Here are some [discussion] questions to consider about depression and how to overcome it:
- What is depression and how does it function or operate?
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest.” (source: read the Mayo Clinic’s full article for more information about depression here).
Isaiah 61:3 (NKJV) gives a prophecy about Jesus that He would come to give His people a “garment of praise” in exchange for a “spirit of heaviness.” Praise is contrasted with an attitude that is weighted down by trouble, pain, anxiety, past traumas, hopelessness, lack of joy, and lack of interest in daily activities.
- Is depression a sin or a byproduct of sin?
Possibly, some who struggle with anxiety and/or depression might feel offended at such a question and to even claim that they don’t have a choice in the matter of feeling depressed. Some believers in Jesus may bring up the biblical examples of Job and Elijah as possible proof that some righteous and godly people experience depression through no necessary fault of their own. The same could apply to many psalmists and others who lamented their sorrows and traumas as they underwent trials and tribulations throughout the Scriptures.
Without a doubt, Job, Elijah, David, other psalmists, Jeremiah, Hezekiah, and many others were holy, righteous, godly, and blameless people who loved God and were called according to His purpose (see Romans 8:28).
In spite of these facts, they all stumbled into a pit of depression, grief, sadness, a broken (or crushed) spirit, and/or “bitterness of soul” at various points in their lives. A closer look at these biblical case studies and passages can show us God’s heart and desire to bring joy, freedom, and restoration.
- Where did depression come from in Job’s case?
Proverbs 12:25 says that anxiety in a man’s heart makes it stoop. Jesus prophesied that in the last days, men’s hearts would fail them because of fear when they see the great calamities that come upon the earth (see Luke 21:25-26). Data and case studies from the medical field continue to find a link between stress [fear and anxiety] and cardiovascular disease.
Anxiety causes men’s hearts to get weighed down and to fail. Cardiovascular disease can be a source of great anxiety, and anxiety itself can negatively impact the cardiovascular system (and the other systems of the human body as well: limbic, immune, nervous, digestive, respiratory, etc.).
Just as people in the last days will experience increased life-threatening health problems when they look and take in all the calamity around them, Job experienced death-producing health problems after he went through great trauma. Job already entertained anxiety in his life, for he was worried and afraid (or as many might claim, “concerned”) about the moral condition of his kids.
He was afraid that they might mess up spiritually and die in their sin; Job confessed to this mindset explicitly in Job 3:25-26 as he bemoaned that the thing he feared greatly came upon him. Throughout the rest of Job’s discourse with his three friends, Job manifests depression as he complains in “bitterness of soul,” declares that his “spirit is broken,” and wistfully entertains the idea of death taking him out of his painful misery.
- Why did Elijah go through a period of depression?
Without a doubt, Elijah was a godly, blameless, righteous, and holy man who was set apart for God’s purposes. He had just made a public stand for God against the false gods of the culture, and this started a revival where the hearts of the Israelites returned to God.
However, after Queen Jezebel threatened his life, Elijah became filled with anxiety, fled into the wilderness, and became depressed. According to Proverbs 12:25a NKJV, “Anxiety causes depression,” and this certainly seems consistent with the case study of Elijah. The good news is that God met Elijah where he was at, corrected him, strengthened him, and sent him off again to fulfill his purpose and assignment.
- What is the relationship between anxiety and depression? Is anxiety a sin?
What is “sin?” The Greek language in which the New Testament was written defines “sin” as “missing the mark” (https://biblehub.com/greek/266.htm). Sin is the bad things we think, say, and do that do not measure up to the good character and perfect nature of God (see Romans 3:23). 1 John 3:4b says that “sin is lawlessness.”
Sin is the breaking of God’s laws and commandments, one of which is to not be anxious about anything (see Philippians 4:6; Matthew 6:24-34). Jesus’ sermon about the futility of worrying follows His statement that you cannot serve both God and material things (or riches). If money, circumstances, or anything demands more of your attention, focus, devotion, time, or “mental real estate” than the goodness, power, and love of God, then worry or anxiety is the byproduct of that misplaced devotion.
