Biblical Tools For Dealing With Sadness and Depression

all right welcome I'm gonna give you guys some biblical principles today to help deal with depression and sadness and I I don't want to overstate what I'm doing here but I do think this will actually give you practical tips to help you with the topic of depression or sadness you know basically when you're down when you're going through things and you're down one thing that can help with depression sadness before I get started though is having a pet cat who's made entirely of large amounts of hair this is Moxie there's the cat camp she's having a good old time today so I just wanted yeah she's a good cat anyhow here we go all right I want to just say first welcome I'm Mike winger a pastor and I do videos on theology and apologetics here online I spent a lot of time preparing and producing content to help people learn to think biblically about everything if that excites you learning what the what Christian truth is and then how to defend it as well then you probably want to subscribe and start following the content it's all three hundred percent free it's just there to bless and edify build you up lead you hopefully lead you to Christ and get you strong in Christ and so so yeah now I want to also offer a disclaimer for today I am NOT here to diagnose your depression and I do not think there is a one-size-fits-all issue when it comes to going and I might be talking about clinical depression or anything I'm not even interested in that to be honest you may have that you may not have that technically I'm certainly not in a place where I can even diagnose something like that and tell you what you've got rather I want to give you tools to help you if you're down that's what this video is all about I'm going to give you a set of tools you may perhaps there's some chemical imbalance well I wouldn't know and I wouldn't know what to do to fix it for you I'm not even commenting on that kind of stuff what I'm talking about is the fact that you still have choices and that it can it can affect you the decisions you make can impact your life in positive ways and it can help you as you deal with depression as you deal with sadness and times of sorrow prolong times of sorrow even this may give you some tools to help this will not be the fix this will be aid this will be hopefully help so hopefully you'll listen with that in mind hope I didn't miss some kind of important disclaimer that I should have offered there but I want to get right into it here today and then we'll go to your questions at the end of the stream and you can put your questions in the live chat right now just public a queue there little capital Q so that we know that that's a question and we can gather some of those we will only be able to gather a smattering of all the questions that come in because too many come in but we'll give you we'll get to as many as I can the first thing I want to say about depression and I'm gonna go to scripture because that's what this is about this is about thinking biblically about this topic and hopefully providing some hope and some help I want to look at psalm 42 and I'm looking at psalm 42 to tell you this you have choices to make even though you were not the one controlling how you feel you still have decisions to make and this is good good news because sometimes you feel like you're trapped you feel like there's nothing you can do about it well you still have choices psalm 42 let me share with you and by the way The Book of Psalms is like your book if you're processing through the hardship of life and you want to know how to bring that to God in prayer The Book of Psalms is your blueprint and it is more gritty but also more helpful than most people realize and we're gonna get into some of that tonight so here's what it says in psalm 42 it says to the chief musician a contemplation of the sons of korah as the deer pants for the water Brooks so pants my soul for you O God my soul thirsts for God for the Living God when shall I come and appear before God my tears have been my food day and night while they continually say to me where is your God can you feel the despair in psalm 42 in the psalmist right you feel the despair that's going on here now verse 4 goes on said he says when I remember these things I pour out my soul within me for I used to go with the multitude I went with them to the house of God with the voice of joy and praise with a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast he's like the the good days are gone life is not good right now it's hard and then verse 5 it blows my mind because we identify in principle with the things he's going through there because we're humans too but in verse 5 he says why are you cast down O my soul and why are you disquieted within me hope in God for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance this is to me clearly do not miss this please don't miss this this is balm and this is help for hard times there's a conversation the psalmist has first with God he talks to God then he stops and talks to himself and he asks his soul a question as though he's standing up separate from himself looking at himself and he's like why are you so cast down now he knows why he's cast down he has plenty of good reasons to be cast down but he's gonna confront himself and then he gives himself a command so you are gonna hope in God you are yet that means still in this situation in this dark dark difficult time you are still gonna praise God this is a self command and a choice and here's my point you have choices as the psalmist did why are you disquieted hope in God for I shall yet praise him I think that this is like a stern power of the will decision to choose to trust God and to express that hope in God with acts of worship and I think worship is one of the things in our Arsenal that we can have over going through really hard times a worshiping God by faith not by feeling because the feelings not even there but simply choosing to trust God and to praise God in the middle of those hard times is a good choice you can make when you're in the middle of depression this is one of the tools that I think we need to have in our tool set of dealing with hard times as he goes on in verse 6 Oh God oh my God my soul is cast down within me therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan and from the heights of Hermon from the hill Mazar I will remember you life is bad so I will remember God situations are terrible so I will reflect on the character and the goodness and the person of God so in other words theology will be something he's gonna doesn't mean it's a perfect rescue I'm gonna feel perfectly fine now that's and that's we can't have that kind of two dimensional look on these things but rather we're looking at a direction of help right theology this is this is this is one of the things we need the truth about who God is that we can hold on to and we can meditate on we can remember or call to our minds god you are good god you are holy God you are just God you are in control you are sovereign and you were a God who cares about me these are profound deep truths that you sort of have to choose choose to trust while you're in those dark hard times again it won't just make you feel perfectly better I'll come back to feeling better in a minute but it's a good choice to make in the middle of depressing times it's a choice you can make and the examples here in the Psalms he goes on I'll just read straight through he says yeah deep calls unto deep of the noise of your waterfalls all your waves and billows have gone over me worship songs constantly use this phrase deep your deep calls to deep though it's like the depth of the heart of God calling to the depth of the heart of man I think more accurately what this verse is actually talking about is trials that one wave of trial comes and another wave of trial comes and I think that that's actually what it probably is talking about do I understand what worship songs are getting out when they say that but then he says in verse eight Oh Lord the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the daytime and in the night his song shall be with me a prayer to the God of my life his loving-kindness in the day at night his song will be with me this like sort of the song of God is with me in the middle of the night it's a prayer to the God of my life that's the I don't think any Bible study will exhaust that of its deep meaning I just encourage you to soak up verse eight I will say to God my rock why have you forgotten me why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy as with a breaking of my bones my enemies reproach me while they say to me all day long where is your God then he says again to his soul a second time why are you cast down O my soul and why are you disquieted within me hope in God he's telling himself to hope in God for I shall yet praise Him the help of the help of my countenance and my god the point here you have choices even though you're feeling depressed and you may not you may not feel like you have choices I'm think that you still do they're not easy and they're not quick fixes but there are choices and there are good choices to make at those times when you're feeling really down and that's signal again there is there are some who think well you know they think basically I have depression and are I'm really sad and I'm not again I'm not talking about clinical I'm just talking about people who were down they're just really down and they feel like they're there they're there feelings of down this are sort of unrelated to anything that happens in life and no matter what they do they'll still be at the same level of being down and that there there may be an element of truth to that there may be something something sitting upon you that won't budge but that doesn't mean that there can't be any variation in it and I think you know that there can be as well and so I'm gonna say it's not healthy for us to think no matter what I do I'll still feel the same way because then we give up on even trying and so I remember going to the doctor one time and I had chronic indigestion for years and I got to the point where I felt this way I thought you know it doesn't matter what I eat I'm gonna have indigestion no matter what and you know that wasn't really true but I did I honestly thought about