What do Moses, Elijah, David, Solomon, and Paul have in common? Besides having powerful experiences in God’s presence, they all went through times of depression. Know that you’re not alone, even if it feels that way.
There are different sources for depression—some spiritual and emotional, some chemical and genetic, some environmental and experiential. This may not address them all, but I felt led to write that you’re allowed to question whether these feelings are really yours. Sometimes what you’re feeling isn’t from you. When we don’t consciously recognize our identity outside of what’s swirling around us, we can end up agreeing with the dominant influences as if they were our own thoughts. If there’s stress and fear around you, it can be easy to agree with the lie that they’re your stress and fear, and carry them as your own, even going so far as to think it’s God’s will for you. Those burdens will eventually overwrite your identity and worldview, and can even alter your brain chemistry.
God’s presence—His love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, wisdom, grace, energy, confidence, creativity—is always the most dominant influence when you learn to be aware of and flow in it. More than just emotionally and spiritually defending yourself, you are created to be such a blessing that you transform the atmosphere wherever you go. No matter the source of the debilitating drain on your thoughts and feelings, learning to let yourself feel His presence is the first and best step to becoming whole.
Instead of trying to fix your own heart again—or giving in to medicating it—look for how God wants to love it. Look for who He wants to be for you in and through this. He knows who you are, what you’ve been going through, who you can become, and what you need to get there. If your heart and mind keep getting sucked into dwelling on what’s gone wrong, or stressing over everything else that could, then those fears get to write the story of your life. Don’t let outer voices become your inner narrative, or outer circumstances become your inner life. Let the “author and completer of your faith” begin His brilliant rewrite today.
“We were so burdened down beyond our own strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, it felt like we had received a death sentence. But that made us rely not on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:8–9).
“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!” (Psalm 43:5).
“Don’t you know that you are a sanctuary of God, and that the Spirit of God lives in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16).
“Since we have such a multitude of witnesses supporting us, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and completer of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1–2).
Equip Your Spirit 