In light of how powerful, good, capable, involved, and trustworthy God is, an anxious mindset accuses God of not being reliable, trustworthy, loving, powerful, or good. According to Proverbs 21:4 NASB1995, “Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, is sin.” With a proud heart, we commit sin by not doing the good that we know we should do (see James 4:16-17). We sin whenever we do not trust God (see Romans 14:23b).
Is anxiety a characteristic of God and descriptive of how God thinks and acts? Does God have any anxiety? According to 1 John 4, “God is love,” and “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has torment and whoever fears has not been made perfect in love” (see 1 John 4:8, 16, 18). Anxiety misses the mark of who God is and what God desires for the people whom He loves and has made in His image. God tells His people to cast all their anxieties upon Him, for He cares for us (see 1 Peter 5:6-7; Philippians 4:6-8).
In other words, God doesn’t want His beloved children to have any anxiety and did everything that He needed to do so that we wouldn’t need to live in the sin of anxiety any longer (see Romans 6:2-4). Depression and anxiety are foreign to God’s nature. However, Satan and his minions are constantly filled with anxiety and depression, for they know the judgment that awaits them in the Lake of Fire (see Revelation 19:20-20:15).
- What is the relationship between self-pity and depression? Is self-pity a sin?
For more information, see my blog post: “Detecting the Dragon of Self-Pity”
- Did Jesus demonstrate self-pity, depression, guilt, shame, complaining, etc. during his life and ministry?
Although Jesus was a Man who experienced the full gamut and range of human emotions and was tempted in every way, He never sinned (see Hebrews 4:15-16). It is not a sin to be tempted; the sin comes when a person takes the bait of that demonic lie, impression, or desire, chews (or meditates) on it, and follows through with action (see James 1:12-15).
Rather than entertaining or thinking about the offer of temptation longer, Jesus spoke the truth of what God said (“It is written…”) and overcame every temptation that the devil brought His way (see Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13).
- Does God ever experience depression?
Jesus endured the cross “for the joy set before Him” (see Hebrews 12:2). Joy is a characteristic of God, the very fabric of His identity (see Galatians 5:22). God can recognize what we are going through; Jesus took on all the pain and sin of the entire world (including all the feelings of anxiety and depression) upon Himself when He made His soul an offering for sin on the cross (see Isaiah 53:10-12). Therefore Jesus can relate to us as a Great High Priest who is familiar with the feelings of our weaknesses and infirmities.
Yet Jesus not only took on all our pains, sorrows, traumas, anxiety, depression, sicknesses, etc. upon Himself on the cross, but He took them to the grave with Him when He was buried. But when Jesus rose from the dead, he left all that sin, sorrow, pain, sickness, etc. in the grave! Now as we fellowship with the Lord and Savior who is resurrected and seated at the right hand of God, we can experience the benefits of what Jesus purchased for us through the price that He paid.
The healing and freedom made available to us shall manifest when our obedience is complete as we are made perfect in God’s love (see Hebrews 6:11-12; 10:36-39; John 8:31-32). When we stop “dwelling among the tombs” in self-pity by understanding (at a deepest heart-level of conviction) that we have been raised up with Christ by the same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, then we may walk in the newness of life (see Mark 5:23; Romans 6; 8:11).
- Was Jesus full of self-pity, complaining, and depression as he hung on the cross?
In self-pity, a person feels like a victim. They bemoan what has happened to them or what they are going through despite the fact that they don’t deserve such trauma. Jesus, however, made it clear that all the pain he would endure was voluntary and of his own choosing. He trusted that His Heavenly Father was still good, fair, and just, and that all the suffering would be worth it in the end, no matter how agonizing or painful the experience.
Jesus said, “No one takes my life, but I lay it down of my own accord.” (my paraphrase, see John 10:17-18). He was not surprised when a fiery trial came upon Him, but he endured it for the joy set before Him, scorning the shame and humiliation as he focused on the honor and glory that was coming His way on the other side of that shame (see 1 Peter 4:12-19; Hebrews 12:1-2; Philippians 2:5-11). Jesus took all our guilt, shame, fear, anxiety, depression, sin, etc. to the grave after all those things were placed on Him and bombarded Him.
