Anyone have a devotional for depression?

OracleX

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You know what I have found to be good to read when depressed? Ecclesiastes. Believe it or not if you take the time to read it through it can bring great insight to depression. It can also bring great joy.

If you do read it, read it in one sitting.
 
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OracleX

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Philipeans 4:7
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
 
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GodOwnsMe

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mhh this one is cool :)


God has positive answers for all the negative things we say to ourselves.
You say: "It's impossible"
God says: All things are possible (Luke 18:27)
You say:"I'm too tired"
God says: I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30)
You say:"Nobody really loves me"
God says: I love you (John 3:16 & John 13:34)
You say: " I can't go on"
God says: My grace is sufficient (II.Corinthians 12:9 & Psalms 91:15)
You say:"I can't figure things out"
God says: I will direct your steps (Proverbs 3:6)
You say: " I can't do it"
God says: You can do all things (Phillipians 4:13)
You say: "I'm not able"
God says: I am able (II Corinthians 9:8)
You say: " Its not worth it"
God says: It will be worth it (Romans 8:28)
You say: "I can't forgive myself"
God says: I FORGIVE YOU (I John 1:9 & Romans 8:1)
You say: "I can't make it"
God says: I will supply all your needs (Phillipians 4:19)
You say: "I'm afraid"
God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear(II Timothy 1:7)
You say: " I am always worried and frustrated"
God says: Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)
You say: "I don't have enough faith"
God says: I've given everyone a measure of faith (Romans 12:3)
You say: "I'm not smart enough"
God says: I give you wisdom (I. Corinthians 1:30)
You say: "I feel all alone"
God says: I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)

Remember we have a saviour {Jesus} who is the rock of our salavation.
When Satan comes knocking at your door, just say,
"Jesus will you get that for me."


*************************************************************

God is Love - All Powerful, All Knowing, Intimately
Acquainted with all our ways... Trusting Always in Him

-------------

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither
angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,
nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38,39 NIV

-------------

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy
rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Psalm 23:4 KJV

-------------

I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know
how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I
have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry,
both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all
things through Him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:12,13 NASB

--------

Thanks be unto God for His wonderful gift:
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God is the object of
our faith; the only faith that saves is faith in Him.
 
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GodOwnsMe

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psalm 62 and 56/4, 57/3 are cool for example!! :)

Isaiah 40:29
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
(NIV)

I am sure that you have had times in your life when you have felt weak.
This verse is giving to us as encouragement so we will keep on keeping on.
The question is, how does God give power to us when we are weary and weak?
God gives us strength when we spend time with Him reading his Word and
praying daily. Reading the Bible is our daily meal, it gives us our daily
vitamins. With out our daily meal from God's Word we become little skinny
Christians with no strength. My hope is that you will be in the Word daily
and talking with God about the things that are on your heart. Remember, God
will give you the strength to keep going so don't give up.
 
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repentandbelieve

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Happy is he who hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Ps 146:5

I have seen that those who live for a purpose, seeking to benifit and bless
their fellow men and to honor and glorify their Redeemer, are the truly happy ones on earth, while the person who is restless, discontented and is seeking this and testing that hoping to find hapiness is always unsatified and disapointnted with life. They are always in want and never satisfied because they live for themselves alone.

Let your aim be to do good and to act your part in life faithfully.

Find time to comfort some other heart, to bless with a kind cheering word, someone who is battling with affliction, temptation, or trial.  In blessing others with cheering and hopeful words and pointing them to the Burden Bearer, you may unexpectantly find peace, happiness and consolation yourself.


I encourage you to make it your life work to be continually training and educating yourself to serve God in this way.

May God bless you
 
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altya

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Depression is a common experience among Christians. You may ask, "How
can that be? A depressed Christian? The very words are contradictory;
they are incompatible If a person has been truly born of the Spirit,
and certainly if he has been filled with the Spirit, then shouldn't
it be impossible for him to be depressed? Surely, the fact that a
Christian would be suffering from depression at all should be a sign
that something is wrong, that something needs to be straightened out
with the Lord. It must be a sign of sin in that person's life."

Now all of that may sound very good and very simple, but it does not
stand the test of Scripture, the facts of Christian experience or the
truths about psychology. And it certainly does not square with the
biographies of the saints.

Christians Can Be Depressed

Have you read some of David's psalms recently?


"Why art thou cast down, oh my soul?" (Psalm 42:5)
"0 my God, my soul is cast down within me" (Psalm 42:6).

