DEALING WITH DEPRESSION

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If you have appropriated your co-death and co-resurrection with Jesus, recognize the need for daily abiding.  The old patterns of your flesh, the stress of circumstances, and the distractions of the hectic pace of life militate against the contentment of the life hid with Christ in God.

What gets your attention gets you!  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  For to set the mind on the flesh is death [defeat and confusion], but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace [victory and clarity] Rom 8:5,6 (ESV).

Have you been stuck in sadness lately?  Take a heart exam:  Where have you placed your affections?  What channel have you been tuned in to? The law channel or the grace channel? (Rom. 6:14).

After checking on health issues (such as nutrition and rest), let the trial of depression finish its work (James 1:4) by leading you back to the Cross and the flow of Resurrection Life.  The Psalmist concluded, Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God (Psalm 45:11).

Some have fallen into the enemy’s deceptive solution—suicide.  Former GFI board member, John Stevens, has written a profound book on this theme titled, Suicide: An Illicit Lover.  The first chapters paint a stirring picture of the allure of this lover and the tragic consequences it leaves behind.  The second part of the book communicates how knowing Christ as Savior, Lord, and Life is the answer.  The death of co-crucifixion is the door to deliverance!