Depression is probably the most common complaint amongst people seeking emotional or spiritual help.
- We acknowledge there is such a thing as organically caused depression.
- We disagree with the notion that all depression stems from this, and thus that all depression can be chemically treated.
Depression is as old as the Bible itself, for in the book of Proverbs we have several Scriptures that both describe it, and seek to remedy it.
Proverbs describes the condition of the depressed a number of ways:
- A spirit that is broken. (15:13)
- A dryness of life (17:22)
- A sense of defeat and surrender to despair (18:14)
Proverbs defines depression as ‘hope deferred’ (13:12)
‘Deferred’= ‘drawn out, scattered, postponed’. Depression is essentially a loss of hope. It is sorrowing without hope.
Loss (many possible losses)
↓
Sorrow (2 Cor 7:10)
↓ or ↓
Without hope/
(I Thes 4:13)
Discouragement
With hope
(2 Cor 4:8)
↓↓
Depression (Job 7:6, 15-16)
Consolation
(I Sam 30:6, Heb 6:18-19)
The answer then lies in seeing our loss from God’s point of view, and making sure we follow the Biblical reaction for future losses.
1) What did you lose?
- Was it wrong to have in the first place?
- Had I become dependent upon it? (Jeremiah 2:13)
- Did God remove it to stimulate growth?
- Have I submitted to God’s sovereignty in removing it?
2) Have I used ‘substitutes’ for my loss? (Proverbs 25:20)
3) What am I hoping in? (Proverbs 10:28)
- Renew your Godward expectations (Proverbs 23:17-18)
- Renew your trust in His sovereignty (Proverbs 3:5-7; 20:24)
- Preach to yourself, don’t listen to yourself (Psalm 42)