My Hope Is In God

Notes

Some 'personal' observations about depression:

1. Those who walk with God will battle depression… not everyone, but many!
2. God is not afraid of your depression!
3. Your depression does not have to be wasted!

Lessons learned from Psalm 42:1-11:

1. Learn to talk to yourself.
2. Remember God. {Who He is... What He has done}
3. Decide to talk to yourself about God every day.

Verses

{ Psalm 42:1-11 NLT}{Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.” 1 Kings 19:4 NLT}{“Yet I curse the day I was born! May no one celebrate the day of my birth. I curse the messenger who told my father, “Good news—you have a son!” Oh, that I had died in my mother’s womb, that her body had been my grave! Why was I ever born? My entire life has been filled with trouble, sorrow, and shame.” Jeremiah 20:14-18 NLT}{“I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief. I am exhausted and completely crushed. My groans come from an anguished heart.” Psalm 38:6, 8 NLT}{“I hate my life and don’t want to go on living. Oh, leave me alone for my few remaining days.” “And now my life seeps away. Depression haunts my days.” Job 7:16, 30:16 NLT}{“I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.” Job 42:5 NLT}{“God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 NLT}{“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?” Psalm 42:5 NLT}{“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again – my Savior and my God! Now I am deeply discouraged, but I will remember you— even from distant Mount Hermon, the source of the Jordan, from the land of Mount Mizar. I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me. But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.” Psalm 42:5-8 NLT}{“Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.” Lamentations 3:21-23 NLT}{“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and my God!” Psalm 42:11 NLT}{“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again— my Savior and my God!” Psalm 43:5 NLT}{Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NLT}

Quotes

Brennan Manning : “When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games.” (The Raggamuffin Gospel); Aaron Loy : “I am a pastor and I struggle with depression. I know you’re not really supposed to say that as a Christian, and certainly not as a pastor, but the truth is I have struggled on and off with depression for as long as I can remember.” (); David Murray : “Depression afflicts the strong and the weak, the clever and the simple, those with a happy temperament and those of a melancholy temperament. Increased understanding of depression will make us more sympathetic and useful to people suffering from it.” (Christians Get Depressed Too ); Mother Teresa : “Lord, my God, who am I that You should forsake me? The child of your love and now become as the most hated one, the one You have thrown away as unwanted and unloved. I call, I cling, I want and there is no One to answer, no One on Whom I can cling – no, No One. Alone… I am told God loves me, and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul." (Come Be My Light); Charles Spurgeon : “I find myself frequently depressed, perhaps more so than any other person here.” (Sermons); Steve & Robyn Bloem : “David and other psalmists often found themselves deeply depressed for various reasons. They did not, however, apologize for what they were feeling, nor did they confess it as sin. It was a legitimate part of their relationship with God. They interacted with Him through the context of their depression.” (Broken Minds); Tullian Tchividjian : “God meets people in their suffering rather than on the other side of it.” (Glorious Ruin ); D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones : “We must talk to ourselves instead of allowing ‘ourselves’ to talk to us. Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?” (Spiritual Depression); D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones : “Now the psalmists treatment in Psalm 42 was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why so downcast, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, ‘Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.’” (Spiritual Depression); Charles Spurgeon : “I find myself frequently depressed - perhaps more so than any other person here. And I find no better cure for that depression than to trust in the Lord with all my heart, and seek to realize afresh the power of the peace-speaking blood of Jesus, and His infinite love in dying upon the cross to put away all my transgressions.” (Sermons);