I find myself becoming depressed about the world and all the terrible
killings and now recently a man shot a minister and son plus some
church people because he didnt like a message and he was considered
a depressed person..... I become so sad and yet I know this must be
more of the fearful things coming upon the earth.... I know GOD has not given us the spirit of fear. Is this depression normal I am experiencing or should I just "knuckle up"
depression/greatsadness?
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depression/greatsadness?
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
Hmm.
Are you just depressed about the awful things going on in the world, or is your depression coming from things going on in your own life?
Usually depression about global events like this comes in part from depression about things going on in one's own life. One may or may not be aware of the true source of the depression, either.
Damon
Are you just depressed about the awful things going on in the world, or is your depression coming from things going on in your own life?
Usually depression about global events like this comes in part from depression about things going on in one's own life. One may or may not be aware of the true source of the depression, either.
Damon
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
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Dear friend/guest,
Being vexed about the evil in the world is (like all vexation) unpleasant, but can actually be a very positive spiritual "vital sign." The world around us is obviously becoming more and more numb to its own moral degeneration, resulting in a diminishing public sense of shock or outrage at things that would have been found intolerable by even the most jaded unbelievers thirty years ago. The ability to be upset over corruption is an indicator that the desensitizition process has not fully overcome your resistance.
It is said of Lot, while living in Sodom, that he was "oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)." (2 Peter 2:7-8). The real difficulty is not that degenerating social conditions irritate your spirit, but that there is relatively such a small pool of like-minded fellow-resisters, with whom to find fellowship.
On the other hand, if the depression is not merely disgust for sin, but rather fear for one's own safety and security in a world of such wickedness and disorder, then the solution is that which applies to all fears and anxieties...namely resignation to the will of God. This quality is the result of the cultivation of a consistent mindset of faith in the sovereignty of God, coupled with that unrestrained love for Him that is prepared to surrender everything, including one's own life, in the desire to please Him.
Lots of people say that to recommend "trusting and loving God" as a solution to anxiety is a "shallow" or even "hollow" piece of advice. Those who raise this objection simply demonstrate (to anyone for whom God is a living reality) how little experience with, and reality of God the objector really has known personally.
Replacing the biblical solutions for anxiety with psychological (or chemical) ones may have worked satisfactorily for people facing the relatively tame world of the twentieth century, but coping with the total insanity of the twenty-first century world calls for stronger medicine--nothing short of a return to the real solutions that Christians have historically resorted to in similar ages. These remedies are spiritual in nature, and require the pulling out of all the stops in our devotion to God.
Those who wrote the Psalms were not deficient in this personal experience, which is why I often have found deep fellowship with few mortals so much as with the psalmists!
Whether your depression is due to disgust for evil in the abstract, or due to fear of an unknown, but foreboding future, you can do nothing better than to draw near to God and to cry out to Him, as did the psalmist:
"Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men..." (Ps.12:1). I recommend that you read the rest of that psalm (as well as Psalms 27, 37, 61, 73, and others) and see whether you can relate. You will feel less alone, when in fellowship with other godly folks--even if you have to go back a few millennia to find them!
Being vexed about the evil in the world is (like all vexation) unpleasant, but can actually be a very positive spiritual "vital sign." The world around us is obviously becoming more and more numb to its own moral degeneration, resulting in a diminishing public sense of shock or outrage at things that would have been found intolerable by even the most jaded unbelievers thirty years ago. The ability to be upset over corruption is an indicator that the desensitizition process has not fully overcome your resistance.
It is said of Lot, while living in Sodom, that he was "oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)." (2 Peter 2:7-8). The real difficulty is not that degenerating social conditions irritate your spirit, but that there is relatively such a small pool of like-minded fellow-resisters, with whom to find fellowship.
On the other hand, if the depression is not merely disgust for sin, but rather fear for one's own safety and security in a world of such wickedness and disorder, then the solution is that which applies to all fears and anxieties...namely resignation to the will of God. This quality is the result of the cultivation of a consistent mindset of faith in the sovereignty of God, coupled with that unrestrained love for Him that is prepared to surrender everything, including one's own life, in the desire to please Him.
Lots of people say that to recommend "trusting and loving God" as a solution to anxiety is a "shallow" or even "hollow" piece of advice. Those who raise this objection simply demonstrate (to anyone for whom God is a living reality) how little experience with, and reality of God the objector really has known personally.
Replacing the biblical solutions for anxiety with psychological (or chemical) ones may have worked satisfactorily for people facing the relatively tame world of the twentieth century, but coping with the total insanity of the twenty-first century world calls for stronger medicine--nothing short of a return to the real solutions that Christians have historically resorted to in similar ages. These remedies are spiritual in nature, and require the pulling out of all the stops in our devotion to God.
Those who wrote the Psalms were not deficient in this personal experience, which is why I often have found deep fellowship with few mortals so much as with the psalmists!