it thought it at the time and one time I talked to a doctor and he didn't without me even saying it he goes some people just think they'll have an ejection no matter what like it doesn't matter if they if they eat spicy food right before bed that's not gonna affect them of course it'll affect them you know they might be indigestion prone but some things will still make it worse and that was you know my situation I still had to recognize maybe I'm prone to it but some things make it worse and so you need to be aware that there are ways you can affect yourself through the decisions that you're making and that's all you can control and all you can focus on is what you can actually control since you can't control your proclivities you can just control your environment to some extent and your actions and your thoughts to some extent so let's look at four of Philippians 4:6 where I think the scripture talks about our thought life processing thoughts processing ideas and I I I've been praying you know that this this video will help you I want to let you know you know don't consider this like again like a one-size-fits-all thing but rather think thank you of the video like this as you're watching are there any tools I can get out of what Mike is saying that will help me I don't care if you think some of this stuff I say is wrong or it doesn't help you then just set it aside just be like me spit that out Mike that part didn't help me at all I just want you to consider this a resource gather whatever you can from this video any piece of it that might help you and let that bless you and help you that's that's my heart that's my goal here I'm not trying to act like I'm the arbiter of truth when it comes to sorrow because I'm certainly not don't have all the answers but I think there may be some help I can point to in the Word of God for your situation so Philippians 4 verse 6 it says be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God now this verse be anxious for nothing I think that we're probably misunderstanding it if we think it means y'all can never have anxiety like if you're Christian you simply won't have any anxiety that's not true nor is it true that you can simply flip a switch and turn anxiety off I don't think that's what it means by being shizz for nothing but I do think it means don't just plain-old be anxious don't just sit there and be anxious rather there are some steps to take when you feel anxiety and that that's where I would go with this passage when you feel anxious that is a trigger to tell you to do what is in Philippians 4 verse 6 and in the following so when you're feeling anxious right what you should do is by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God that prayer needs to be a part of your experience of dealing with with anxiety or sadness or depression prayer needs to be involved here prayer again prayer is not like a quick fix and if you think of it as a quick fix you will be constantly disappointed with prayer to the point where you stop doing it because you wanted it to fix things when it was just a positive thing to do not a quick fix you need to keep it on that list of tools that you have so be anxious for nothing right but everything with prayer and supplication prayer and supplication so I'm gonna bring it to God I'm gonna talk to God about my issues and I'll talk a little more about this in a minute but I want to get this key phrase in here with thanks giving it's the only qualifier about prayer prayer and supplication asking God you know telling God about things prayer and asking God for things supplication I'm gonna tell God how it is and I'm gonna ask him for the things I'm hoping for for his help for him to big stuff all that kind of stuff I'll bring that to God but there's one qualifier you better be thankful why does Paul have to tell us why does the Holy Spirit inspire Paul that the instruction of prayer to the person who's anxious is don't forget to be thankful well I think that there's wisdom here because when I'm anxious the last thing I am is thankful it's just I mean I'm telling you from personal experience I'm just not as thankful when I'm feeling anxiety and when I try to be thankful I feel as though it fights against my anxiousness and as anxious as I am I don't want to be thankful and as thankful as I am I tend to be a little less anxious if not totally less at least somewhat seems to be some kind of correspondence they are my own practical life so be thankful this is essential that you stop and thank God so right now maybe you're feeling really down right now and if you're watching this video I would encourage you to pop like literally pause the video and just stop and get and just start thinking God thank God for anything you can think of for your salvation thank God for your your your just a forgiveness of your sins for the future you have in Christ for how God has helped you in the past for the hope that you have in the future for God's sovereignty over the world for him working things together for good for his word that is comforted you at times just start thinking God for anything you can be thankful be thankful for the fact that cheeseburgers taste really good you know just be thankful for anything you can think of pause the video and then come back and keep watching okay so let's just assume that you you wouldn't did that that this should be like a regular thing is your feeling anxiety give that list of anxieties to God but make sure to be thankful if you haven't been thankful you haven't you know fulfilled the the desire of the Holy Spirit for us here I actually think there's another scripture that really ties into this and you can try this as well this is like an actual practice you can do something can do with your time if you're feeling really full of anxiety and it's in Psalm 103 Psalm 103 can be kind of a tool in our tool set for dealing with anxiety let me let me read it and let's take it like it's actual instruction to us rather than just a memory of what someone did it says bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all his benefits now pause right now and remember the psalmist before he was commanding his soul you're gonna hope in god you're gonna praise god and the the context was whether you like it or not and that sort of choice to choose by faith to praise God which I think glorifies God very much I don't think it's a bad thing it's a good thing um well now he's like telling his soul again you're gonna bless the Lord O my soul you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna bless His Holy Name and in verse two he says and forget not all his benefits and that is huge this connects to Philippians right be thankful because yeah but don't forget his benefits don't forget the good things that come to you through God and then in in this psalm of David Psalm 103 it literally gives a list of the benefits of God and we can learn from this because we can make our own list either written down or just verbally in prayer you can start listing things you are thankful for so he gives a list God forgives all of our all of your iniquities is that not a big deal forgives all your iniquities he heals all your diseases and you might think Mike I still have diseases I'm not healed of yet but by the because of the Cross the healings been purchased already and there is a future time when you will receive your uncorrupted in corrupted incorruptible body first Corinthians 15 right and you're gonna be living for all eternity in the glory of God so in a sense God's already got the healing for you you just haven't stepped into it yet because it comes the ultimate final healing comes at the resurrection so this is a very real truth for you even though right now you may have a disease you can rejoice in this ultimate healing already bought at the cross verse 4 says he redeems your life from destruction he redeems you there's a Redemption so you can think of the cross and what he paid to bring you back and be thankful for Christ who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies you know what a beautiful phrase that God God loves me he crowns me with his loving-kindness and that's has said in the Hebrew it's God's faithful love we don't even have an English word to translate all the depth of the meaning of that Hebrew word the way it's used in the Old Testament God's faithful consistent long-suffering love towards us he crowns us with it Wow I anyway it is it is a beautiful thing and you remind yourself of these things and they it doesn't fix all your problems it helps though that's the point so he crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies tender mercies his not just mercy but tender mercy so and you could just go on and make your list and meditate on these things ponder these things who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles and it goes on he just keeps giving more reasons to praise God he executes righteousness and justice for the oppressed he makes his known his ways to Moses his acts to the children of Israel read Psalm 103 and and make a list and underline and think of all of the different things that are going on here after reading through and these different elements of reasons to thank God and praise God then he you know gives this exhortation in verse 20 blessed the Lord you his angels he tells the angels to praise God who excel in strength who do his word heeding the voice of his word bless the Lord all you as hosts you ministers of his who do his pleasure bless the Lord all his works in all places of his Dominion and then finally he concludes with the whole point of the psalm bless the Lord my soul my soul needs to bless god this song is someone in a sense talking themselves into praising God potentially during a very hard time and so I think it's a tool in your tool set Psalm 103 you can make your own list of reasons to bless God and praise God and the command your soul to do so worship is something that's done by faith it's not always something that's done by feeling and in fact it's frequently not done by feeling sometimes it's done in spite of feelings and it's a beautiful and glorious thing one of my mods is send me a text real quick mmm is my my microphone volume seems low I'm gonna turn it up some sorry if if you're listening to the audio that should help okay all right so I hope that helps increase