"Why art thou cast down? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, who
is the health of my countenance" (Psalm 43:5).

"0 Lord, take away my life" (1 Kings 19:4).

"It is better for me to die than to live" (Jonah 4:3).

Or heard Jesus' words in the Garden, as He was in pain and in
prayer? "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death" (Matt.
26:38). Can you find better descriptions of depression — a depression
in which the person almost despaired of life itself? Many of the
depressive psalms speak of the countenance, the person's face, and
how accurate those psalms are! The person who is depressed and
dejected has a miserable countenance. He looks troubled, worried,
unhappy, as if he is bearing the weight of the world on his
shoulders.

Another very common symptom of depression is tears. "My tears have
been my meat day and night" (Psalm 42:3), says the psalmist. This is
an amazingly accurate psychological statement! Depression often
brings a loss of appetite. You just don't feel like eating. Because
food seems repulsive, you begin to live on tears instead of food. "My
tears have been my meat," and some of us could add, "Yes, and my
vegetable, salad, dessert and drink too." What's wrong? Unable to
stop crying, you feed on despair, and that of course increases the
depression.

The Scriptures are much more realistic and kind to us than some
Christians are, as they clearly show that it is possible for
Christians to be very depressed. The biographies of the saints also
deal with this. We often quote from John Wesley's great Aldersgate
conversion experience, but I could show you several quotations that follow which almost seem to nullify it, as Wesley spoke out in
depression, doubt, and dejection.
 
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altya

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Before a person can deal with depression, he must acknowledge it. And
many a Christian, if he were completely honest about his emotions,
would have to admit: "Yes, depression is an acquaintance of mine too.
I know what you are talking about."

By denying their depression, many Christians add to their troubles.
They add guilt on top of the depression and thereby double the
problem. Let's say that a severe depression is equal to carrying one
ton of emotional weight. That's about what it feels like, doesn't it?
To carry a ton on your back is bad, but you may have the strength for
it. However, when you then add guilt by saying, "There's something
wrong with me because I have this depression," you have then doubled
the weight, and that's an impossible load for anyone to carry.

Depression is not necessarily a sign of spiritual failure. In the
Scripture stories, some of the greatest depressions came as emotional
letdowns following the greatest spiritual successes. This was true in
the life of Elijah. After that greatest moment in his life, the
triumph over the prophets of Baal on Mt. Cannel, what happened? The
next time we see him he is sitting alone under the juniper tree,
asking God to take his life. Abraham had a similar experience (Gen.
15). And many of us have too. Depression seems to be nature's
emotional kickback. It is a reaction like the wallop from firing a
gun of heavy caliber. It is nature's recoil, or perhaps the balance
wheel in what C.S. Lewis calls "the law of undulation" in the human
personality.

Unfortunately, some of our Christian friends can be our worst enemies
at this point, offering us false and unrealistic advice.

There are Christians who have little understanding about depression.
Because their own personalities are not very subject to it, they fail
to understand people who suffer depression. This can be especially
cruel when two such people are married to one another. If a husband
does not suffer much from depression but his wife does, he may have a
difficult time appreciating her emotions and her moods. It can be a
doubly cruel situation if he uses her depressed time to put a
spiritual heavy on her. Or the wife on the husband, if the situation
is reversed.

You can't assume that because you never suffer from depression you
are therefore more spiritual. C.S. Lewis once said that about half
the times when we credit ourselves with virtue, it's really just a
matter of temperament and constitution, and not of spirituality.
 
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altya

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Depression and Guilt

There is a depression that can come from the guilt of sin, from known
disobedience and transgression. However, that kind is not what I am
writing about. You may wonder, "How do I recognize the depression
that comes from sin?" And that's a good question, especially if you
are a perfectionist who suffers from an oversensitive conscience,
from the tyranny of the oughts and the shoulds, or from a constant
feeling of uneasiness, anxiety and condemnation. Let me give you a
general principle that I think can be very helpful. A concrete,
specific feeling of guilt which can be related to a particular,
precise act or attitude is generally a true and reliable feeling of
guilt. And the emotions that follow can be real guilt and real
depression for a real transgression.

However, a vague, all-inclusive umbrella of systematic self-
accusation, general overall feelings of anxiety and condemnation
which cannot be pinpointed — these are generally signs of pseudo-
guilt or just plain depression that has come from emotional sources.
Sin may lead to depression, but all depression does not come from
sin. The roots of depression often run deep and are very complicated,
as complicated as many of the childhood hurts and scars that people
carry into adulthood.

