Over the years I have met believers in Christ who have gone through times of deep depression. Are you in such a time right now? It is not a sin to go through times like that. Perhaps you need to hear that and allow yourself to put aside the biblical and intellectual ignorance of those who have added to your pain by suggesting. Perhaps allowing yourself to dismiss their comments as ignorance may help you to also gradually put aside their insensitivity and lack of compassion toward you. Ultimately those who speak in such terms are to be pitied for their lack of true heart knowledge of the surpassing wonder and beauty of Christ and His tenderness towards human fragility. Not all fragility is sin. Jesus was not sinning when He said He was so sorrowful He could have died right there and then. He still retains “a fellow feeling for our pains” as an old hymn puts it and “still remembers in the skies His tears and agonies and cries.“
I read these words from Psalm 143 today. They record the prayer of someone who felt depressed, who felt their spirit within them was failing. It can be difficult to know how to pray at such times. Why not let the psalmist help you? I am sure that he wrote these words to help others as well as to worship God. Use them. Is everything he asks for legitimate for a Christian to ask for? To be honest I am not completely sure. But the words are real whatever else they may be and that means a lot to the God who hears and answers prayer. We can trust Him to hear and answer rightly.
Come quickly, Lord, and answer me,
for my depression deepens (my spirit fails).
Don’t hide your face from me,
or I will die.
Let me hear of your steadfast love each morning,
for I am trusting you.
Show me where to walk,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Rescue me from my enemies, Lord;
I have fled to you for refuge.
Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God.
May your good Spirit lead me forward
on a level path.
For the glory of your name, O Lord, preserve my life.
Because of your faithfulness, bring me out of this distress.
In your unfailing love, silence all my enemies
and destroy all my foes,
for I am your servant.
God bless
Kenny
revkennyblog 
That’s beautiful Kenny, thank you. My pastor recently preached that depression is no t an illness but caused by your own negative thoughts. Makes you feel guilty for feeling so unwell. Only people who have never experienced it could say that. When I challenged my pastor and backed my opinion with medical evidence, he quoted scripture back to me that confirmed, it was indeed my own doing. We also have a Christian psychotherapist in church who also says it’s your own negative thoughts that cause depression. I can’t explain how it feels when you know depression is setting in, but no amount of positivity can stop it or helps it. It happens in spite of my best efforts To hold on to Him. X
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Glad this helped you Anne!
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Glad it helped Anne! God Bless. I think depression is much more to do with a past that you know you cant go back to but a future you are not yet in. It is actually a sign of courage that you are making a journey. Keep going by the grace of God. He loves you and is for you. K x
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The Psalms are so helpful, so honest, so relevant to our many struggles.
When I prayed the last verses of Psalm 139 in 1986, a well suppressed memory of being molested was suddenly a fully conscious one.
It explained the episodes of depression I had battled for so many years. However, the reality of recall meant an iron curtain of depression dropped between me and God, and all I could still read of the Bible was Psalms and Proverbs.
Then, after I received inner healing and deliverance ministry, I began to realise that positive thinking in agreement with scripture was a strategy to keep the depression disarmed.
‘Take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ’ means becoming aware of the thought patterns that form a stronghold for keeping us prisoner.
So I developed a strategy: ask the Lord to make me aware of negative reactions in the form of thought patterns; give these to Him; give pain of all kinds to Him and claim healing from wounds; declare that past wounds will not affect the present or the future, in Jesus’ name; claim His protection.
Build oneself up by searching out scriptures that really speak to you around the issues you are fighting.
Agree with God and do not allow emotions to impose a rule over you that is not in agreement with our identity in Christ: forgiven, healed, precious, cherished, never forsaken or misunderstood, always accepted, never condemned, never rejected.
Do not allow joy to be stolen. Remember we are in a spiritual battle but we can stand since God strengthens us and He had already won.
Depression is an illness. Negative thinking can bring depression but it also feeds it if there are deep wounds in your soul.
That is why I pray the Lord’s thoughts, His ways, His will, His direction, His guidance and wisdom, not mine.
I fail often but am not giving up! He will always be my only strong tower, refuge, refreshment, courage, truth and strength.
Praying for all who suffer any kind of mental illness or PTSD.
God loves you. You are forgiven.
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