15 Jan Christ, Anxiety, And Depression.

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.“ Corinthians 10:13.

This has become one of the most misquoted scriptures in the Bible. You’ve often heard that God never gives you or allows things to happen in your life beyond what you can bear. This phrase is used in reference to Corinthians 10:13. I’ve seen so many people use this scripture as a way to comfort someone who’s going through the worst of times.

Experiencing difficult times myself, and being in the midst of a storm myself, I’ve always felt this is not true. No matter how many times it’s been quoted and thrown around. I apologize for this message being so late. I have had a terrible time over the last few months. I have been in a storm. I have noticeably felt an uncomfortable distance from God and myself.

Even though he’s made an oath to live on the inside of me, I have trouble feeling him on the inside of me at times. Though I’m not alone, I sometimes feel very alone. Though he is always present, I feel that he is sometimes absent. I can’t help it. I am part flesh. I am a spiritual being as well as a physical being.

Being such, there are certain things I need in order to function properly. First is the necessities for life. The things I need just to be able to take a breath. Just to be able to walk around, blink my eyes, open mouth, etc. Water, food, clothing, and shelter. The basic needs just to be able to live. All four of these things represent security, safety, provision, and protection.

I wanna talk about those four things for a minute, because regardless of your location, your gender, your age, your nationality, your age, or your race, these are the things that all people crave to have and to possess. These are the things we can all see, touch and feel. We can certainly see God in action through these things.

What I’m talking about, is knowing God is present beyond these things, because truth be told, you can have all these things and still feel like God is as far away from you as the Sun is to the Earth. The things I listed above fulfills our lives naturally, but spiritually it is an impossible feat. There are people who have the things we listed above in excess, who commit suicide daily. It is not just the visually down trodden who fall into that category.

A life without God can still provide for you all the things above, but it cannot provide you spiritual provision, spiritual security, spiritual safety, or spiritual protection. If I told you to go 1 year with drinking a glass of water, you would surely die. If I told you to go 1 year without feeding your spirit, what would then be the outcome? Expand that timeline to years and decades. What would then be the outcome?

The search to fill the things that only God can feel is an endless search. It has no ending. Just when you think you’ve found what you’ve been looking for, you will soon find something else more prominent. Paul says in 2nd Timothy 4:10 “for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica”. Whatever it was Demas was seeking, he was not able to find it in God.

We see that Demas loved the present World and all the things the world had to offer. The World presents to each person, every pleasurable form of Sin. The boundaries are like that of a stretched out rubber band. The World provides a medium for those who seek pleasure, and for those who seek to escape.

In Genesis after Adam and Eve sin, the first thing they do is seek to cover themselves up. The innocence and the purity that they once had was now gone. God comes looking for them, but they are unable to stand before him. From then until now, this is our condition. In need of a “cover” in order to stand before God.

We cannot see God until we are able to see ourselves. We must come to grips with the truth, that the covering we’ve been providing ourselves with is not sufficient. It is not good enough. It is just a colorful costume at best. We see people, and even know people, who seem to have it all. They pass the eye test flawlessly. Only to admit years later they battled with depression. So depression does not just affect those who have little, no, it affects those who have much as well.

It also affects those who serve in the Ministry. Yes, the very people we go to for spiritual guidance. Depression is hard to detect to the untrained eye. Because people who are depressed are great actors. When you are around them they appear fine. When they can’t muster up the energy to “fake it”, these are the times they usually self isolate themselves off from others.

These are the things that God sees. He sees behind the curtain of people’s minds. The veils that cover their hearts. We will not find all of life’s answers in the Bible specifically, but the Holy Spirit can fill in the gaps. It is not God’s desire to heal all of our lives problems and conditions. If it was, Jesus would have never said “in this life you will have trouble”, Jon 16:33. I have a thing now, where I pray to God three times.

If he does not respond, or if I am not healed or delivered, I do not bring it up again. This is a hard thing to do, because it is common for us to cry out to God repeatedly, especially when you are suffering. I find that this can become counter-productive, because it can start you to believe Jesus does not care and that he has abandoned you. What parent can sit idly by and watch their child wail in pain? It is one thing when you as a Parent do not have the ability to relieve it. It is another when you do and choose not too.

