Sunday, August 23, 2015

DEPRESSION & BIBLICAL SOLUTIONS - HELP IS OUT THERE

1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night,
While they continually say to me,
“Where is your God?”
4 When I remember these things,
I pour out my soul within me.
For I used to go with the multitude;
I went with them to the house of God,
With the voice of joy and praise,
With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
For the help of His countenance......(Psalm 42:1-5)
Webster's dictionary describes depression as "a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies". That is a huge mouthful and unfortunately, all of it is true.

In times like these, it is small wonder that the ability to cope escapes more and more people, in all strata of society. Depression evades no one. We saw what happened in the recent past when the son of US mega-pastor Rick Warren unfortunately committed suicide, after almost an entire lifetime of depression.


Depression is not something to be dismissed by the super-religious by telling folks under duress to "get a hold of themselves" or "why don't you pray more....or read the Bible more" etc. It takes more than sermonizing. It takes love, commitment, counseling added to the Scriptures and Prayer to beat back the five major types of depression which I discuss in the video teaching below.


Counseling is important and critical to this, but it HAS TO BE from a Christian counselor. Most churches do NOT have this much-needed service and most times, the pastoral staff is ill-equipped biblically to handle these issues so they lean mostly on pop-psychology solutions. If you are someone who needs to reach out and seek or assist another in whipping depression, please look up your nearest Celebrate Recovery chapter in your town. 

There is a Celebrate Recovery group in almost every major town in the United States. There is even a Celebrate Recovery (CR) Bible now! There are apps for PDA's, anything which will keep a person with a problem plugged in 24/7 until we beat this thing. 

CLICK HERE TO FIND THE NEAREST CELEBRATE RECOVERY GROUP TO YOU

This is the best way to help a friend defeat depression. The mentoring, teaching and fellowship will bring value, peace and purpose to someone's life and the great thing about it, is CR is based ENTIRELY on the Word of God, with Jesus Christ as the foundation!
WATCH THIS SHORT TEACHING ON DEPRESSION AND HOW TO DEFEAT IT




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