God in his life “forever”!

Application:

This verse has been very close to me for many years.  It has been a comfort to know that I am not alone.  I have cried these words and felt this kind of despair for so long, it really does feel like “forever”.  I have cried out to God these same words (stronger, even) and not heard of felt a thing.

I recently went to a conference on depression called, “Breakthrough: Journey out of Depression”.  I have struggled with depression and anxiety since adolescence and have read many books by Christian and secular authors.  This was the best I have ever seen of combining the Physical and Spiritual together.  I have always believed we are 100% spiritual beings AND 100% physical beings and there is no way to separate the two.   Luckily, I am on the mend and I feel better than I have felt for many years, but I continue to study and learn.  I am continuing to arm myself with tools that will help me if/when I struggle again.  Gary H. Lovejoy, Ph.D. and Gregory M. Knopf, M.D., who put on the conference, have the best tool out there.  I strongly recommend their book, “Light on the Fringe” to anyone who has depression, who knows someone with it, or who works with people who have it.  It is the one tool I have that makes sense from a medical view as well as a spiritual view.

Please visit their website www.depressionoutreach.com It has some wonderful tools, their book, and a great video on how the brain works.  There are many psychologists and doctors who believe the way they do.  I have been seeing two of them for the past 5 years, and I am very grateful to them.  It was a pleasant surprise to see the clinic they work at listed in the appendix of the study guide!

Prayer:

Father, thank-you so much for bringing hope into our lives.  Thank-you for giving us tools to live a life of righteousness and faith, even when we don’t feel it.  Thank-you for people like Drs. Lovejoy and Knopf, who listen to You and share what You have taught them.  I pray that people who suffer from depression will find Your light and Your joy as I have, and not guilt that will drive them deeper into despair.  Thank-You for loving us so much.

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Wake the Dawn

by Sheryl R. Helms on April 21, 2009 · 0 comments

Daily Reading

1 Samuel 24
Psalm 57,58
1 Chronicles 8
Matthew 8

Scripture

4 I am surrounded by fierce lions
who greedily devour human prey—
whose teeth pierce like spears and arrows,
and whose tongues cut like swords.
7 My heart is confident in you, O God;
my heart is confident.
No wonder I can sing your praises!
8 Wake up, my heart!
Wake up, O lyre and harp!
I will wake the dawn with my song.
9 I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
I will sing your praises among the nations.
10 For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. (Psalm 57:4-4,7-10)

Observation

David was a man after God’s own heart, as it says in the Bible.  His psalms are full of human emotion.  He laments his circumstances, but always goes back to trusting in God and praising Him.  He was unfairly persecuted throughout much of his young adult life, but he continued to praise God.

Application

Every morning, no matter what our circumstances may be; no matter how bleak our future looks; no matter how impossible things appear, we should be like David and WAKE THE DAWN with our praises to God.  This implies that it is the VERY FIRST thing we do when we wake up.   We should thank God for everything He has done for us and have confidence that He is in control.

Prayer

Lord God, I know You are not always the first thing on my mind when I wake up.  I think of my day, of my responsibilities, all that must be accomplished.  But I need and want to think of You.  I want to WAKE THE DAWN with my praises to You.  So, this morning, I thank you for everything.  I thank you for this beautiful morning, for my job, for my health, for my children, and yes, even for my responsibilities because I know that you are in control.  I love you, Lord Jesus.

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Living Through Pain (part 2)

by Sheryl R. Helms on December 3, 2008 · 3 comments

Recently my church had a series called “When Life Hurts Most” that really expounded on my previous post about living through pain.  Many people commented about that post through personal e-mail and shared their own experiences with me, so I would like to add what I learned from our recent series.  (Incidentally, I love hearing your comments and stories and if you don’t feel comfortable posting it on my site just say “great post” or some such under the comment section and then send me a personal e-mail.  That way it will actually look like people read this stuff!)

[click to continue…]

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Living Though Pain

by Sheryl R. Helms on December 30, 2007 · 2 comments

In Acts 16:16-40, Paul and Silas were wrongly humiliated, severely beaten and then thrown into prison.  Somehow, they found the strength to offer a sacrifice of praise to God.  I can only imagine what I would want to do: curl up into a ball and ask God why He allowed me to fail and why He allowed me to have so much pain. Surely God would not allow me to be beaten if He is a God of love.  Plus, I was doing what He called me to do in the first place.  I would pity myself. 

 Somehow, Paul and Silas praised God.  I don’t believe that God anesthetized their pain.  I believe they suffered through the pain and praised God until the pain became bearable.  That is the challenge we face: living the pain and suffering until it becomes bearable.  When praise is the LAST thing that comes naturally to us and we choose to worship Him anyway, we’ve just had the privilege of offering a genuine sacrifice of praise. 

The pain in my life over the past few years has been depression and anxiety.  God has taught me to praise Him even though that is the very last thing I’ve wanted to do.  I remember sitting on my front porch and telling God that I didn’t believe He could exist because there is no way He could be a loving God and allow me so much despair and anguish.  But, I reached beyond what I felt and did what I knew.  I thanked God for the day even when I couldn’t get out of bed to see it.  I thanked Him for my job even though the thought of going there caused every symptom of a heart attack.  I thanked Him for my children, even though I feared them.  I thanked Him for my husband who was about the only thing I really was thankful for.  I sang to God.  I danced before God.  I  smiled at the world.  In my peer review from work were things like “she is always so happy and brings peace to the department” “she is level headed and does not become overly excited at stressful situations” “she helps us to feel relaxed and happy”.  These all came during my deepest period of anxiety and depression!  When my husband had to drive me to work because I was afraid to drive, when I would spend my lunch hour hidden in an unused room crying, when each time I entered a patient’s room my heart would feel as if it were bursting through my chest.  This is not faking peace or happiness, this is grabbing a hold of what you can’t feel, but knowis there.  It is the evidence of things unseen.  It is FAITH that God is there and that He loves you.  The change in my life was not instantaneous.  God did not see a child struggling and drop a flash of joy down into my life.  Slowly I crawled out of my pit of hell and I can now FEEL God again.  But when I begin to notice the signs of depression or dispair or when my heart starts to pound and I feel like running away, I stop and immediately thank God for His goodness.  I KNOW that I will survive.  I may again decend into that deep dark pit of dispair, but even though I may not feel God’s presence, I will praise Him and know He is there.  I will continue to offer my sacrifice of praise to Him.

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