Fighting spiritual depression
Are you discouraged? Do you feel down and out? Do you wonder why you should bother continuing to live the Christian life, especially since you seem like such a failure?
Who has not felt useless at some time? Who has not become impatient with himself and sickened by his lack of spiritual progress? (Luke 8:15). YOU’RE NOT ALONE! We all pass through those valleys of the shadow of death. But take heart: the path must open again soon! “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you troubled within me? Wait on God, for I have yet to praise him, who is the salvation of my countenance and my God” (Ps. 42:11).
Who would encourage you to quit smoking? Would Christ want you to surrender? The one who DIED for you? Would God pressure you to give up? Too many have never realized the vicious beast and the enemy that we must face. Even those who have not dismissed the devil as a superstition have not understood how dangerous he really is to our health and well-being. God picks up the pieces of lives that have been savagely torn and torn apart and left for dead by sin (Isaiah 49:24-25; Amos 3:12).
Satan foams at the mouth against our incredible human potential and wants to take us out like a sniper, one at a time. He hates all mankind with jealousy and anger (because we are created according to the divine kind), but he especially targets the brothers (1 Peter 5:8-11).
The Devil can take some things that are true about you and twist them, take them out of context, and blow them out of proportion to DESTROY your will to survive. He never stops talking bad about us because he is a KILLER OF KILLER CHARACTER AND LIAR! (John 8:44; Revelation 12:10). Goal do not let the powers of darkness overcome your will to live in the light. Do not accept the depressed mind of Satan. Don’t fall prey to his desperately defeated attitude. He has no right to condemn (Rom. 8:1,33).
King David was discouraged, but he ended his prayers on a positive note, showing the healing effect of the Spirit of God on our minds as we pray from the heart. “He had pretended, unless there was believed to see the goodness of Jehovah in the land of the living. Wait on Jehovah; take courage, and he will strengthen your heart; he hopes, I say, in Jehovah” (Ps. 27:13-14). David believed in God’s goodness, expected mercy from him, and expected grace from him sufficient from him, whether it be grace to forgive or to bestow power (2 Corinthians 12:9).
God will give us the grace to bear the many burdens of life (Hebrews 4:16). His Holy Spirit allows us to be gracious, full of grace, even in adverse circumstances. Us Live and learn through a variety of situations to be graced in word and deed, attitude and action. David knew beyond any shadow of a doubt that: “The Lord will give strength to his people: the Lord will bless his people with strength” (Ps. 29:11). So “Be of good cheer, and he will strengthen your hearts, all you who hope in the Lord” (Ps. 31:24).
Even if you have gotten carried away, your sins have alienated you from God and Satan is holding you captive (2 Timothy 2:26; 1 Corinthians 5:5), remember God and He will remember you. Not that he has ever forgotten you: “But Zion said, The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her suckling, so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb? I forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have carved you in the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me” (Isaiah 49:14-16). God’s love for us goes far beyond our love for Him. He proved this when stakes were pierced through the palms of Jesus’ hands (Zechariah 13 :6).
Some have been foolishly deceived by sin and carelessly entangled again, caught in a danger zone, but as long as they don’t give up, they CAN overcome what has currently overcome them (Hebrews 3:13; 2 Peter 2). :twenty). Only those who have turned their backs completely on God, who refuses to get up when he is knocked down in the ring, will lose the victory.
“And yet in spite of all this (in spite of us), when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them off, nor will I abominate them, to destroy them utterly, and break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God” (Lev. 26:44).
God promises to loosen, gather, and restore. He will free us from those sins that have cruelly monopolized our time and attention, he will recover our spiritual senses, since Satan’s psychological warfare has left us in a quagmire and clueless (Luke 22:31-32; Deuteronomy 28: 66-67) — and restore us to sanity and a right relationship with Him (where we belong), including “If any of you are cast out to the lowest heavens, the Lord your God will gather you from there and take you from there” (Deut 30:3-4) No matter how far you have strayed, God has not lost sight of you.”Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (Ps. 139:7).
If you start crying out to God for help, even if it is just a moan because you are so weak, He will see, hear and answer. “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the contrite in spirit…None of those who trust in him shall be desolate” (Ps. 34:18,22). “For I will not contend forever, nor will I be angry forever; for the spirit will faint before me, and the souls that I have made… I have seen his ways and will heal him: I will also guide him, and restore comfort to him and his mourners ” (Isaiah 57:15-18).