Many of us are dealing with things that we cannot possibly handle on our own. What use would God be if we could? He would no longer be a necessity, but just an accessory. Something that looked and sounded good to most people. The truth is God puts us in situations where we need him. No one who struggles with depression can will themselves to be better. I believe medicine has a prominent place in our lives. Faith is not the substitute to that. God gave us medicine and remedies for a reason.

Never temp God to do for your body what a medicine that has already been created can do. God can heal all things, but God does not choose to heal all things. Jesus healed many people while fulfilling his Earthly calling, but there where many people Jesus did not heal. He could not have possibly covered all the ground it would have taken for him to heal every ailment on the planet. Even by plane, if they were around back then. The most powerful Earthly ministry this World has ever seen only lasted 3 years.

Many were delivered, many were not, many are yet to be. But many are left to suffer with it. This truth is easy to understand when we apply it to someone else’s life. God loves you still even though you’re going through terrible circumstances, it is a hard truth to understand and accept when it is happening to yourself. You know how much you sacrificed, how much you gave, how much you prayed. Your lot in life does not match up to how you have lived your life.

Trying to find understanding in that, you never will. Trust me, nothing good will come out of trying to understand these things. These things will drive a chasm between you and Christ. If you read my sermon on John The Baptist, then you know that such questions can only lead to bitterness, hardness, and frustration. We must accept the truth that bad things do happen to good people. And many times if not most, it is not deserved.

I can draw many lines and pull many examples on why this is through Bible lessons, but there is no guarantee that is why it is taking place in your life. God does not limit himself to past events. He never builds a roof the same. He does not work off of the same blueprint, because we are not made of the same material. The Bible says when God blesses us it is personalized. It is something that only you specifically could have walked into and received.

Another name for that is “tailor made”. Made for your body, your personality, your soul. God is aware of the basic things we need to live, and he allows those who even do not believe in him to obtain those things, but only those who believe in him, does he provide the spiritual things that we need to live, and not just to survive.

The earliest we see depression is in the book of Job. This is the type of depression that I would like to focus on. Depression brought on by deep negative circumstances. Could be accidental, coincidental, or consequential. Jobs’ circumstances were deliberate unbeknownst to him. But in his mind it was completely enigmatic. Read the report on Job. He was a faithful man who feared God and observed God in all the things he did.

When the list of catastrophes hits Job, he is sent spiraling into a deep depression. He is afflicted on all fronts. From his Family, to his Finances, to his body, down to his soul. There was nothing that was untouched by his disastrous circumstances. There was nothing to cling on to. He was at a loss for words. His friends initially were at a loss for words.

He was beyond putting up a front, and deceiving those close to him that he was doing alright. His brokenness was written all over him. Who would fault job for his despair? Losing all 10 of your children. What an unfathomable situation that is. Some of you are dealing with some very unfathomable situations. Some very dire circumstances. I am not untouched. I’m not speaking as an outsider. I am speaking as a person who has also dealt and deals with depression.

Everyone who deals with situational depression has their own “Job Story”. Some suffer through it and continue in faith, some lose faith, only to find it again. The most troubling part of dealing with this sort of depression is, when you are in the dark on why these things have taken place in your life. Perhaps it is the consequence of sin, but you are not the worst to commit sin. If this is you, do not bother with such questions. They will only lead to bitterness.

Perhaps it was coincidental. You just happen to be at that crosswalk when that kid ran out and was run over by your car. You left work early that day, or you left work late. If only you’d had left on time, you would have never hit and killed that child. If you had taken your normal route home from visiting your parents, you would have never been hit by that truck that flipped your vehicle, paralyzing you and changing the course of your life forever.

These questions lead to more questions that lead to no answers. God knows they don’t. He asks each of us to do the most difficult thing to ask of any person: To trust him when you don’t understand. Can you trust God when you don’t understand why something tragic has happened to you? Can you trust God when you don’t understand why something did not happen for you? Can you trust him when you feel like you physically can’t go on?

I am not asking you to do this alone. You can’t if you tried. I’m sure you’ve tried for months and years and years and years. God does not just watch our lives, he is an active participant. Everywhere you go he is there. The same way you can’t run from yourself, you cannot run from God either. He is inside you, right where your thoughts, your desires, and your fears dwell. You cannot outrun him no more then you can outrun your own thoughts.

But we can tune him out. Have you ever listened to someone speak, and after a while of hearing them talk, you just tune them out? Your mind wanders onto something else. Our minds are full of all kinds of things. There are a million thoughts that are all waiting in line for our attention. The Holy Spirit is competing these thoughts with the desire to occupy your mind. It is natural to be concerned about the things of today. But it is not biblical to be stressed out about these things, or allow these things to drive your daily activities.

