Facing Discouragement And DepressionSample

Why are you disquieted?

“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, and from the heights of Hermon, from the Hill Mizar.” (see Psalm 42:5-6)

Maybe you’re like me...we often ask God a lot of “whys”...

• Why is this happening?
• Why this illness?
• Why this suffering?
• Why this trial?
• Why this loneliness?

I believe that these fully transparent, honest questions we ask God are legitimate. We’re suffering and want to know the reason why.

But often, God doesn’t give us all the answers, so we internalize our questions in the form of discouragement and dejection.

David himself wrote, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.” (see Psalm 43:5) 

When the soul is cast down and disquieted, this internal discouragement leads to external consequences: grievances and complaints like, “I’m not happy, my life is miserable, what good is living anyway?” But remember this: the problem doesn’t disappear when you complain. In fact, it just makes it grow worse.

Here’s a passage that I hope will encourage you as much as it encourages me: “I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. Then the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.” (Habakkuk 2:1-3)

God’s answer to your complaint is that His promises are sure! And if the promise is there, it will surely come. As a “A Miracle Every Day” reader named Sando wrote me, “I’ve stopped complaining because my God is in control.”

Thanks for existing!