Overcoming Depression through Hope in Christ

I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. But I think I can prescribe for you an antidote for depression. It’s not Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft or any other drug on the market. The cure for depression is a vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ.

I’m not trying to minimize your struggle or oversimplify the solution, but I promise you that if you will put your unwavering trust in the Lord, follow wholeheartedly in His ways and keep His love always before you as you seek to love others as He has loved you, then you will experience the joy of the Lord unlike what any drug can give (and without all those nasty side effects).

Joy is a mark of the saving and transforming work of God within the hearts and lives of those who believe. It’s part of the package of “fruit” the Holy Spirit produces in the lives of believers (Galatians 5:22). Those who respond to the grace of God in truth have been rescued “from the domain of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son” (Colossians 1:13). They understand that Jesus is the “light of the world,” and that “whoever follows [Him] will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

In John 10:10 Jesus says this: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” If you’re wracked with depression and misery and hopelessness, then the thief, the devil, has stolen what could be yours in Christ – an abundant, sweet and satisfying life!

Listen, I know many, many people deal daily or occasionally with depression. Let’s face it – life is hard. There are so many pressures from so many sources to simply fit in. We’re living in a culture that basically says that if you don’t look like you just stepped off the cover of a fashion magazine, then you’re ugly. If you don’t make enough money to drive a nice car and own all the latest tech gadgets, if you don’t wear the right name brands and if you don’t conform to the right world philosophy and ideology, then our society implies that you are worthless. It’s easy to see how so many could succumb to feelings of despair and despondency.

But God does not want you to live like that. And He’s made it possible so that you don’t have to. Sure, there are times when situations are difficult to endure. God never promised an easy road for anyone. Even to His own disciples Jesus says, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). Christians are not immune to hardship or grief or any other kinds of trouble. But we do have this promise from our Lord in His next breath: “But take heart; I have overcome the world!”

If you’re struggling with depression, dear friend, take this prescription from Psalm 42-43. There the writer faced with his own sense of discouragement cried out, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?” Then he answered with this declaration of confidence in the Lord: “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God.”

If you’ll put your hope in God, trusting in His Word, in His very great and precious promises, praising Him for His love, His mercy, His grace, His provision, His power, His protection, His presence, His faithfulness and all that’s He’s proven of His riches in Christ Jesus, then you can have victory over depression through Him!

Jesus has overcome the world and all its entrapments. The apostle Paul knew this as well as anyone. Though he faced greater hardships and sufferings and persecutions than most of us will ever know, Paul took heart and never lost hope in Christ. He had a vibrant relationship with Jesus, trusting and following His ways wholeheartedly, and never lost sight of His saving love and the mission God gave him.

Paul put it this way: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

That’s the kind of hope in Christ that can pull anyone out of the pit of depression and into the abundant life that Jesus alone can give.