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!
