Thursday, May 15, 2008

Yes, God CAN heal depression!!

9:42 AM by Christi Bowman

I have had to cope with A LOT this past week. I can think of THREE events that occurred, and they caused me a lot of pain and angst. Any one of them, had I chosen my path of least resistance, anger, could have derailed my faith and sent me into a depression. I know this because there have been MANY times in my life when I was determined to give my life to God, but at the first sign of problems, I took my life back and said "that's o.k. God I can handle this, and by the way HOW COULD YOU?". Through Christ, I am not allowing myself to stay angry at the people who hurt me anymore. I refuse to avoid pain, by staying angry at it. God doesn't promise a pain free life...I Corinthians 10:13 (msg)

No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he'll never let you be pushed past your limit; he'll always be there to help you come through it.

This is a TRUTH from God's word. Many people quote it, but do we believe it? If we did, we wouldn't give up so easily, and let the enemy lie to us. If we honestly subscribed to this, God would be the very reason we could get up in the morning and fight...fight the deceiver, and find REAL contentment and happiness...no matter what.

He doesn't promise a trial free life, but He does promise abundant life...I Corinthians 10:24 (msg)

But the point is not to just get by. We want to live well, but our foremost efforts should be to help others live well.

When we get mad at and blame God for the pain and frustration that this fallen world has brought and continues to bring into our lives, instead of pressing into Him to walk us through it, we put God into a box. When we fight against God and rage at Him, or just sadly give up and quit living, we tell God that He doesn't know what he is doing. I Corinthians 10:14 (msg) says

So, my very dear friends, when you see people reducing God to something they can use or control, get out of their company as fast as you can.

The main reason we get angry with God, and get depressed, is because things aren't going our way, but I Corinthians 10:6 (msg) says:

We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way...

We must remember that it is not all about us as individuals. I have a friend who says "God doesn't want me to live this way". I look at her situation right now, and I believe that she is absolutely right. My friend is facing a pretty bad state of affairs. God promises her abundant life, but the life she is living at the moment is anything but full of abundance. What does this mean? Is it God's desire that she live like this? No! Does that mean that it's His fault that she does? No! Should she be mad at God for her present situation? No! She should be mad at the father of ALL lies. She should be angry, but she should direct her anger at the right place. She should claim the truths of God, and believe them with all her heart. That should be her reason to get up in the morning. She should get up fighting and praying against the evil that holds her captive, and God, will deliver her. I believe this because He delivered me. I can't say how he will deliver her, but if she seeks Him, and clings to Him, He will...because He is the God of truth, and He says He will. If we use our life circumstance as a reason to give up and not fight, if we turn our backs on God as we rage at Him, what hope do we have? I Corinthians 10:18

We don't reduce Christ to what we are; he raises us to what he is.

God won't be reduced to our painfully human idea of who we think He is. He won't allow us to put him in our boxes of expectation. He is who He says He is, and He wants to raise us up to who He is. Why do we fight against Him like we do? We fight against who He wants us to be because we have become numb. We buy into what this world has to offer, and we wonder, once we have pursued our idols, where God is at. But I Cor 10:20-22 (msg) is very clear:

...what's the idol but a nothing? Or worse than nothing, a minus, a demon! I don't want you to become part of something that reduces you to less than yourself. And you can't have it both ways, banqueting with the Master one day and slumming with demons the next. Besides, the Master won't put up with it. He wants us, all or nothing. Do you think you can get off with anything less?

This is harsh language, but anything you put above God, and His will, is an idol, and an idol is a demon. You can't hope to understand what God is doing in your life, or the lives of those you love as long as you put this world, and what it says you deserve, first. It is not about our short life span here on this planet...it is about God, and His Kingdom. THAT is why we are here. I Cor 10:9 (msg)

We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him

He wants to make our lives meaningful and abundant, but He can't as long as we have one toe in this world. What we don't realize is the pursuit of those things, whatever they are, are the source of our misery. We must pursue Him,with all of our heart, and He will give us the desires of our heart. Know this though, when we are honestly pursuing Him, the desires of our heart will change.

0 comments - Permalink -