Robin William's suicide devastated America. We will miss this talented and gifted man. His suicide has raised awareness, sparked conversation, and opened doors for others to make phone calls to help lines. Many of us have no idea how depression leads to such a place.
We do understand depression can be the result of a chemical imbalance. That alone is difficult to battle, but what happens when depression occurs from a direct result of our thought process, daily struggles, difficult battles in relationships, addictions, and so on?
Though not every person who struggles with depression is facing a spiritual
battle - and I'm not one who believes that every bad thing that happens to us
is from the devil - I do believe in spiritual attacks. How we battle them, or
not, impacts the outcome of our daily walk on this earth. For those of you who feel your depression might be a spiritual battle, below are a few things we can do when facing the darkness.
#1 - Keep Your Strength Up: The enemy attacks when we are weak. Like Ahithopel said to Absalom when trying to fight against David. “I would choose twelve thousand men and set out tonight in pursuit of David. I would attack him while he is weary and weak. (2 Samuel 17:1-3). The enemy understands where we are and will attack us in the midst of our weakness.
·
Make Sure You Have A Good
Support System in Place: It's
important to have friends cover you in prayer when you are struggling. In order
for those friends to take action, we must also be active in letting others know
how we're feeling. When depression takes over we often feel alone. Make
sure you keep a log of names and numbers of people you can turn to when you
start to feel discouraged and troubled. The problem occurs when we don’t reach
out right away. The key is to not allow yourself to fall too far down the
black hole before reaching out. Rather than feeling as if you can handle
it, can you reach out to someone when your depression starts?
·
Stay in God’s Word: We gain strength in our mind and soul when
we come to understand what the scriptures tell us. It’s difficult to battle the
enemy if we don’t understand how he might try to deceive us. Jesus battled the
enemy by speaking God’s word. The enemy will try to scar us and instill doubts
and darkness into our life. The only way to battle against that is to speak a
truth of what God’s word says. God says you are valuable, you do matter, you
are loved, you are good, and you do have people who care about you. The enemy
will have you believe those are lies. Battle the enemy with a truth.
#2 - Be Alert and of Sober Mind: Why? Because “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) It’s easy to let ourselves go – physically, emotionally, and yes spiritually. There are four areas of our life we need to keep working on to make sure we’re healthy: Relationships, Body, Spirit, and Mind. Unfortunately, many of us work really hard on one or two areas and forget about the rest. To conquer and master all four areas is a difficult task and something we cannot do alone. It takes God walking with us, the Holy Spirit pointing out those areas, and our “want to” to make it work.
But if we are to become alert and clearheaded (of sober mind), then we need to step back and look at the areas in our life that need our attention:
- Assess - Asses where you are.
- Action - It's not enough to say, "Hey I'm feeling really crummy right now" We need to take action - move - step - tell someone.
- Alleviate - Lighten your load by taking your medication, seeing a therapist, seeking pastoral counseling, joining a support group, getting involved in a Bible study, attending Celebrate Recovery (which is a great way to have accountability, support, and others facing the same issues as you), and so much more.
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