The first time I was brought before the judge, no one came with me. Everyone abandoned me. May it not be counted against them. (2 Timothy 4:16)Depression is a real thing. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Paul felt it keenly in this passage and felt that everybody had deserted him. I kind of doubt everybody did, but it certainly is the way Paul felt.
Several people in the Bible suffered from bouts of depression. Paul was one. He spent an awful lot of time either recuperating from being beaten or sitting in jail. He just got tired of it.
Elijah also suffered from depression in a big way. At one point, he even felt that he was the only one left to serve God, that the entire nation was gone.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:4; God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Those who realize the fact that people do not do what God wants and mourn over it are blessed.
In other words, Jesus said that those who were depressed over the fact that things were not as they should be were blessed.
Anybody that say that depression is not of God is full of beans.
Elijah was one who was depressed. He recognized that what was real and happening was not what God wanted. He even went so far as to say that he alone was left, the only person in the world that was still righteous. It wasn’t true, of course, but it was what he thought.
God said, nonsense. He said: Yet I will preserve 7,000 others in Israel who have never bowed down to Baal or kissed him! (1 Kings 19:18). Elijah, you are not alone.
God said your depression is for nothing, yet he did not condemn him for it. He recognized that everybody has low times.
There are times when you feel low. God does not expect you to stand around and shout glad tidings at all times. He knows that there are times that you mourn.
You know that things are not like you want them to be. Nor are they like God wants them to be. He knows that.
And he never condemned you for thinking otherwise. You are after all human. And you feel down at times. Rare is the person who doesn’t.
Anybody who tells you otherwise is not speaking from God. They are trying their best to tear you down and make you feel worse. And when you feel worse, you do not feel godly.
God knows you have problems and he accepts you anyway. Because after all he loves you.
No comments:
Post a Comment
To comment, post your comment and click the anonymous button. It would be nice if you signed it so I could know who you are.
You are welcome to say anything you want as long as it is nice. If I don't like it, or it is ugly, I will take it off, place it into the garbage disposal, grind it up, and allow it to be flushed into the Gulf of Mexico where it will be eaten by a fish and then excreted where it will lie on the bottom of the ocean until it is covered up by other comments.