the audio I'm yeah all right there we go we'll move forward okay back to the Philippians passage now I'm gonna give you guys other tips that are unrelated to this kind of stuff I'm gonna move through some very different kind of concepts but I want to start with the thought life and specifically how we handle it in prayer and in commanding ourselves to praise God and in Philippians not only do we get that be anxious but pray with don't be anxious pray with thankfulness but we also get the phrase in verse seven and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus God's peace passes understanding it guards your hearts and minds I love that phrase guard your hearts and minds it doesn't say that his peace means you won't feel any turmoil of any kind but rather hears you going through hardship and you and you you could go down into the depths but instead you have his peace guarding you so you don't go that low in fact sometimes I think of Christian joy as being like this um life is like a roller coaster going up and down sometimes I've had really high times things are fantastic and I'm just like life is so good feels like everything's right in the world really just a lot of good things are right in your life and and you have these high times but then other times you're very very low either because of specific events are going on or perhaps you don't even know why you're low right you're just low I feel like what Christian hope does is it puts a limiter on how low you can go that's how I feel like it operates in my life like like I go low but but I'm thinking boy if I didn't have hope in Christ I would go way lower and that's kind of the impact the feeling that I have like that my joy in the Lord isn't this ecstatic outward exuberant joy it's more like a limiter to how low my heart goes at hard times and I can imagine how what would happen if I didn't have this hope I have in Christ so his his peace guards your hearts and minds it's a guard to you it's a protection to you so you don't go certain places and that's that's the idea achieved with prayer and Thanksgiving then it goes on and tells us about our thought life more finally brethren whatever things are true whatever things are noble whatever things are just whatever things are pure whatever things are lovely whatever things are of good report if there is any virtue if there's anything praiseworthy meditate on these things here's what your thought life should be about you should be thinking about these things this is huge help to us when we're going through tough times we need to stop and ask ourselves what have I been thinking about typically when I have anxiety I'm thinking about what is uncertain what is fearful what is concerning to me and I'm not sure how dozen to never think about that stuff I don't know if I can ever completely stop thinking about those things but when I think about that stuff to the exclusion of positive things things that are true and Noble and just and good and kind a lovely and of good report when I when I'm not thinking of those things it creates it creates other problems okay I'm getting more feedback we were troubleshooting this buzz in my microphone so forgive the interruption and I'm told the mic buzzes back there's got to be some balance between how loud the mic is and how much it creates that buzz so we're working on it forgive me here I'm still trying to make this as professional as I can for you guys and anyway you get it so I've actually sat down and made a list and I've sat down with this section Philippians when I was feeling a great deal of anxiety and I a great deal of anxiety and I sat down and I made a list of things that are you know I wrote something that's Noble and I just thought of something that's Noble and I'm and I literally just stopped and thought about it for a few minutes to meditate on it then I thought of something that was just and meditated on it and something that was pure and I meditated on it something that was lovely and I meditated on it and so I just think of something in each of these categories for a few minutes each and that was like a nice stopgap for where my anxiety was at it helped me it was a tool in my toolbox it helped I drew it from Scripture and I found it to be something useful now some people talk about in prayer just give just giving it to God as it is like just giving it to God in your in your face kind of God and they talk about expressing even anger towards God and I and I do think that we should in prayer be very honest and open with God but I want to give us a little bit of caution and that is when you've got feelings of bitterness or anger and they may be directed towards God because you feel like God should fix or could fix things and make them better help in some way and you feel like he's not I want to say that this is um this is potentially dangerous so on one end you should express your genuine feelings towards God but on the other end you don't want to get in the flesh too to God that is not positive this isn't a healthy thing although I've heard lots of guys say that it is I personally disagree and I like to explain where there could be maybe a middle ground I don't just become tight-lipped and stop expressing my heart to God nor do I get in the flesh and express anger at God in an ungodly fashion I want to do what I see in the Book of Psalms so look at Psalm 13 I was like an example of what to do Psalm 13 it might start looking like he's expressing anger he says to the chief musician a psalm of David how long O Lord will you forget me forever how long will you hide your face from me how long shall I take counsel in my soul having sorrow in my heart daily how long will my enemy be exalted over me consider and hear me O Lord my God enlighten my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death lest my enemy say I prevailed against him lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved okay so now if I stop the psalm there it does look like he just vented at God or at least it could be construed that way and there is a sense of openness right where he's just expressing everything he feels to God there's kind of that sense but the Psalms not over yet and you'll see this consistently in the Psalms look at how it ends at the end of the psalm he says but I've trusted in your mercy my heart shall rejoice in your salvation I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me often the Psalms do this step one express the sorrow and hot and hardship of my heart step two make a firm choice to trust in the goodness of God don't forget step two if your prayer during anxiety forgets step two where you make a firm choice to trust in the goodness and sovereignty and help of God if you forget that step then you will you will not be okay is my prediction things are not gonna work out as well so always you know pour your heart out be completely open with God but make sure to have that firm choice to trust in God because that's the model in the Book of Psalms which I think is in so many ways my model for how I pray through hard times as my counsel to you I hope that it's helpful along with all this you know from psalm 42 philippians 4 to Psalm 103 Psalm 13 there's this concept that I want to encourage you with and this is the idea of evaluating your thoughts evaluating your thoughts see part of the prayer was the expression of just what's really going on in my heart and we get this in say Psalm 62 8 is actually one of my favorite verses it says trust in him at all times you people pour out your heart before him God is a refuge for us so this phrase poured out your heart before him I've meditated on this like what does it mean to pour my heart out before God and I think that that means part of my act of trusting is just giving God here's everything I'm going through here's all the hardship here's the complaints here's the the difficulty and I'm just gonna give it to God and so you should do that but I want to ask you don't be brutally honest with God be totally transparent with God and there is a big difference at least in my mind between these two things let me explain brutal honesty tends to focus on the brutal part total transparency tends to open you up to insecurities and sometimes I want to hide my insecurities with my anger but I think when you come in prayer to God you ought to come with your insecurities wide open and you have insecurities by the way as do i as does everybody we all in many ways have lots of insecurities at least most people average people do have a lot of plenty of insecurities and these are things to bring to God openly because anger can be a mask that holds us into a plate in a place of Pride and keeps us from being open about our insecurities and then we have a hard time evaluating ourselves or evaluating our situation because we're viewing it through the eyes of anger and bitterness instead of the eyes of clarity that we get through complete transparency so transparency in prayer but also transparency in your evaluation of yourself and this is where I'm gonna suggest something that I I don't know how much scripture I have to give you to support what I'm about to tell you I don't think there's any verses against it I just think I found it to be a useful thing and that is the very transparent self-evaluation of your thought life to stop when you feel anxious when you feel sad when you feel sorrowful and ask yourself why am I feeling this way and if you know this will help just a certain segment of the audience here when I feel anxiety it's not immediately transparent to me why I'm feeling it and so I have to stop sometimes and ask myself why am I feeling this way and and try to think what triggered it well okay well that event or this thing or I saw saw this or you know was thinking about this I've heard this news and then I have to ask myself why did that thing trigger my anxiety and as I start to really very honestly and transparently give get to the bottom to the root of what's causing these things it then informs my prayer life and I can ask how do I deal with this so I even wrote it out in at one point writing it out like what causes me anxiety just now on to think about this so I wrote out the things I thought caused me anxiety sometimes I would I would backspace out deleting go no no that wasn't it no I think it was more of this and I'd start to understand