Depression and Personality

Depression is related to personality structure, physical makeup, body
chemistry, glandular functions, emotional patterns and learned
feeling-concepts. As Christians we must realize and accept this. If
all of us had the good common sense found in one of our most ancient
nursery rhymes, we would be better off.


Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean;
And so between them both,
They licked the platter clean.

Now this is an amazingly profound analysis of personality structure,
believe it or not. Constitutionally, Jack Sprat and Mrs. Sprat are
entirely different. Don't try to make them both eat the same way, or
live the same way. That would be a violation of their personalities.
They are both valuable human beings, and we presume that they love
each other very much even though they are totally different in their
makeup. I wish more preachers, teachers, evangelists and especially
parents would master the sound good sense of that nursery
rhyme. "Wait a minute," someone says. "You've forgotten that when we
are in Christ, we are new creatures, and old things pass away. Don't
regeneration and sanctification do away with old differences?" To
this I must say, "No! Thank God, they do not!"

The new birth does not change your basic temperament. It can put
within you, as Oswald Chambers loves to say, "the disposition of
Jesus Christ," but it does not change your basic temperament. The
fact that you have become a Christian does not mean that from now on
you cease to live with yourself as yourself. Paul was still very much
Paul after his conversion. Peter was still very much Peter, and John
was John. They did not become other people. In God's plan, no two
things are ever identical. No two snowflakes are alike. Through great
variety within unity, God shows the wonder of His ways. We are each
different, in temperament and personality structure. We see and feel,
react to and interpret things individually.

The Apostle Paul reminded us: "We have this treasure in earthen
vessels" (2 Corinthians 4:7). By nature and temperament, some people
are nervous, apprehensive or easily frightened. They are
oversensitive and their feelings are easily touched and changed. I
sometimes wonder if Paul wasn't one of these. As strong as he was, he
went to Corinth in "weakness and fear, with much trembling" (1
Corinthians 2:3). He was a high-strung young man, "without were
fightings, within were fears" (2 Corinthians 7:5). Certainly this was
true of young pastor Timothy. The entire Second Epistle to Timothy
seems to have been written by Paul to pull Timothy out of depression.
Brengle's biographer called him a "constitutional melancholic."
People who are extremely introspective and sensitive often have the
worst problems with depression.

Our failure to deal realistically with ourselves regarding depression
is the root cause of much of our depression. If we have the idea that
there is no connection between the natural (our temperament and
personality structure) and the supernatural (our spiritual lives), we
are seriously mistaken. Both our feelings and our faith operate
through the same personality equipment. God does not come to us in
special ways that bypass or short-circuit or sidetrack our
personality equipment. He doesn't drill a hole in the tops of our
skulls and with some magical, mystical funnel pour His grace into us.
The mechanisms of our personalities that we use in faith are the same
instruments through which our feelings operate.

Maybe we can understand it if we can think of one of these great,
big, expensive, combination centers with a TV in the middle, and a
stereo record player, and radio. It's a beautiful piece of furniture.
But if something goes wrong with some of the transistors in that vast
assemblage, the audio system goes out. Why? All the components are
all working through the same mechanism. If a connection burns out
over here, or a condenser and some transistors go wrong over there,
all three of the operations are going to be affected. Why? They are
operating through the same system.
 
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altya

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Depressions can come from sources outside the purely spiritual. They
come because something has gone wrong with the equipment — perhaps in
the physicals or in the balance of emotions and personality.
Transistors have been affected, a connection has burned out, and it
has affected even the spiritual life. Let's return to Brengle, that
very saintly man, as he writes about himself: "Such gloom and
depression fell upon me as I have never known…God seemed nonexistent.
The grave seemed my endless goal. Life lost all of its glory, charm
and meaning…Prayer brought me no relief; indeed, I seemed to have
lost the spirit of prayer and the power to pray"(Hall, Portrait of a
Prophet, p. 214).

To apply our previous illustration, there was nothing wrong with the
sender; the love of God was still coming through. The radio station
was sending out beautiful music, the TV transmitter was sending out
the right images, but the only sound was static and the sight was TV
snow. Why? Because something had gone wrong with the receiving set.

