Depression

https://odb.org/MY/2022/08/28/love-and-lean

I attended a conference on counselling some years back and learnt that depression is not merely a feeling but a medical condition. It is not just feeling down or being depressed as we probably commonly thought but a serious medical condition of continually feeling down or depressed. People having depression usually can’t help it. So just telling them to snap out of it or cheer up will not really work. It is dangerous as depression induces suicidal thoughts and there would have been those who had taken their lives because of that. It is a mental health issue and because it is a medical condition, the best people to deal with it are health care professionals.

However, as believers I think a key to avoid going into depression is to lean on God and others. If we allow ourselves to go into depression, we will not be able to avoid the downward spiral where we will then require medical intervention. I believe that as much as things may not be going well for us like losing our job or a loved one or being bypassed for a promotion, trust God that He has His plans for us. Trust that God wants the best for us despite the seemingly adverse situation. Have faith that God will turn things around for us in time to come. If we had lost a loved one, we cannot reverse that. That person is now in a better place if he or she was a believer. God loved him or her more to take him or her away from the miseries of this sad and broken world. We who are still here will have to deal with what the world brings us, storms and all and yet we know we can go through all that because we have Jesus in our lives and God is with us.

Lean on the Lord as we have Him with us like Ruth had leaned on Naomi and clung to her instead of returning to her people. She followed her mother in law and determined in her heart that although she will be a foreigner in Israel, Naomi’s people will be her people and Naomi’s God, the Great I Am, the Almighty One of Israel shall be her God. God honoured Ruth as a result, that although she was not born Jewish, in tracing the lineage of Jesus, Matthew in his Gospel, mentioned Ruth.

Lean on the Lord as well as His people. Fellowship with those who are in the Lord so that we will celebrate the goodness of God amongst His people that instead of sadness and tears, we will experience joy and love. Allow the presence of God to engulf and heal us from our pain and sorrow. Serve Him, keep ourselves busy with work and ministry and soon we will discover and know that there are more things in life to come from the the grace and goodness of God. He is indeed our God and our salvation, our Rock and our Stronghold!