myself better but then beneath that cuz I had to write it out like a word document nobody thought I wrote it out okay well what's the right response to this and oftentimes there was no response that would fix the problem but there was a right posture to take as a Christian there was a right attitude to have you know there was some sort of positive attitude to have sometimes there were actions to take there were oh if I do this this will help address this issue so I would physically go do the thing or take care of it other times it was just an attitude of posture an attitude in prayer whatever it was and I would look for the solution and that personally I found that to help I found that to help there's something that also helps since and that is not just prayer but also worship and being in the presence of God this is what we get in Psalm 73 I don't have enough time in the stream to go over all of Psalm 73 I literally have a whole video on Psalm 73 and you're welcome to find that so I'm just gonna give you the quick synopsis of Psalm 73 Psalm 73 he's like God's good eye I'm telling you right now God's good but I almost failed I was I was like this close to backsliding I thought when I saw how wicked things were and how God wasn't fixing it I thought what's the point what's the point of trusting in God what's the point of all this and so he goes through his explanation of why he felt that way in the psalm and then when did it change when did it change it changed when well tell you how bad it was he goes when I thought how to understand this it was too painful for me he couldn't even think about how to reconcile his understanding of who God was with what was going on in the world around him and then in verse 17 he says until I went into the sanctuary of God then I understood their end he's speaking of the the wicked people prospering and doing wicked things and he's like then I saw their and I realized that God put them in Slippery places and it was when he went into the sanctuary of God meaning that this great revelation of truth came when he just went to worship God there's something spiritually renewing that happens as we worship God and just think about it do you think this guy felt like going into worship when he was feeling this way of course not he wasn't like boy I can't wait to worship he obviously went into the sanctuary of God as an act of simple spiritual obedience to God he's gonna keep in modern times we could say going to church kind of thing or drawing near to God is the idea anyway then he's got this great revelation he realizes what a dummy he was in the past that's kind of how it puts it and his conclusion at the very end is it is good for me to draw near to God I have put my trust in the Lord God that I made to clear all your works and his faith is restored his confidence is restored and a sense of peace is restored now of course that's like ideal scenario I don't know how often that exactly is going to happen but what I will say is that this gives us some tools in our tool chest gained a better perspective through worship prayer these are real things this isn't just you need to read the Bible and pray more I mean people rip on this counsel read the Bible and pray when actually it's good counsel as long as you don't you don't do it in a cheesy fashion right yes Myka agrees let's check the cat cam before I jump on to the next point huh so we have two cats there we go what is it you want to be on the microphone this is awkward you know they really just want food that's really what's going on here there we go all right so evaluate your thoughts be transparent not brutally honest be very transparent with yourself and with the Lord maybe write things down to have a better evaluation of your own self then you can try to think biblically about your situation think positively about it maybe be worshiping prayer reading the Bible is a good thing let's see I want to talk just briefly about Elijah you guys may be familiar with Elijah he long story short he's an example of someone who feels kind of depressed it seemed very depressed in the scriptures and one of the things we learned from his story is that he had an incorrect perception of what was going on around him he correctly saw that Israel was apostate he correctly saw that they were turning against him and that he had been rejected as a Messenger of God and this totally bummed him out he incorrectly thought that God seemingly had no plan for the future or that and he incorrectly thought that nobody else was serving God that it was it was doom and gloom yes it was but it wasn't as do me and gloomy as he thought it was because there were just things he didn't know and that was my point with Elijah is that sometimes we have we have we correctly see problems around us but we incorrectly think that that's all there is and so we fail to have a place of hope in our lives and Scripture helps us here because it gives us a more optimistic view of life I mean Christianity is optimistic at its core I used to be a realist by which I would say realist but what I really meant was pessimist but as I grew in Christ as I stayed the word more I became more of an optimist even in the face at least theoretically in the face of the worst possible situations to still have some sense of optimism because of the hope of eternity and because of God's ultimate use using everything that's going on so Romans 8:28 comes to mind here but as Christians we need to remember the future is better than the present and a hope is a future related term and hope is the thing connected to our joy that gets us through rough times so let me give you an example of this in the Psalms Psalm 31 Psalm 31 and I hope you'll stick with me because I have a couple tools I haven't even brought up yet they're very very important I'm just have to do things in order so I will get there hoping you're sticking around Psalm 31 says to the chief musician of Solomon David in you O Lord I put my trust let me never be ashamed deliver me in your righteousness bow down your ear to me bow down your ear to me deliver me speedily be my rock of Refuge a fortress of defense to save me for you are my rock in my fortress therefore for your name's sake lead me and guide me pull me out of the net which they've secretly laid for me for you're my strength into your hand I commit my spirit you have redeemed me O Lord God of truth notice how there's like this you've already redeemed me even though he's praying that he will do these things he's like God you are my rock and fortress you are my regime but will you help me the these types of things he says I've hated those who regard useless idols but I trust in the Lord I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy for you have considered my trouble you have known my soul in adversities and have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy you have set my feet in a wide place have mercy on me O Lord for I'm in trouble my eye wastes away with grief my eye wastes away with grief you can feel that the the pain and the suffering maybe you identify with it that he's going through maybe you can find some help in how he found help so yes my soul and my body from my life has spent with grief in my years with sighing my strength fails because of my iniquity and my bones waste away and I am a reproach among all my enemies but especially among my neighbor's I am repulsive and AM repulsive to my acquaintances those who see me outside flee from me I'm forgotten like a dead man out of mind I am like a broken vessel for I hear the slander of many fears on every side while they take counsel together against me they scheme to take away my life but as for me I trust in you O Lord I say you are my God my times are in your hand wow that is powerful can you say that can you say verse 14 and 15 as for me Lord I trust in you you're my God my times are in your hand deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me make your face shine upon your servant save me for your Mercy's sake do not let me be ashamed o Lord for I've called upon you let the wicked be ashamed let then be silent in the grave let the lying lips be put to silence which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous oh how great is your goodness which you've laid up for those who fear you which you've prepared for those who trust in you notice that the psalmist thinks there's this goodness laid up or stored up this delayed thing that's gonna happen and that's what he's hoping in it's a future hope right this is what you need a future hope which you've prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men you shall hide them in the secret place of your presence from the plots of many you shall keep them secretly in a pavilion from strife from the strife of tongues blessed be the Lord for he has shown his marvelous kindness in a strong City for I said in my haste I'm cut off from before your eyes this is so me and you right I feel like it's all over Lord and he's like I said this but it was hasty it was wrong I shouldn't had that attitude nevertheless you heard the voice of my supplications when I cried to you oh love the Lord all you his Saints for the Lord preserves preserves the faithful and fully repays the proud person be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart all you who what hope in the Lord again hope is about that future laid up thing so I think this song gives us an example of this the Psalms great to read through as a blueprint for praying through the hardships you're going through in your life the future is better than the present here's this another example for us there's another scripture that I'll point out in Romans 8:18 which says for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us not wait to hear this not as someone who's heard the Bible over and over again I want you to ask can you consider or believe the same thing that Paul is in Romans 8:18 that the sufferings of this present time as bad as they are there isn't even a comparison to the glory of what's coming I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us did you consider this and this is something you can talk about pray about affirm I don't care if you feel it I'm asking if you trust it and that's a beautiful thing to be able to say maybe I don't feel it Laurel but I do trust it and that is a huge help in those times some