Feeling Better: Devotions From Time of GraceSample

My Mind: I feel so depressed

Everybody feels down now and then. Everybody gets the blues. But that's not depression. Depression is a daily prison of self-hatred, a life with long stretches of wretched darkness.

The darkest place of all for a Christian is to fear that it was God who sent the misery. Has God now become my enemy? How could I possibly ever succeed in my life if the Power behind everything is against me? Have you ever thought something like this: "You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths" (Psalm 88:6)?

People cannot be argued out of depression. They cannot be shamed, scolded, or tricked out of it. The light in your darkest places must come from the cross of Christ. Since God punished him for all of your sins, then there is no wrath left for you. If God did not spare his Son to win you back, then you must be valuable indeed.

"If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness" (Psalm 130:3,4). If I have forgiveness, I have hope. God is working for me. Tomorrow will be better.