Whether your depression is due to disgust for evil in the abstract, or due to fear of an unknown, but foreboding future, you can do nothing better than to draw near to God and to cry out to Him, as did the psalmist:
"Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men..." (Ps.12:1). I recommend that you read the rest of that psalm (as well as Psalms 27, 37, 61, 73, and others) and see whether you can relate. You will feel less alone, when in fellowship with other godly folks--even if you have to go back a few millennia to find them!
Last edited by FAST WebCrawler [Crawler] on Mon Mar 28, 2005 4:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Reason:
In Jesus,
Steve
Steve
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YES
I am sorrowful not for me but for the terrible wicked done to the weak/children/elderly.... How cruel people are and even christians
(some) have NO tolerance for weaker in character like myself. Yes,
I shall go the the ROCK that is higher than I........This is why I listen to your radio show and post here because you are knowledgeable and yet
sensitive enough to hear the cries of GOD's own. I dont care about MY
life as much as the others about me.
I am sorrowful not for me but for the terrible wicked done to the weak/children/elderly.... How cruel people are and even christians
(some) have NO tolerance for weaker in character like myself. Yes,
I shall go the the ROCK that is higher than I........This is why I listen to your radio show and post here because you are knowledgeable and yet
sensitive enough to hear the cries of GOD's own. I dont care about MY
life as much as the others about me.
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
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_Anonymous
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Hi Guest. I'd like to quote something you said:
My answer? STOP ALLOWING IT!!!
You believe that you have no power to do anything about it, and so you don't have any power. CHANGE YOUR BELIEF, AND YOU'LL CHANGE YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES. It really is that simple.
What, you say? You don't have the money? You don't have the clothes? You don't have the job? You don't have whatever it is that you feel will make you worthy in the eyes of others to not be treated cruelly? But it's not what you have that makes you worthy. Yes, the world does think that way, but as a Christian you shouldn't! You're accepting the fact that the world is a respecter of persons. DON'T! Otherwise, you're actually responsible for allowing others to continue dishing out the cruelty and the insensitivity to you and to others. Is that responsibility something that you want on your head?
You have the power to stand up for what's right, but you have to take it and accept it - just like you have to accept salvation for it to be worth anything to you.
Now, Jesus tells us to "turn the other cheek." But WHY? Because we have the power to hold people who sin against us accountable, but we choose not to exercise it - just as Jesus did when He was crucified - that's why! In order for people's own consciences to hold them accountable for what they're doing wrong to us, that's why! But that's not always how we should be, and especially not when we believe that we don't have the power to hold others accountable for sinning against us. Sometimes we shouldn't turn the other cheek, because by doing so we allow others to go on sinning and to go on hurting us and others. Wisdom is knowing when to turn the other cheek and knowing when not to. And if you feel that you don't have the wisdom to know, then pray and ask God. He'll make it clear to you.
Damon
Guest, do you believe that you are worthy of people treating you with dignity and respect? Of not treading you down like dirt? The answer you gave me tells me that you subconsciously don't believe you're worthy! And therefore, you keep creating those circumstances to happen to you. The reason that you feel depressed for the people in the world that suffer cruelty is that you feel that the world has treated you cruelly.friend/guest wrote:How cruel people are and even christians
(some) have NO tolerance for weaker in character like myself.
My answer? STOP ALLOWING IT!!!
You believe that you have no power to do anything about it, and so you don't have any power. CHANGE YOUR BELIEF, AND YOU'LL CHANGE YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES. It really is that simple.
What, you say? You don't have the money? You don't have the clothes? You don't have the job? You don't have whatever it is that you feel will make you worthy in the eyes of others to not be treated cruelly? But it's not what you have that makes you worthy. Yes, the world does think that way, but as a Christian you shouldn't! You're accepting the fact that the world is a respecter of persons. DON'T! Otherwise, you're actually responsible for allowing others to continue dishing out the cruelty and the insensitivity to you and to others. Is that responsibility something that you want on your head?
You have the power to stand up for what's right, but you have to take it and accept it - just like you have to accept salvation for it to be worth anything to you.
Now, Jesus tells us to "turn the other cheek." But WHY? Because we have the power to hold people who sin against us accountable, but we choose not to exercise it - just as Jesus did when He was crucified - that's why! In order for people's own consciences to hold them accountable for what they're doing wrong to us, that's why! But that's not always how we should be, and especially not when we believe that we don't have the power to hold others accountable for sinning against us. Sometimes we shouldn't turn the other cheek, because by doing so we allow others to go on sinning and to go on hurting us and others. Wisdom is knowing when to turn the other cheek and knowing when not to. And if you feel that you don't have the wisdom to know, then pray and ask God. He'll make it clear to you.
Damon
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
Hi Damon
Seems you might have made a bit of a leap there in assuming Friend/ Guest is troubled for his/her own sake. Someone I know very well has great empathy for the downtrodden but doesn't feel unworthy at all of being treated with respect.
Yours in Christ, Homer
Seems you might have made a bit of a leap there in assuming Friend/ Guest is troubled for his/her own sake. Someone I know very well has great empathy for the downtrodden but doesn't feel unworthy at all of being treated with respect.
Yours in Christ, Homer
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
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Reason:
A Berean
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