other things I'll mention are noticing the stuff that helps in hurts in your life just very practically very pragmatically notice the little things that lead or you know contribute to the depression or the little are the things that that maybe make it better and so for me when I was I don't have chronic indigestion anymore when I did it just went away somehow thank God but when I did I would notice that if I ate chili it would make it worse you know I mean that finally admitted it yeah okay some food is making it worse and all these cheeseburgers aren't probably such a great idea to have all the time so in the same sense with depression you may notice that I'm taking a walk outside might just actually help you sitting with a cup of tea and reading a book might might really help you you know just think try to find the things that that assist you this is just what wisdom right um but you might find that watching you binge watch certain shows and you walk away feeling very anxious well be aware of your humanity here and don't feed into the things that hurt you would feed into that which helps you certain music you might enjoy but you find it has a negative impact on your soul or your anxiety or your depression be very self aware of these things and of course try to stay away from that stuff there's a lot more stuff to talk about you know when you when you even talk about your your sadness or your depression with other people you could be reinforcing how you're gonna view it and so I would say even when you tell others about it you should follow that format of the Psalms to speak about the genuineness of the hardship but then butt in with the trust in God and genuinely and that will I think aid you because as you know how you speak affects the way you think also and here's here's some tips that I like never hear people give nowadays and I think they're really important how do I put this see the temptation in your depression see this imitation now I don't think being depressed is sin I don't think that you're in sin if you're feeling depressed however I think you are probably being tempted in association with the depression what I mean by this and I hope I hope I make this clear here I hope it makes sense is that you can feel depressed and then that can be utilized by your flesh or the enemy to try to increase your motivation to commit some kind of sin and that is a huge issue this is in fact where the battleground lies think about the book of Job right job goes to great suffering and the suffering he goes through is intended by Satan to get him to sin right Satan's goal wasn't caused job to suffer it was caused job to sin by causing him to suffer and so see in your temptation or see in your depression see where the temptation is and think to yourself I can't fix this thing I may not be able make it just go away but I can walk in positive ways I can live in faithful ways I can put on the truth of Scripture I can walk through the Psalms and in the way I pray and deal with this stuff but also take that step of saying I want to recognize where my depression makes me want to not be responsible not fulfill my duties I'm not gonna fulfill my work duties my marriage duties my Parenthood duties I'm gonna shirk on those responsibilities or I'm going to shirk on other responsibilities maybe I have in ministry or in my walk with God and this is where I think the spiritual battleground or depression comes down real hard don't let it make you sin because 1st Corinthians 10:13 right no temptations overtaken you except what's common to man but God is faithful he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able but with the temptation will provide you a way of escape that you may endure it and you need to endure it this is this is where the spiritual battle is it's not this isn't fun news but this is such wisdom find out where your depression tempts you to sin and let that be a serious about around in your life to not let that happen and then I have another one and um there's not too much more well I guess there's some more here to share with you a whole different subject here's a really hard question though that I think you should ask yourself as you're feeling sadness sorrow depression it's a tough question but I think it's an important question and I think nobody talks about it and that is ask yourself if your sin might be contributing to your depression now this is already really really slippery ground because some people will will just they'll be irrational about this and they'll just think everything everything I've ever done is coming down upon me God's judging me for what I've done in it and it's I don't want you to don't freak out I'm just please don't freak out like you've got to be calm about this you got to be rational about this I just know this that in my own life sin does lead to sadness and that seems like a natural thing in fact I have some scripture I'll share with you that seems to support this you don't think I'm making stuff up because I try to not make up too much stuff all right it's Psalm 31 verse 10 for my life is spent with grief and my ears was sighing my strength fails and then tells us why because of my iniquity and my bones waste away he's I think he's speaking not about physical things he's speaking about his his his sorrow and his sadness and the grief that's overcoming his life it's why he says it's because of my iniquity so at least in some cases sometimes was his it wasn't his sin at all in some Psalms it's totally just enemies coming against him sometimes he's like it's my sin man this is my sin that caused this here's another one psalm 32 would read verses 3 through 5 when I kept silent my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long for day and night your hand was heavy upon me my vitality was in turning to the drought of summer he kept silent about what his sin write because in verse 3 he says I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I have not hidden I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin so my counsel to you is this you have to stop and ask yourself the question is my sin contributing to my depression is this sorrow meant to be showing me that something's wrong in my in my obedience to Christ in my life this is an important question to ask and sometimes the answer is no and sometimes the answer is yes but look at what happens at the end of the same Psalm where he's like you know I kept silent I wouldn't confess I wouldn't deal with my sin issues guy oh but but then I did I opened my mouth and I'm forgiven but look at the end of the psalm verse 10 11 he says many sorrows sorrows shall be to the wicked but he who trusts in the Lord mercy shall surround him and therefore after saying you know he I was sorrowful because I was being wicked and then he turns the trust in God and call out for his mercy then he says in verse 11 be glad in the Lord and rejoice you righteous and shout for joy all you upright in heart those who are right with God because of they've dealt with repentance and they've come to the cross with whatever issues are going on they have an access to joy that is um that is there it doesn't mean you never have other reasons to have sorrow but it does mean that the sorrow of sin can be removed from your heart and life and that is hugely important let me give you another scripture that supports this it's 2nd Corinthians 7 this is like theology of depression we're tuned right here and I'm hoping that it's it's I just hope it really helps you guys it helps me 2nd Corinthians 7 9 says now I rejoice not that you were made sorry but that your sorrow led to repentance for you were made sorry in a godly manner for you might suffer that you might suffer loss from us in nothing for godly sorrow produces repentance and leads to salvation not to be regretted but the sorrow of the world produces death so he's talking to the Corinthians about his you know initial letter rebuking them and he's like hey you know I don't like that it made you sad but I'm glad that the sorrow you you experienced led you to a place of repentance there's a chance that sometimes at least your sorrow or your sadness or you're feeling down is just the result of living a lifestyle of sin and it's a natural consequence of sin like he's God says there'll be no peace to the wicked and you're feeling that lack of peace now here's my caveat because I don't want you to become paranoid nor do I want you to ignore your sin issues and those are the two possible errors we can fall into right and this it seems like a lot of us fall into either I feel like I'm always into sin about everything or I feel like I'm never in sin even when people show it and show it to me and pointed out and most of us need to you know whatever we are we need to move the other to become more balanced but it should be obvious this is my this is what how I want to help you out your sin should be obvious it's not like you go where's the sin in my life and I can't find it I don't know what it is it should be super obvious like as soon as you stop and reflect and you just ask God Lord search my heart know me Oh God you know search my inner thoughts look and see if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting like the scripture tells us when you pray this to God and you just you know what the sin is I don't know house to put it it should be very obvious to you and if you look at your life and you go Lord I honestly don't know of any sin then I want you to just trust that it's not there unless God reveals it to you however if it's an obvious thing and you have habitual laziness habitual pride issues unforgiveness uncontrolled lust you're a gossiper that's a serious sin issue by the way materialism has overtaken your life and you and you've obsessed about the fluff of things and not the substance of Christ if these things are going on in your life it's understandable that it leads to a place of sorrow and that should lead you to a place of repentance sometimes we feel down and we yield to sin to try to cope with how down we are you know the things we're using to cope whether it's drinking or whether it's binging on whatever the content is that you're binging on or you know shirking responsibilities or just becoming super irate and easy easily angered and you're getting the flesh a lot these are like your coping mechanisms perhaps