Jesus didn’t just say in John 16:33 in this life you will have trouble. He also said “I have spoken these things to you so that in Me you may have peace. Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world”. We must never come to relax with the name of Jesus. It is not just a name. It is the key that unlocks all the gates to all things. When we call upon his name, power is released. The Apostles were able to perform miracles in his name.

We are able to perform miracles using his name. We do not have to dwell on the stresses and the anxieties this life brings on us. But we have to accept the struggle we face of letting Jesus take it off our hands. As mature as we may be in age, these types of struggles keep a child like dependence on God. How would a child feed, cloth, bath, and dress themselves if it was not for a loving Parent or caretaker?

Even when the child grows up and is able to do these things for themselves, God will create new dependencies for you that only he is able to attend to. I am not saying God is the author of your depression or your anxieties. If God is not the author of your depression and anxieties, and if everything about God is good, then the person who sent these things and who is the author of them, did not send them for your good. The author of these things sent them to destroy you.

But God uses these weapons to strengthen his children. There cannot be anything that happens in your life by chance when Jesus is in you. Jesus does not take chances. He takes actions through or steps. Jesus cannot act through us when we are crippled in the bowels of depression and anxieties. So what is the goal of our depression and he who sent them?

To prevent Jesus from working in your life to the benefit of others. You are important because of who is inside you. By faith we must forsake our desire and need to understand that which is unexplainable. I am not suggesting we act like robots, and go about our daily lives with no emotion. God forbid. But as we have seen with Job, there are things at work spiritually that we are unaware of, that have caused things to materialize in our lives naturally.

It is these things we must move on from faithfully. We are being accused and persecuted daily for this cause. And afflicted. And challenged. And killed. It is not an indictment against your faith. It is an affliction that has been placed upon you, me, upon many of us. The coronavirus has created the perfect storm for depression to grab a stronghold on the minds and emotions of many believers.

The isolation from others has forced us to be alone with ourselves more so then what is usual. It is the perfect soil for the word of God to grow and the thoughts of despair. If Job’s life can turn around, if Joseph’s life can turn around, if Daniel’s life can turn around, then your life can turn around also. Jesus is not spectating and watching you from afar, he is in every place you step foot in, and all the places you leave, but if your mind is occupied with the thoughts of despair, he can in no way act, as this is the opposite of his character, even upon his death.

I felt compelled to write this message. I don’t know who this will help. Only God knows that. But as your Brother in Christ, every word was written with you in mind. God has given me a pleading for you, the body of Christ. To not only teach you. To not only warn you. But to love you. Especially during these trying times that we are facing as a nation. Where the world is being divided along political, ideological, racial and economic lines. These things have even infected the body of Christ as well.

With Pastors taking sides against Pastors, and congregations against their own members. We are in a sad state at the present, but I have faith in the remnant that God keeps for himself. I believe you to be it. The book of Isaiah 53:2 describes Jesus as this: “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

Neither do my teachings. They are not exciting to the flesh. They don’t tell you that God desires for you to be a billionaire. They don’t tell you whatever you ask for in his name he will give to you even if it’s not in his will. That whatever you claim for your life, God will deliver. That because you paid tithes, God owes you a blessing.

Those who desire those messages do not read my teachings. Those who desire those things do not seek the Jesus described in Isaiah 53:2. You are here because the Spirit of God led you here. I am here because the Spirit of God led me to write these words. God is in control. Do not seek to understand the “why” of your circumstances, instead seek the “what to do next”. Jesus is there. He’s no longer standing in the midst of the shipwreck. He’s on the island waiting for you, get through mourning over the rummage.

And he doesn’t tell you your stupid for worrying over those things. He doesn’t tell you “Man up and follow me”! Instead he sends word to you to continue to shore. He may send the word through a stranger, through a Pastor, through a Family member, even through someone whom you’re not very fond of lol. Never let your heart become so hardened that you cut off the ways in which God can speak to you.

God has many times used the enemies of Israel to bless his people. I pray that these words I wrote stick with you. I pray that hope restores in you. I pray that your mind becomes occupied with the things of God and hope, and not condemnation and despair. I am here to pray for anyone who needs it, and who may be battling with depression. Be safe and I pray that God unlocks all the doors to your salvation.

God Bless…