As the demonic voices of guilt, shame, accusation, etc. flooded Jesus’ soul on the cross, He who knew no sin became sin for us (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). Yet Jesus still thought according to the mind of the Spirit and never once succumbed to their accusing voices. When we are joined to Jesus Christ in a covenant through His blood, we are empowered by the same Spirit who rose Jesus from the dead to stop entertaining any of those accusing voices of shame, guilt, fear, anxiety, depression, etc. no matter how loudly they wail or seductively they whisper.
A man in self-pity might only look after himself as he is absorbed in his own pain. Jesus on the cross was still looking after others and meeting their needs in love (see John 19:25-27; Luke 23:27-31). He took every curse–including the curses of anxiety and depression (see their inclusion in the “list of curses” outlined in Deuteronomy 28)–upon himself as he hung on a tree, so that we might inherit the promise of the Holy Spirit, the blessing that God made available to us through a relationship of trust and obedience to God’s leadership (see Galatians 3:13-14).
- How does a person get out of depression?
“Concerning Damascus. ‘Hamath and Arpad are put to shame, For they have heard bad news; They are disheartened. There is anxiety by the sea, It cannot be calmed.”
–Jeremiah 49:23 NASB1995
This verse speaks about people who became disheartened when they heard bad news. As a result of the bad news to which they listened, they became discouraged, anxious, and irritated such that they were no longer at peace or rest. Listening to bad news can produce anxiety in a person.
“Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs it down, but a good word makes it glad.” (Proverbs 12:25 NASB1995) As many people fill their minds with bad news, although they have good intentions to be better informed and prepared for the future, they become filled with anxiety as well.
Although it may be sometimes inevitable, important, and necessary to be updated with sobering news that pertains to one’s own welfare, is there a way to hear bad news without being filled with anxiety?
What is the opposite of bad news? Good news! If one is rooted and grounded in certain good news, then might this good news enable a person to remain in an unshakable state of perfect love, fortified joy, and perfect peace? (see 1 John 2:5; 4:12, 17-18; John 16:22; Isaiah 26:3; Philippians 4:6-8).
- How does the good news about Jesus deal with anxiety and depression?
“Bright eyes gladden the heart; good news puts fat on the bones.”
–Proverbs 15:30 NASB1995
What does it mean that “good news puts fat on the bones?” Receiving bad news can cause the heart to stoop with anxiety and depression and to break one’s spirit. Job is a case in point of this principle as he reeled from the loss of his assets, property, children, reputation, and his health (see Job 3:25-26; 17:1). According to Proverbs 17:22, “a joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones” (my paraphrase).
The human immune system functions as the body’s “hedge of protection” or “sword and shield” against sickness and disease; the immune system is largely contained within the bone marrow. When a broken spirit dries up the bones, it thereby compromises the immune system, resulting in a person becoming vulnerable to disease and sickness.
Bad news and anxiety can break a person’s spirit, which can compromise their immune system and make them sick. (This happens though what the medical community observes as the effects of excess cortisol drip.)
Anxiety releases more stress hormones (such as cortisol) into the body, and too much of those hormones can compromise the immune system and manifest accordingly in various illnesses. How can this process of breakdown be reversed? Although a broken spirit dries up the bones, good news puts fat on the bones.
Other versions of Proverbs 15:30 say that “good news refreshes the bones.” In other words, good news reverses the effects of bad news. Taking in bad news with an anxious mindset dries up the bones and compromises the immune system, but believing good news refreshes the bones and heals the immune system.
It would stand to reason that in order for a person to feel at perfect peace, the good news that a person stands on must far surpass the bad news of a person’s present circumstances. What good news could possibly outweigh the bad news of what horrible traumas a person may go through? The Bible talks about “good news” called “the gospel of Jesus Christ,” or “the good news of God.”
For more information, see “Four Spiritual Laws for Healing a Broken Heart.”