for feeling down and I would say this is like scratching an itch it makes the itch worse right sometimes you get a bug bite you scratch it all I just got worse so I want to scratch it more oh it's worse I want to scratch it more and that's kind of what sin does you know I feel down so I sin to feel better but I end up feeling worse but it makes me just want to send more and then this cycle repeats you know this story you know what I'm talking about so I'd say do what's healthy and right don't do what makes you feel better do what's healthy and right and then hopefully you'll end up feeling better a couple other tips hopefully this is wisdom for you I heard a long time ago a pastor I greatly respect he told me when it comes to humans faith is where humans are like trains he said humans are like trains and trains have like the the engine car that's in the front of the Train and we have the caboose that's in the back of the Train and he says the engine cars like faith and the caboose is like feelings and oftentimes what happens is just like with a train when it turns a corner the engine car turns the corner long before the caboose turns the corner sometimes there's hundreds of cars in a train right in the same sense when the person chooses to trust God even in the middle of trials it is often a long time before that caboose turns the corner and they actually start feeling better as a result and that's something to keep in mind it's not a quick fix it's rather at choosing a faithful direction to follow Christ in but I want to mention something else and I think this is really important curing how you're feeling this this may feel like hard advice but I think it's good advice curing how you're feeling feeling better is not the top priority when one is feeling depressed if it is your top priority if it's your highest priority then your priorities are actually mixed up as far as Christianity is concerned because my top priority should be knowing and honoring God in my life not feeling better the minute feeling better becomes the highest priority I start making weird choices strange decisions because honoring God and glorifying him is no longer my chief concern it's feeling better so I'm I make unbalanced or unwise choices Jesus sometimes didn't feel very happy it seems in Scripture in fact in the Gospel of John he it's it said it's said of Christ that he had sorrow or grief more often than anybody else in the Gospel of John yet he had a joy that was set before him so he endured the cross despising the shame so I have a joy that set before me that doesn't mean that in this moment right now I'm always gonna feel great or that that's even the goal of things there's a couple little things I'll share with you guys I hope this stuff has been helpful and then I'm gonna go to your guys questions and one of the things I want to say is this and this is something that's really been hugely helpful for me even though sometimes the heart pills to swallow are the best pills to swallow you know and this is perhaps one of those as well this isn't a fluke this is part of God's plan for your sanctification this is at least my opinion I think that your struggles emotional struggles you know life struggles all this kind of stuff are all part of God's plan for your sanctification in Christ and here's help that I realize a lot of this helps some of it will help a non-believer some some won't and you really want the hope and help that there is in Christ you need to come to Christ so turn your heart to Christ man and please do and experience the hope that transcends any experience you're going through and that's really what you need in this life but I'll say this as part of your your sanctification and we get this from a passage let's go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 and look at how this applies to perhaps your struggles with sorrow and depression Paul talks about a thorn in his flesh am I saying the thorn was depression no no but the thorn whatever this is he's experiencing he learns a principle that applies to depression and we'll get to the principle so he says lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations a thorn in the flesh was given to me a messenger of Satan to buff at me lest I be exalted above measure concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me and he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in weakness you don't know what this means until you experience total weakness in your life where you are simply relying on God and you know what it means to rely on God when you don't have the resources and you don't have the security in and of yourself you don't have you can't pull from your own resources and you were just relying on God and you're like Lord it's gotta be you cuz it can't be me here and then you know what this means God's grace is sufficient for us his strength is made perfect in weakness whose weakness mine and yours your weakness is where God's strength is made perfect or complete so Paul's response is therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in needs in persecutions and may I highlight one word here in distress de-stresses in de-stresses that is when you are stressed that that's what he's saying when I am distressed I take pleasure in it not because he enjoys like some you know I enjoy being pain in pain or something but rather because of the end of the verse here for when I'm weak then I am strong when you're brought to nothing it forces you to rely even more upon God's power and strength and this is part of your sanctification and him being glorified in your life and this to me is tremendously helpful when I might feel sadness sorrow anxiety and I'm going I know what to do I know how to follow God in the scenario I still don't feel any better but I sure can rejoice in some sense that God's strength is being magnified in my weakness so Lord you're being glorified and any Christian is gonna take some sense of pleasure out of God being glorified I think it's quite natural because you happen to love God so yeah you've still got a ministry no matter what you're got going on in your life there's still a ministry for you and the ministry is everything you do whether it's your marriage your friends your free time in prayer your your example of trusting in God in the middle of hardship you know your testimony of just being a Christian there's a ministry for you Colossians 4:17 whatever you do do it under the Lord so even if you feel like you're disconnected you're you're useless you're pointless and all that's just not true and you need to trust in what scripture tells us right Colossians 4:17 whatever you do in word or deed do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father through him live for him choose what you believe even though you can't choose how you feel now I'm sure there's a lot more great advice I haven't given I just hope this some of this stuff helps you guys and these are some tools that benefit you and I do apologize for microphone issues we're still I spent like several hours troubleshooting that issue this week and apparently it's still something we're working on all right your questions number one a follower of Jesus has a question says Mike thank God for everything you help me with my question is how do I live out Colossians 3:17 is that actually I think that's funny because I think I gave the wrong yeah I gave the wrong chapter reference I said Clash's 4:17 that's wrong so I'm so glad you asked the question to correct my wrong chapter reference Colossians 3:17 I'll put it on your guy's screen I just quoted it to you a moment ago I know it I know what it says but not where it is apparently whatever you do in word or deed do all the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him I think that I think this kind of depends a little bit on what it is you're doing and so let me try to think of some examples let's say you go to work this is easy right you go to work and you're gonna work as unto the Lord okay so I'm gonna show up on time I'm gonna do a really good job even if no one's watching I'll have integrity and I'll work hard and I'll perform it even it's even better than I would normally because I'm doing it for the Lord I'm doing this as though I'm employed by God you know or you're an employer and you treat you treated as though you're employed on be on behalf of God you're employing these people so you honor them at great ways your marriage you do that for the Lord you walk but let's take it to a slightly different example um you're you're walking on the beach how do I do this in the Lord how do I do this do it in the name of the Lord okay well I do think it can apply to this and it's simply that I look at the beach and I enjoy the waves and I just recognize that God you get credit for that Lord I'm just grateful I doesn't even have to stop and pray out loud every time I'm looking at the ways there's just an awareness a cognizance I'm conscious of the idea that this is God's creation I'm enjoying so I'm not ignorant of him and I'm can be doing it in his name so really it's finding a way to say that I don't have ministry over here life over here no no I'm gonna take my whole life it's all ministry unto the Lord I wondered all of you ministry even for instance in your relaxing goofing off time you know I like what it says you know on to the Lord and keep the Sabbath holy the scripture says now we're not under the law but the principle keep it holy means like even in your chill time even in your relaxed time don't compromise into sin because that is often when it happens so that's how you could even chill and have fun and relax unto the Lord by you just keeping it pure ok next question there it is from Charlie eighty Charlie G 8100 Don okay hold on hold on hold on agent you got to stop sitting to him to me because it resets my my messenger and it moves away from where I'm reading okay Charlie eighty one says can we go to outside sources for treatment or is the word of God sufficient to deliver us from mental illness I I don't think that I would say the word of God sufficient to deliver you from mental illness I I do think it's sufficient to instruct you on how to honor God during mental illness but that's not the same thing as deliver you from mental illness there's I don't in principle I see nothing wrong in principle nothing wrong with