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Showing posts with label feelings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feelings. Show all posts

13 November, 2014

Depression Is Not a Weakness; It's Because You Are Too Strong!

Oswald Chambers said:


“We should battle through our moods, feelings, and emotions into absolute devotion to the Lord Jesus. We must break out of our own little world of experience into abandoned devotion to Him.”

There is a secular quote that I noticed even Christians out there are finding comfort in saying, it is something like – “depression is not a weakness; it’s because you are too strong.” For a Christian, this quote is pure incoherence on a spiritual level.

The quote comes from a secular book filled with words to comfort the unbelievers who know nothing about Christ. Listen, because we are Christians does not mean we will not experience depression. On the contrary, depression will be all around us and we will be constantly tempted to give into it. But, before you get yourself sedated with chemicals you need to go to Him first. After all, He is our healer, our comforter and our deliverer. Most great Christians who know God intimately will tell you how easy it is to be depressed in our service to Him. In fact, several of our forefathers have been there. People like Paul, and David have gone through it too, but, they always strengthen themselves in the Lord.

Because I have gone through depression when I was a Christian with “religion and traditions” instead of having Christ as my life and light. Today, as a genuine Christian I also have to deal with my moods regularly so that I can remain totally devoted to Him in abandonment, so, I know both sides. The best pills I needed for the first kind of depression, was to get out of myself and my own world in my mind and my heart and start centering my life on Him. I needed to look to Jesus as my savior and the master of my life. In short, I needed to lose my life so that I could find it. The second kind of depression comes to us as genuine Christians and we have to fight our moods because of lack of concentration on Him to remain strong, alive and powerful in Him. There are many reasons that lead us to a place where we have to constantly deal with our moods. For me, it is almost something that I would call impatience, because God has me on a waiting mode for so many years, and it is hard to cope with the daily life while waiting patiently for Him. 

I can tell you, the secular quote I mentioned above, is wrong on all sides. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good quote for unbelievers. It gives them excuses, something to hang onto for comfort and something to believe in.  But, as Christians if you are too strong to the point it causes you to be depressed, chances are “doctrines is an end in itself for you,” God cannot make a dent in you and you are living in disobedience where the Holy Spirit has been quenched. I do not mean to hurt your feelings, but in His agape love, I want to get you thinking twice about your view of the kind of Christian life you made the choice to embrace.

 I am proud in the Lord to say, in this world I appear to be weak. Not because I am a weak person, but because I am able to love others who do not deserve it. I am able to live a humble life where some think that I am afraid of them, but really when dealing with them, I exercise godly humility. Some think I am weak because I do not go suing people to make money, instead I follow the word of God, knowing that vengeance is His alone. I have a whole list of reasons why people find me weak. Yet I know I am amongst the strongest Christians you will ever know in the twenty first century, because genuine Christians, living in complete abandonment to Christ, will always appear weak and unless you too have been there with Him, you will not recognize my strength in Him.

Please do not go off your meds and say that M.J said you did not need them. Especially if your intent is to remain the master of your life instead of keeping your gaze on the crucified Christ, while going forward to find life in Him as your living water. I mean by that, going beyond word and apply it to your life through faith, grace and the Holy Spirit as the changing agent. I also mean by that, taking the responsibility for what you believe in and what enters your mind.


PRAYER: Lord, help me to forsake all that cause my heart to wander away from you. Help me to accept the pain and inconvenience to serve you, my living God. Teach me how to be so desperate for you that I would become incurable. Make me one of your remnant and keep me there, broken and humble at your feet. I Love you my Lord and Savior!


Here is a link of Oswald Chambers devotional for today.


More Reading on discouragement and self-pity by Arthur Pink

Oswald Chambers