Haunted By Depression

As of today, we may feel different things, we may not be ready to experience everything God has planned for us.

We may have our own disappointments, challenges and issues in being able to grow in God.

Sometimes, we can allow these things to stand in the way of our relationship with God. But, as we read scripture, we see examples of how, men of God in the Bible walked with God intimately inspite of their emotional struggles, inspite of the feelings they experienced. They used these feelings to become even more closer, intimate, personal in their walk with God.

The book Job 30:16 says – And now my life seeps away.

Job felt he was dying every single moment and expressed this in his conversation with God and God was careful enough to not miss the things he prayed for. God allowed these prayers to be recorded in scripture so that we have an example of somebody who went to God when he felt like he was dying and rotting away and Job expressed what he felt, experienced and went through.

The second part of Job 30:16 says, – depression haunts my days.

Job was conversing with the Lord about how he was supposed to be filled with joy, peace, love but at present it was depression that haunted his days, making him live in fear, lack, and in an emotional drought.

Have you been feeling something similar? If you have, can you go to God and express yourself about how you feel today!

Job 30:17 says, at night my bones are filled with pain, which gnaws at me relentlessly.

This explains, Job was having sleepless nights, he felt as if his bones were hurting constantly. Depression or mental distress has a way of manifesting itself physically causing intense headaches, pain in the joints, body aches, not because of a physical challenge but due to an overflow of an attack of depression.

And then, Job directs his prayer to God saying, With a strong hand, God grabs my shirt. He grips me by the collar of my coat. He has thrown me into the mud. I’m nothing more than dust and ashes. (Job 30:18,19)

Job felt like God had forgotten him and turned against him which wasn’t true. God was rooting for Job. The devil kept testing Job to get him to curse God and die and yet Job looked at the situation, and felt God had rejected and grabbed him by his shirt and thrown him into the mud and his life was turned into dust and ashes.

Can you imagine how God allowed Job to talk these outrageous things? God allowed Job to express himself in prayer whatever he felt in his heart and Job allowed this painful situation to make himself grow closer, dependant on God, thereby calling God his ultimate refuge and sanctuary, even in the midst of the attack, suicidal tendencies, panic attacks and sleepless nights of nightmares. He (Job) allowed these experiences to grow closer and to grow one with God.

While we go through a situation as such, it can be unbearable and impossible. But, the story of Job talks about how he went through all of it and came out as a testimony, with a blessing, restored, with fullness of joy and double of everything he lost which God had restored.

Because, we have an example like Job, today we don’t have to give up hope, stop mid-way and give up on our relationship and faith in God.

Rather, we have a reason and a motivation to press onto God with even more ferocity, because we know that we are going to come out of this and when we get out of this we will see the whole picture and we will see the hand and the blessing of God in every aspect of our life.

Do not give up, instead use this situation to grow even more closer to God!

Use every test, challenge, brokenness, failure to grow closer to God and depend more on Him! Share on X