someone going and trying medication that might help them with mental illness psych psychiatric help or psychologists help either whichever one it is I I'm completely okay with these things and I think we do good to be okay with that we realize this doesn't have to compete with Scripture this can just be you know one thing I didn't even mention today was finding a friend a preferably a godly friend who you can just tell everything that's going on and get counsel from I don't even mention that that's fantastic advice we could spend a whole thing talking about it but yes those of you who go outside scripture to sources for maybe an individual who's been trained to help people absolutely I think there's nothing wrong with that now it's possible I'll let me go back to my home screen it's possible that the people you're getting help from maybe they're not very good at helping or maybe they've been trained to think of you as a pure physical animistic being and as though you have no soul right you're just a brain it's all nature versus nurture there's no freewill there's no decisions and there's no like God in the picture and that may not be the best counselor for you you could still probably learn from person though that's it's not like everything they say would be wrong they're still probably be some areas where they're gonna have some wisdom for you so may God give you wisdom and all those things I just keep it wide open you know why not reach out for the help you whatever help you can get including talking to professional therapy that's fine I don't have a problem with that personally I I would look at least initially for believers to speak with because I want them to have that that world view scope where Christ is part of it now they know if they're professionally trained in helping people deal with these problems even better so yeah Travis Lee says how do you deal with intellectual doubt that can result from emotional depression oh that's that's a great question Travis how do I deal with intellectual doubt that can result from emotional depression I think part of it is just acknowledging what it is sometimes I can step back from myself well enough to recognize oh this isn't my doubt this intellectual doubt I'm feeling isn't actually caused by the things I'm thinking of rather I'm thinking these things because of something else because of this sadness and sorrow I'm feeling and you know here's some good advice right when you're feeling really down and depressed it's not a good time to make any kind of major life decision there's another good advice when you're feeling super depressed and down you're probably not going to be very good at apologetics do you hear what I'm saying you're not gonna be seeing clearly to think through things thoughtfully you're gonna be driven by the sorrow into what whatever things you're afraid of potentially yeah so just be able to step back and look at yourself and recognize this isn't really intellectual this is emotional and you can handle it differently because it's a different toolset to deal with emotional issues than intellectual ones rational evidence has a question do you agree with your with the statement that your emotions are not the truest part of you rather what God thinks of you is the truest description of who you are regardless of how you feel well I don't know if I understand the statement let me rephrase the statement in a way I do agree with it and I'll say it this way your emotions do not create truth about you about who you are right the truth of who you are does not come from your emotions maybe I can put it that way and obviously what God thinks of you is true God is not in error so if God thinks something of you and he's like yes you have immense value I made you in my image you're like I'm worth nothing you're like well maybe you still feel like you're worth nothing but at least you know your being done right at least you know you're wrong that's a wonderful truth that I can trust God with and no I'm wrong if I feel like it my life is worthless I know that that's not true and and another thing that can help is sometimes you ask you put yourself in someone else's shoes you're like if someone else was in my exact situation and what counsel would I give them I would be like come on and you shouldn't think that you know that's not true and sometimes that helps us snap out of it too from CD TV hi Mike my wife is a doctor and I do not have a job is it okay to be the man of the house and be the stay-at-home spouse yes I don't see a problem with that okay Tobias said enough and I'll just say that before I get to why is this question I don't know of any specific scripture that clearly teaches that I realize that gender roles are very important in Scripture but I don't see specific scripture that teaches that the in every home in every life situation the husband has to be out of the home providing and the wife has to be in the home you know taking care of the household I I don't I don't see that I think that's probably the normal way of things but I don't think it has to be that way and and currently you know the way finances are especially in like where I live it's very difficult for anybody to have even one of the family members who stays at home because everyone has to work just because the cost of living is really high I live in you know LA County so Tobias said Neff says when Romans 13:8 says that he who loves another has fulfilled a law what does this mean does it mean every single commandment is summed up in love your neighbor as yourself what does this mean for non-christians who have a near biblical love for others good questions okay so does it mean every single commandment is summed up and love your neighbor as yourself well Jesus actually gave two Commandments he summoned up the law with two Commandments one of them is love your neighbor as yourself but the other one the primary one the even more horn was to love God with all your heart soul mind and strength and then love your neighbor as yourself now here's the problem with let's say that you're you're not a believer but you seem to be very loving towards your neighbor I'm not gonna argue with that or not gonna be like no they're not really loving it's a trick I'm just gonna okay that's what it looks like they seem to be very loving to their neighbor but they're not loving towards God which is the bigger issue and so now if I love something else supremely but God I do not love that other thing I love is somewhat like an idol now so instead of it being a positive thing and a wonderful thing there's something tainted about how much I love other things when they're in the place of God so yeah the Tobias I would affirm the goodness of loving our neighbor and how this is the heart of the law loving our neighbors ourself but there is a greater law above that which is of course loving God with all your heart soul mind and strength and the Ten Commandments echoes this when it starts with our attitudes towards God and then it ends with our attitude and treatment towards people I hope that helps that's a quick overview of some thoughts let's see s FS pigma guy says how does grief factor in with depression and to scripture address both equally or does it treat them separately I think in modern terms we think of depression as a prolonged state and grief as perhaps an immediate state that deals with sorrow over specific situations I think that's kind of how we view it I wonder if the if I look it up in the original languages if it would support that kind of view there's a proverb that says anxiety in the heart causes depression and but a good word makes it glad there's another scripture in the Proverbs that says Hope deferred makes the heart sick and so that seems to be preferring referring to that long term effect like you keep having this hope that you're hoping and put off and put off and put off and it's making you really sorrowful that seems to be like more of a long-term sorrow so the scripture doesn't maybe make it clear to differentiation between them but it seems to acknowledge the existence of both of those things sudden onset of grief due to tragic circumstances as well as ongoing long-term grief I probably didn't really help too much but there's some batsmen Adam horn says I'm sure Mike hears all the time but I would appreciate it if you'd pass along his ministry has blessed my life greatly and I'm very thankful for the work God does through him Adam thank you for sharing out with me that is tremendously encouraging and I am I mean I'm just a guy trying to serve the Lord with his ministry I'm just a normal guy like you but it radically encourages me to hear the impact that the ministry has on other people if y'all ever want to see me good feedback I'm always happy to see it let's see Britney chickie says are you not a strong enough Christian if you have depression I've heard this from some friends in the past not sure a better way to phrase this absolutely not pretty and I'm so glad you asked this I don't think that we should measure our spirituality by our lack of depression no not at all in fact Paul taught Paul was pretty spiritual guy right and he talked about how he was sorrowful and even despaired of life which seems to imply that he was like I was just like wishing I could just move on out of this world that seems to be what he's saying now he handles it biblically and you read on he handles it biblically but he was going through it Jesus in the book of John he says that he's sorrowful quote even unto death Jesus is sorrowful even unto death look if Jesus can feel that way it's not unspiritual and so be encouraged my friend be encouraged your your goal is to go through it in a godly way don't condemn yourself for going through it yes ask yourself if sin is contributing but it's the sin that's the issue not the depression do you understand what I'm saying Texas lioness says do you believe depression can sometimes be from demonic possession do you believe it can be a generational curse in some cases I tend to not think anything's demonic oppression unless I have really good evidence to think it is demonic oppression that's my general view I don't think that just you know boy that were persons really struggling is probably demonic I think that might be a very unhealthy way to evaluate ourselves and the people around us demons in