God sees what trouble we have gotten ourselves into and where our relapse into sin has deceived us and left us dangerously stranded, bringing us almost to the point of no return, but NOTHING can separate you from God’s love unless you allow it (Romans 8:35- 39). As long as there is a spark of the Spirit of God, God can renew our minds and transforms our lives (Ps. 51:10). God will finish what He has started in our lives (Philippians 1:6; Isaiah 66:9). Never forget that we worship a GOD WHO WORKS MIRACLES!
Remember that the prodigal son was still distant from his father, their relationship had grown apart, but when he “came to consciousness” and headed home, even while still a great far–“his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him” (Luke 15:17, 20).
God knows where you are and in which direction you are headed in your heart and mind, even if your actions have not yet caught up with your attitude! God knows they will, eventually. “For He remembers our form (makeup); He remembers that we are but dust” (Ps. 103:14). God wants to encourage us to change, not discourage us from trying (2 Corinthians 2:7).
Constructive criticism, not destructive. Judgment with mercy. God helps but Satan hinders progress, but we CONQUEST CONTINUING, one step at a time (1 Thessalonians 2:18; 2 Peter 3:18). God gave David the Kingdom, but he had to fight for it! So do we (Matt. 11:12; I Tim. 6:12). Otherwise we would take it for granted. Keep fighting (Luke 13:24). All the things you believe in are worth fighting for. Growth comes in stages. We must patiently let our trials run their course and create the character of God within us (Hebrews 12:11; James 1:4).
Satan wants to extinguish your light (I Tim. 4:16). He hates the holy embers of the Spirit of God, light and truth that we hold and represent, as royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9; John 17:17; Ex. 27:20). God does not kick us when we are down, but encourages us to RISE UP AND OVERCOME and continue his work (Ps. 37:24; Phil. 3:13). When your faith wavers and your confidence is shaky, Christ will not turn you off, but rather add more oil so that we can rise and shine (Isaiah 42:3). “For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to OBTAIN SALVATION…Therefore comfort one another, and build one another up, just as you are doing” (1 Thess. 5:9-11).
“Because God shows his love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us… For if, being enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life …by whom we have received atonement” (Rom. 8-11).
If God can express so much love for us when we weren’t even trying to lead a Christian life that pleased him, how much more so now that we are trying, however imperfectly? Do we not suffer because we hunger and thirst for justice? Brothers we appreciate your holy suffering! It is working on a PURPOSE in your life that will last for eternity! Growing pains hurt.
We should love God all the more when we glimpse his mercy and patience towards us. His goodness should prompt us to want to draw close to him and do what we can to show how much we appreciate his tender love (Rom. 2:4; Luke 7:47). Nothing should get in the way of our relationship with our Creator God! If God rescued our ancestors again and again, when they cried out to Him, how much more Will it save us from the lake of fire? (Jude 23, 24).
God can save us from sinful situations and restore us to His promise of the priesthood (Zechariah 3). We can be “a brand plucked out of the fire,” saved from the “furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10). God can forcefully remind us the hard way that He is what we really want, His Kingdom and His righteousness that fill us with fulfillment, not the superficial things that could not possibly fill the void in life (Ps. 106 :15;107:9).
we must keep higher in mind the meaning and purpose of life: to develop the holy and righteous character of God in joyful anticipation of the Kingdom of God. This will help us face all the challenges that life throws at us in this purification process that we call conversion. We must remember: “No temptation has seized you but that which is common [not unusual] to man: but GOD IS FAITHFUL, who will not allow you to be tempted above your level of tolerance; but he will provide with every temptation a way out, that you may overcome it” (1 Corinthians 10:13 paraphrased).
And realize “…that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the GLORY that will be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18) because Christ will return soon and every practicing Christian will be perfected. Then we will help our Savior prepare the way for our Father’s amazing arrival with the NEW JERUSALEM! (Rev. 21:3).
The Kingdom of God is closer every day, so we must raise our heads and not remain discouraged, but allow ourselves to ENCOURAGE ourselves to move forward (Isaiah 35:3; Luke 21:28). All stumble, but they do not wallow (Ps. 37:24). Let your attitude be; “I should No he dies, but lives, and proclaims the works of the LORD. Jehovah has punished me harshly, but he has not handed me over to death” (Ps. 118:17-18). Hallelujah!
God’s forgiveness and Christ’s cleansing power remain in force (Isa. 18). God knows what we have been through and has been through it with us, through it all, wearing his crown of thorns (Isaiah 63:9; Genesis 22:13; Exodus 3:2). God couldn’t get much closer (Jeremiah 23:23). The conclusion is: have expect and not despair; faith and not fear! After all, “…it has pleased your Father to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32).