“Depression is anger turned inward” (Marilyn Appelbaum). Children become depressed when the have unresolved anger in their lives. They have to develop the skills to deal with anger in a healthy way. Let me give you an example. Susie came home from school dirty. Mom and Dad had a hard day at work. The events of her parent’s day caused them to respond rashly. Susie did not understand why they were so mad. At this point Mom and Dad’s reaction appear harmless. However, let’s add the ingredient of constant arguing and fighting between mom and dad. To some degree, this in and of itself causes instability from the child’s perspective. Due to the parent’s unhealthy relationship, Susie learned negative ways to deal with anger instead of healthy ways. Then mix a couple of nights of abuse per week. Adding abuse as an ingredient creates an even more fertile ground for depression. Did you know that abuse typically comes from those that a child knows and trusts the most? This teaches a child that you cannot trust even loved ones. Adding divorce is the ultimate ingredient. Divorce shreds the fabric that holds the foundation together in a child’s life.
At this point a child feel hopeless and helpless. The child feels helpless because she has all of this anger inside of her and no place for it to go. The adults in her life are bigger, so she cannot take it out on them. Hopeless because she cannot communicate what she is feeling to even her mom or dad.
Genetically God has structured the DNA structure very similar between adults and children. What happened to Susie is not much different than what happens to adults. We become angry at things that are beyond our control. We are helpless because we have this emotion building up inside and no place for it to go. We have not learned healthy ways to deal with anger. We become hopeless when we cannot even talk about it with our Heavenly Father. This ultimately causes more frustration and failure which leads to the dark path of depression.
“A drunk stumbled along a baptismal service on Sunday afternoon down by the river. He proceeded to walk down into the water and stood next to the Preacher. The minister turned and noticed the old drunk and said, “Mister, Are you ready to find Jesus?” The drunk looks back and says, “Yes, Preacher. I sure am.” The minister then dunked the fellow under the water and pulled him right back up. “Have you found Jesus?” the preacher asks. “No, I didn’t!” says the drunk. The Preacher then dunks him under for quite a bit longer, brings him up and says, “Now, brother, have you found Jesus?” “No I did not Preacher.” The Preacher in disgust holds the man under for at least 30 seconds this time brings hem out of the water and says in a harsh tone, “Friend, are you sure you haven’t found Jesus yet?” The old drunk wipes his eyes and says to the Preacher… “Are you sure this is where he fell in?” Contributed by Jeff Strite, sermoncentral.com.
The issue here is one of identity. Neither the Preacher nor the drunk had truly identified the others motive or understanding. Depression is not a spirit of God! Therefore we can overcome it! Tell your neighbor, “No more cave dwelling for me?” God has a word for us today! He has made a way to overcome depression! Before we can overcome depression, we must first be able to identify its signs.
1st sign-Depression is led by fear. (3,4,10,14). What had just happened to Elijah? Would you agree that Elijah had been on the Mountain? He prayed and it had not rained for 3 ½ years, he challenged the false prophets of Baal to a contest between their god and his God and won, he prayed and it began to rain, he even ran before, escorting Ahab to Jezebel’s entrance. Then the adrenaline rush stopped. We need to be aware of our mountain top experiences, because as high as the wave is, the valley following it is equally as low. Elijah ran for his life. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 1Tim. 1:7
We need to recognize that fear is not from God!
“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”” Rom 8:15. We truly are adopted sons and daughter of God.
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:6-7.
Could Elijah’s fear have been motivated by his anger at Jezebel? After all, had she not seen the might acts of God that he had done? Did she still not recognize that he was a man of God? Do you pick up on the anxiety in his life? Anger that is not dealt with will turn into depression! When someone threatens us, or our loved ones, how do we feel? The bible teaches, “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27nor give place to the devil.” Eph. 4:26-27. It is not a sin to get angry. Jesus even got angry. It is a sin not to deal with it. Why? When we do not deal with our anger, we give a place in our life for the devil. Our life is suppose to be Holy, Consecrated to God. There is no room for the devil. Let’s recognize where our unresolved anger leads us and avoid the trap of sin.
2nd sign- Depression leads down. (9). Elijah had left his family, people, even his apprentice, now he is in a cold dark cave alone. The second sign is one often overlooked and excused. It is the sign of loneliness. Elijah was in a cold dark cave alone. Fear leads us to our cold dark cave. You have heard the saying, “The loneliest place to be is in the midst of a crowd, and still be alone.” When things do not go as we plan, we become discouraged and want to quit. Just like Elijah. We forget the mighty miracles that God has done, and only remember our failures.
Elijah was at the mountain of God, but instead of worshipping, he was in a cave. Look at all of the sacrifices he had made to get there. He left his family and friends, he had traveled for 40 days, and he had only eaten twice. How many times do we come to church after making huge sacrifices like not sleeping all night, or exhausted from work, we have battled the kids and spouse, lack of money, etc. Only to get to church and instead of worshipping God, instead of our minds and hearts being focused on God, we are thinking about the stresses of work. We are focused on the last argument with our spouse. We are allowing Satan to distract us with guilt tactics. We are just like Elijah, at the mountain of God, but not worshipping. We have isolated ourselves from even God. Depression has set in!
Let’s not forget that God never made us to spend large amounts of time alone. “And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” Gen. 2:18. Large amounts of time alone should be a red flag to us. Large amounts of time without God should definitely tell us something is wrong. “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;” Eph. 4:17-18. When we choose to spend large amounts of time away from God we are acting just like the Gentiles! The Gentiles had their understanding darkened, and were alienated from God. We are not alienated because of Christ’s blood!
3rd sign-Depression looks to self. (10,14) “I”. God does not get any credit. Elijah took his eyes off of God and placed them onto self. He looked at his accomplishments and based his decision solely on circumstance. Depression causes us to take our eyes off of God and place them on ourselves. All we see then is what we can or cannot do, what we have or do not have. Ultimately this opens the floodgates of depression.
So how do we overcome depression? We do like Abraham did. Abraham is noted for his faith. “And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 21and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. 22And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 23Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, 24but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Rom. 4:19-5:1.
Did Abraham look to himself? His wife? His best friends or neighbor? No! He looked to the ONE who promised! And it was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. This is how we obtain righteousness! It was not written just for Abraham (23-24)! God will impute to us the very same righteousness if we believe! WE can be delivered! We have been justified! We have peace with God! No more cave dwelling for me!
1st sign-Depression is _________ by fear. (3,4,10,14).
2nd sign- Depression ____________ down. (9).
3rd sign-Depression ____________ to self. (10,14)