the scripture it seemed very manifest that there was a demon going on yeah not like oh they're depressed is probably demonic and certainly Jesus wasn't demonically possessed and Paul wasn't and they went through these things as well Elijah was a prophet of God who seems to clearly be going through depression and there was no demonic possession in his case either so I think we have good scripture to suggest that's not the case generational curses I don't really believe in generational curses and I've never heard a good biblical case for it maybe I'm wrong you guys can shoot me a link or something like that I don't think that that's like a real thing yeah number 11 here Chris Edwards says is it possible that some not all and certainly not medically treatable depression can be a result of God's chastening yes absolutely it could be and it is in the case of those Psalms that I read to us earlier I think Psalm 30 let me see there's a couple specific ones I read when I was talking about possibly being sin related Psalm 31 verse 10 psalm 32 verses 3 through 5 then there's a the rest of psalm 32 verses 10 and 11 and I think that those things yes it can't be result of God's chastening it is in the case of those Psalms Anna Bashir says I had my first son out of wedlock married his dad repented of it as much as you can when you have a blessing out of it do you think something hangs over my son like a spirit or is all that kind of stuff on Jesus to the cross thanks Mike enjoyed your session on remnant radio oh good I think I'll actually put that video on my channel sometime later this week video on handling tough Bible passages and real tough Bible passages and anyway I I do not think anything's hanging over your son Anna I don't think so in any way shape or form and I can't think of any reason to think there is unless you have a really good reason I think there is then you shouldn't because that is not a healthy way right to even go through life so yeah I would say yeah your your son is not ain't nothing all right is the soul that Deo Gloria says what if in the midst of your depression you cannot bring yourself to do the things Mike's talking about I think it's an important question to ask - I honestly I don't want to overstep here the only promise I have from scripture for a person in that scenario is the Bible tells us that we don't have to sin it doesn't say you will be able to get out of bed or you will be able to go to work and perform all your functions it doesn't say that right but it does say first Corinthians 10:13 you won't have to sin in this scenario so if you're in the depths of the lowest place of your depression I would want to make one of your you're a big agendas just don't sin as a result of this thing and I think that that'll be one of the things that will help somebody in that situation Emmy duster really says you Hawk Elijah first Kings 19 seven and she quotes the passage where Elijah is told arise and eat for the journeys too great for you and then she says I've suffered from anorexia since I'm 14 I'm 30 now what is your take on anorexia you know I don't think I know enough about it and me to be able to give you really great advice on the topic I mean I could honestly it would be like almost rude of me to just throw spaghetti at the wall and see if it sticks on this topic of anorexia I do think you know there's gonna be a biblical help for you and that you should look for the verses and passages that speak to those issues and seek to honor God and try to make your priority glorifying God in your situation and let that trump whatever other concerns you have whatever other beliefs you have let your your your faithfulness and love of God trump those things but beyond that I really count on you to find a godly person to talk to about these issues you may have already done this but good on that path I'm sorry I can't be of more help I just don't know enough about the issue Nick how says does guilt and depression go hand-in-hand and I think I answered that one they can but they aren't necessarily right you can be depressed without guilt you can have guilt without being depressed even but sometimes you have both misty says question I have depression stemming from years of mental abuse from my ex I've tried to put up boundaries with him but he says that Christians don't do walls how can I do boundaries biblically well I'm gonna say misty Christians absolutely do walls you know to risk being political build that wall misty absolutely um you're okay look let me let me put this way and you guys I'm coming at this with a lot of experience as a domestic violence counselor meaning I've encountered couples and dealt with individuals on both sides perpetrators of domestic violence as well as victims of domestic violence so I'm coming from that angle not only as a pastor but as a domestic violence counselor which I'm not currently doing this is my full-time thing the online ministry but that was something I did for years sometimes even though someone has stopped abusing you they have not stopped manipulating you and Misty it sounds like he might continue I'm gonna just venture a guess here it sounds like he's continuing to manipulate you by trying to throw Christian principles at your face Christian principles he's probably not obeying but he wants you to obey accept not building walls isn't exactly a Christian principle I think that it's entirely healthy to separate yourself from those who are abusing you yep you can turn the other cheek but you don't have to stay in constant relationship with them and I think that that is I think there's some wisdom there for you yeah if you have a continued cycle of manipulation going on between you and another person who has a history of abusing you please separate yourself from that person this is this is wisdom yeah and get counseled and there's no there's a whole lot more I could nuance this with but in your exact situation as I've read it here that would be my advice to you build some walls build some walls think about a Joseph when he even though he was restored to his brothers in the end of Genesis he not only was restored but he also did something else he tested them to make sure that they'd really changed read read the passage in Genesis when Joseph gets restored to his brothers he tests them to make sure that they've actually changed and I think there's some wisdom in that yeah just make sure it's not bitter make sure you're not bitter you're just being wise if it's wisdom not bitterness go for it all right Nylund my lady in red now a lady in red has a question I had two emotional breakdowns recently and something so emotional and mentally jarring happened to me today I really needed this from my heart thank you so much for this teaching that blesses my heart to hear that oh I pray that you have helpful tools in these things I know I can't fix stuff but maybe positive directions and help would be the encouragement for you thank you for telling me June Higgins says Mike you pointed out that sin could in fact cause suffering as shown in the Psalms why then were job's friends rebuked for thinking that this could be the case with Jobe oh I think job's friends they didn't just think hey Joel you know they didn't do what I just did which is hey evaluate Jobe ask yourself if this cut is caused by rather they just said job you're a sinner like this is totally your sin we know it's your centage I was like no I didn't do anything they're like yeah you did you're so arrogant and he's like no I didn't do anything and this goes on you know for 30 big chapters of job yeah so could be sin doesn't mean is sin that would be the big difference and I care last question for tonight how do I find strength in times of suffering my trust in the Lord tends to decline I'm an ex-muslim by the way I care how do you find strength in times of suffering I think that we have some sources of strength here that we've talked about like one is prayer not a quick fix right but it's a direction okay prayer with thankfulness make sure to be thankful in those times of Prayer stop and be thankful even make a list of things to be grateful to God like in Psalm 103 you can now meditate on positive things especially things related to future hope you have in Christ meditate on consider those things that's a source of strength knowing the character and goodness of God so that you can put your hope in him in fact you can command yourself to trust God even though you don't feel it you can choose it thank God I am NOT led by my feelings although I'm influenced and affected by them they don't they don't dictate me so there's are a few the things you can do I would recommend some of those find strengths ask yourself where you find your strength in the Lord how you find her strength in the Lord yeah there's some stuff there maybe other people would have some tips for you guys can in the comments put down your tips and advice we just want to help each other with these issues because we will struggle with sorrow and sadness and it's okay we want to have the help of God in those situations so we'll see you guys later this week I'll upload a video on the topic of there's tough Bible questions and that'll come up probably in a few days maybe two days probably Thursday and next week I'm gonna continue probably continue the penal substitutionary atonement series looking at new Testament texts on what it means that Jesus died for us on the cross and how the cross saves us real important stuff real controversial stuff today shouldn't be but it is right Lord bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and just show you the peace and the joy there is in Christ even in the midst of the sorrow and the depression and the hardship that there is in life

Channel: Mike Winger

Views: 49,162

Rating: 4.9334874 out of 5

Keywords: depression, sadness, mike winger depression, mike winger sadness, how to think biblically about depression, how to think biblically about sadness, help for when I am depressed, biblical tools for dealing with depression, biblical tools for dealing with sadness, biblical tools for dealing with sadness and depression, what the Bible says about depression, the Bible and depression, help for depression, Christian help for depression

Id: KspwQ2wyuUU

Length: 79min 47sec (4787 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 12 2019