Instead of choosing depression, choose faith instead over your feelings and trust what God says is the truth!
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Navigating Depression: Hope for Heavy Hearts – This humble booklet is by no means a comprehensive study of depression; rather, it is a collection of reflections and lessons that Joni has learned in her long battle against the thick fog of dark emotions. It’s her hope that the following insights will help equip you to be more than a conqueror in your fight to find emotional and mental health.
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SHAUNA: Welcome to Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Today, Joni and I are thinking that every day, we do things because well, we feel like doing them.
JONI: And that’s a fact. Most people do things because they feel like doing them. You get up in the morning because you feel like you need to stretch, or you’re hungry for breakfast, or you feel like you really want to get to work. Maybe you work in the garden because you feel it’s satisfying and fulfilling; or you dig in your garden because you feel like carving time out for yourself. You head for the refrigerator because you feel like having a snack, or you feel like having a snack for a job well done, or for you, the refrigerator is an escape. We are more driven by our feelings than we would like to think.
But when you are depressed, you don’t feel. Or whatever you do feel isn’t very motivating; it’s not motivating you to do anything worthwhile. When you are depressed, more than likely, you feel like disappearing or crying or running away. It’s hard to get motivated; it’s hard to set goals or have purpose. And friend, I know what it’s like. I’m paralyzed. I don’t have use of my hands or legs. Someone has to feed me and do my toileting routines and give me a bath. And I could just go on. So, I’m with you when I say I feel like crying or disappearing or running away from it all. There are days when I say I do battle against depression. I’ve had enough experience in that battle to know that depression is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad enemy. Depression is a fearsome opponent that tries to convince me that there is no purpose to life; no plan. Depression is an enemy that insists that nothing is worth doing. That you may as well go back to bed because God and his promises just aren’t to be believed. Or maybe they’re not worth believing.
Listen, I cannot let that kind of depression hold sway. And so, when I wake up in the morning to face another day of paralysis in which I don’t feel like doing anything – I do not listen to my depression. True, I do not have a smile, and so I move into the day borrowing God’s smile. When depression is a constant battle, you’ve got to learn another way to live. You can’t live by your feelings; you have to learn to believe and act on what God says rather than what we feel what God says. It’s what it means to live by faith. And it’s hard. But you and I have all the resources of heaven; all the riches of Christ; we’ve got all the power we need to rise up and out of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad feelings. To paraphrase Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is being certain of what we do not feel.” When there is a debate between what my feelings say and what scripture says, my faith – albeit at times, weak – my faith will say, “No. Scripture wins.” Any other result and I am essentially telling God He can’t be trusted.
SHAUNA: Oh, friend, are you struggling with a difficult season? Remember that the best of Christians struggle with depression. And if you are, we want you to grab hold of these principles in an excellent booklet Joni wrote called Navigating Depression. It’s rich, it’s deep, and it’s yours for the asking at joniradio.org. Let’s beat that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad enemy called depression; let’s follow Scripture; let’s show God we know He can be trusted. Today, ask for your free booklet on depression at joniradio.org. And while you’re there, we here at Joni and Friends – well, we’d love to pray for you in your troubles. So, share your prayer needs with us today at joniradio.org. And as always, thanks for listening!
© Joni and Friends