The Dominance and Deceit of Depression - Part Two
“I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.” Psalm 38:8 (KJV, emphasis mine)
We live in a lost world which consists of broken people who contribute to the complexities and confusion that consequently create captivity. In light of this fact, consider with me a likely scenario.
You have made a series of deliberate decisions that have proven to be devastating to your vertical relationship with God and your horizontal relationships with your immediate family and close friends. As a result of your decisions you are experiencing what you believe is the discipline of God in the form of severe physical sickness, debilitating pain and loneliness as those who you perceive to be loyal have left you. To make matters worse, your enemies pounce while you are drowning in the deep and dark waters of despair, desiring to pummel and persecute you.
From our opening text we realize that David revealed what happened to his mind when he subjected it to depression. He said that he was numb and extremely crushed. He cried out in anguish loudly because of his restless mind or heart.
David made decisions to sin. The consequences of his decisions to sin and his illnesses as God’s judgment for this sin are the cause of his anguish and the substance of his grievances. His immediate situation of sickness and pain pointed him back to his sins and brought humility to a broken and hurting heart. He was also abandoned by his friends and persecuted by his enemies. Psalm 38 convincingly captures the depth and degree of David’s distress as well as the difficulty of his disasters.
I respectfully submit to you that we make decisions that can direct us down a path of severe difficulty. We also make decisions that will determine how we respond to challenging circumstances. The emotional encroachment that seeks to dominate you and deceive you in these situations is depression.
It is faith in a biblical framework that cements the position that the onset of depression is incurred by sinful decisions. Subsequently, the Bible denotes individual ownership for obeying an influence that supplants the Holy Spirit’s rule in our minds.
Scripture states that sin has affected all of creation which includes our being and mind.
“For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Romans 8:20-22 (MEV, emphasis mine)
By way of review consider with me again the term “mind”.
MIND: 1. Memory; 2. The part of the individual that feels perceives, thinks, wills, and especially reasons; 3. Intention and desire; 4. Normal, mental condition; 5. Opinion, view; 6. Mood; 7. Intellectual ability, view.
According to the Scripture, all of the seven aforementioned components that define the mind are damaged by sin. The disease concept, which is the conventional approach to address depression utilized by secular mental health professionals and well-meaning Pastors, spiritual counselors and many professing Christians, rescinds individual responsibility.
For the believer, God’s Word is to be the believer’s unadulterated authority, not conventional wisdom.
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (KJV, emphasis mine)
What does Scripture say?
“Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.” Psalm 119:133 (KJV)
“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:5-7 (KJV)
“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Romans 8:12-13 (KJV)
“This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Galatians 5:16-17 (KJV)
So from Scripture we can deduce that apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, all of our thinking leads ultimately to uselessness. However, when the Spirit changes our minds, we are enabled to think as God would have us think.
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” Ephesians 4:17-19 (KJV)
Have you opened the door for depression to dominate you and deceive you? Or have you submitted your mind to the power and influence of the Holy Spirit?
Join me again next week as we examine the different types of minds that depression desires and detests.
For the Glory of God,
PBKSR