Talk About It

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Many believers want to live life on the peaks where everything is bright and sunny. They believe that if you follow Christ this is where life will be lived. They resist having anything to do with dark gray areas. They assume that when you are in sync with God’s will, everything goes perfect. 

Walking in the valley gives us the opportunity to wrestle with truths others take for granted. It test what we really believe. It helps us do away with some of our incorrect theology. 

When you wrestle with your beliefs in the darkness and your thinking is challenged, solid truth always emerges

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Depression can not and must not be a private matter…..

This incident of depression is different than all the others we have talked about. Those we learned what we could do to get over depression. Here the Bible doesn’t’ show us that Paul did anything to get over it. God, at His own initiative, acted to resolve Paul's depression. God saw where he was and responded in a supernatural way. He had purpose for Paul’s life, he had plans for him to share the gospel in Rome. He was not going to abandon him and neither will He abandon you. This is a factor, The God Factor, you must never forget if you struggle with depression

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Cast down is a shepherd’s term for sheep that has turned over on its back and can’t get up. The cast down sheep is immobilized and helpless if not rescued it will die. From this we can see why “Downcast” is a great term for depression. The sheep need the shepherd to lift him up, the Psalmist needed God. 

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Emotional reasoning plays a role in nearly all depressions. Because things feel so negative to the depressed person, he or she assumes they truly are. I feel abandoned by God, therefore I must be. I feel inadequate, therefore I must be a worthless person. I’m not in the mood to work, so I might as well stay in the bed. As you look at these statements you know they are not true. No one is ever abandoned by God. All people have worth in His eyes. The Bible says a lot about how and when to work, but it never says you need to be in the mood. Honoring God and being obedient breaks the power of emotional reasoning, it helps the depressed person walk out of darkness and into the light. When you are feeling abandoned by God remember (Heb 13:5). When you feel worthless do something for someone else. When you are not in the mood to work, do something anyway. Being obedient is taking action – action the God wants us to take. That action will challenge the conclusion we have from our emotional reasoning and give us the momentum in moving forward.

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When you are depressed over things that others think are petty it is hard to get beyond your depressed feelings, because you are reluctant to share what is bothering you. It seems right to you to be bothered, but you hesitate to talk about it. You are not interested in someone’s rational explanation of why you shouldn’t feel the way you do. You want to hold on to your pain, without logic applied to it. But not talking about what is bothering you stands in the way of your recovery. You rob yourself of getting it out in the open where is has no power and can be dealt with. Your unexpressed emotions hinder your ability to communicate with God

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Depression is the emotion that comes in the wake of hopelessness, failure, and unrealized dreams. Hope is always born out of pain and agony. 

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Have you ever listened to someone describe a great spiritual experience and think, Boy If something like that happened to me, I would never doubt God? Or have you felt goose bumps pop out on your arms as you hear someone talk about an unusual supernatural encounter? Did you find yourself saying “If I ever once experienced something like that, I would always be pumped about serving God”? Over the years I have learned that great spiritual experiences and supernatural encounters are not enough to sustain faith, they may even, at times, contribute to discouragement. That is what happened to Elijah. His great victory was not enough to keep him from being discouraged. In fact, it contributed to his depression........

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Hope and help in depression starts with taking responsibility

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Depression can make us feel desperate because it robs us of who we are. In This episode we explore the life of Hannah and see how God met her in her most depressed and desperate moment. 

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God is more interested in us knowing Him than us knowing why.

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