Finding God In Your DepressionSample

Day 1

Introduction

It’s difficult for many people to admit that depression is their constant companion. Maybe you’re one of them and you’re constantly wondering, “How do I explain to anyone how I feel?” This persistent fatigue. The inability to focus on anything long enough to get good results. “Who can understand my feelings of guilt, unworthiness, hopelessness and anxiety?” Feelings that are all associated with depression and can last hours, days, weeks, months, years…

Depression is disturbing. It can sit on us like a heavy weight and steal the joy and peace we desire for our lives. Perhaps the mirror talk didn’t change anything. Neither did a new exercise regimen. Maybe you’ve managed to meditate, to relax … for a fleeting moment. You might have even gotten a pet to help fix your attention elsewhere. You feel you’ve done everything you’ve been told should help but nothing seems to be working.

The Bible may seem an unlikely source to turn to for answers, but there’s no mistaking the face of depression as a psalmist cries out to God in anguish or as Job laments the day of his birth. Amid their pain and suffering, they find hope in God. Their accounts and the encouraging words of others in Scripture can help you navigate the murky waters of depression. Over the next seven days I invite you to journey with me and find out what the Bible offers.

Pray

God, I’m struggling to put how I feel into words. Hear my cry for help.

Read

The speaker in today’s Scripture passage laments over his oppression. He lays bare feelings of anguish, sorrow and pain.

Psalm 42:5-8

Reflect

Imagine yourself on a boat in the middle of a storm, with waves crashing onto the boat, sweeping over you. How does this make you feel? That’s the kind of distress, sadness, even fear the psalmist felt as he lamented the loss of his homeland and the benefits that came with being there. But in his anguish, he cried out to God whom he believed would show “his constant love in the day” and provide “a song at night” (verse 8 GNT). Do you believe that God’s love is being extended to you, even in this ‘night’ (or dark season) of your life? Why or why not?

Respond

Ponder this thought based on today’s reading: “I can hope in God whose love is constant.” Ask God to help you believe this with all your heart.

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