As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go to the house of God under the protection of the Mighty One with shouts of joy and praise among the festive throng. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Perseverance asks the questions, “Today, how will I represent God? How will I trust him and follow him in obedience?” Then it asks for help from others, cries out to the Lord, and looks for an opportunity to love. It may seem feeble, but our confidence is in the God who is strong. The essence of persevering is trusting or obeying because of Jesus.
Christians can grow depressed
All of us are creatures of habit. And even though we may not especially like or appreciate every component that makes up the whole of our daily lives, we get accustomed to the regularity of the parts and parcels that compose it. Like many others, I’ve sat beside many an individual whom after walking through a major life change (both the positive, planned ones and the difficult, unexpected ones) find themselves unexpectedly mired in depression. Most of these dear folks don’t even understand why they are feeling as they do.
Finding hope and help in the Psalms
For my part, I remember enduring my own summer of depression after years of exhaustive caregiving; parenting our four teens, changing churches after a heartbreaking split; and then undergoing a major surgery and subsequently not sleeping for weeks on end. It was as though my body finally gave voice to its exhaustion and said, “Enough!” Adrift and untethered. Either shedding tears or feeling absolutely numb. It was an terrible, awful, dark season in my life.
Find comfort in the storytelling from the Psalms
Thankfully, I ran to my faithful and unchanging source – God. I recall sitting outside in the bright sunshine reading my bible, memorizing bible promises, and praying for God to heal my sadly weary, exhausted self. In time, he did heal me. But it was a long, arduous journey from which I learned life lessons I now treasure. I discovered anew the faithfulness of God in a greater way than ever before. While my emotions were admittedly an unpredictable mess at times, I found God alone to be my strength, my redeemer, and my hour by hour grace-giver.
God’s Word is always our steady anchor
I thank the good Lord (even today) that he surrounded me with good and godly friends who spoke truth into my fragile heart. As other suffering believers have discovered, we cannot count on our ever-changing emotions but we can count on our unchanging, always faithful God to provide us with the grace we need to face the day.
Spiritual RX – The Psalms
- As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Despite how depressed I feel today, I will discipline myself to spend time reading my bible, memorizing bible promises, and praying. By faith, I will lean more intentionally into the love of God no matter how extreme or powerful my emotions may be.
- By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life. Each day I will spend a few moments writing down specific ways I see the Lord demonstrating his love for me. I will also play praise music and concentrate on the lyrics that tell of God’s unchanging, always faithful character.
- Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. This week, I will find at least one person to serve. I will prayerfully ask the Lord to bring me opportunity to give of my time and talents to another and by faith I will trust the Lord to provide me with the strength I require to love and serve well.
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