That's what happened to Brengle. And notice how wise he was. In spite
of his feelings, he realized God was still there. In every sentence
he used the word seemed. "It seemed like God was nonexistent…It
seemed like the grave was my goal." And Brengle himself underlined
the word seemed.

Have you ever experienced a complete change in your feelings? You go
to bed one night and everything's fine. You wake up the next morning,
and nothing's fine. Nothing you can think of accounts for it.
Yesterday you were happy. You were looking forward to a great day.
But something happened, and your responses are different. Your
feelings, actions, interpretations of the very same things that took
place yesterday are very different today. And you are not alone. God
is there, but so is Screwtape. Satan is sitting there on the side of
the bed, for he sees an opening to ride right into your personality.
Why? Because Satan is of the spirit world, he already knows what you
and I need to learn — that the same equipment that affects the
natural also affects the spiritual. So Satan tries to turn
temperamental depression into spiritual depression. Satan always
wants to turn emotional depression into spiritual defeat. He wants to
take a burned-out emotion in your receiving set and turn it into a
burned-out trust. He's aware of your infirmities; and he knows the
depths of your spirit and he comes riding that monorail right into
the heart of your personality.

Do you know how Satan wants to win? He tries to get you to foul
yourself out of the game. He wants to turn the natural mood of
depression into spiritual defeat, doubt and despondency.

Acceptance of Your Personality

I urge you to accept your personality and acknowledge your
temperament. Having truth in the inward parts means you no longer
resist who you are. You stop fighting your temperament as an enemy
and begin to accept it as a gift from God.

I personally spent many years fighting myself, trying to be someone
else, battling my nervous, high-strung temperament, always feeling a
bit angry about that, and trying to be someone else. The turning
point came when I could accept myself as I am. For one day the Lord
said, "Hey, this is all you've got! You're not going to get another
personality. You'd better settle down and live with it and learn to
do something with it.

"And, furthermore, if you'll just give the Real You into My hands —
not Super You, which you are not — if you'll turn that over to Me,
then you and I are going to get along fine, and I'll be able to use
you as you are."

The first step in learning to live above depression is to accept
yourself as you are. This does not mean you are to be controlled by
your temperament. After conversion, the Holy Spirit is to be in
control. But the Holy Spirit can only fill and control that which you
acknowledge and surrender to Him. While you cannot change your
temperament, you can allow it to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. We
left Brengle in deep depression, and I don't want to leave him there —
or you either. He said,


"Prayer brought no relief. Indeed, I seem to have lost the spirit of
prayer and the power to pray. Then I remembered to give thanks and to
praise God, though I felt no spirit of praise and thanksgiving.
Feeling, except that of utter depression and gloom, was gone. But as
I thanked God for the trial, it began to turn to blessing, light
glimmered, grew very slowly, and then broke through the gloom. The
depression passed away, and life was beautiful and desirable again,
and full of gracious incomings once more (Hall, Portrait of a
Prophet, p. 214).
"I remembered." Paul wrote to Timothy, "I
put you in remembrance." Tomorrow morning, remember that the love of
God is not grounded in your feelings, nor in your performance, and
not even in your love for Him. His love is grounded in His own
faithfulness. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His
mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning: "Great is
Thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion…Therefore will I hope in
Him" (Lamentations 3:23-24).
 
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speechless

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I find Psalms the most helpful when I am depressed. Psalm 23 and 27 really helped when I was at my lowest. God is using this depression to strengthen you. He always finds a way to spin something from bad to something divine.

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deut 31:8

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1

"The LORD is my light and my salvation -- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life -- of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm 27:1

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13 (this is very true)

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matt 11:28

"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken." Psalm 62:5-6

Keep your head up high. God loves you.

God bless,
April
 
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speechless

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"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me." Psalms 23:4

"Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

"The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble, And those who know Thy name will put their trust in Thee; For Thou, O LORD, hast not forsaken those who seek Thee." Psalms 9:9-10

"I sought the LORD, and He answered me, And delivered me from all my fears." Psalms 34:4

"This is my comfort in my affliction, That Thy word has revived me." Psalms 119:50

"He heals the brokenhearted, And binds up their wounds." Psalms 147:3

"'Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.'" Isaiah 41:10
 
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Psalms 130:1,2

Out of the depths I have cried to you, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice! Your eyes be attentive to the voice of my supplications.

Above all, it is important to seek and accept God's help. The psalmist called from the depths of despair and God heard him. He hears those who are hurting.

To God Be The Glory.

Cherylq :pray: :pray:
 
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