The First Step In Defeating Depression

After finding out the main culprit of depression in the last article, you now need to start getting the steps to eliminate the problem. When you have confident trust in your Creator, then you experience no sense of deprivation because you know without a doubt that God’s, got your back. Thus, no depression. Why? Because you are thankful for everything.

Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree [was] good for food, and that it [was] pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make [one] wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they [were] naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

There’s one more thing that needs to be pointed out here in verse 6. See where it says that “she took thereof, and did eat?” Note the commas here. Now I’ve already pointed out the fact that her husband was standing right there with her the entire time.

However, the other thing that I need to draw your attention to is the fact that there was a pause; a comma after she took the fruit. There was a pause after she ate it. There was a short stop; a semi colon after she gave it to Adam, and there was a full stop; a period after he ate it.

When did their eyes get opened? After the period. It didn’t happen after the first comma, nor the second comma. It didn’t happen after the semi colon either. The fall was confirmed grammatically by a period.

In other words, even though Eve took the apple, and ate the apple, neither of their eyes got opened. Their eyes still didn’t get opened after she gave the apple to Adam and he took it from her. It was only when Adam ate the apple, that both their eyes were opened. Why? Because the responsibility and commission had been given to him, not her. She was not responsible for the fall. He was.

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There is nothing in scripture that is written that does not have meaning, whether it is hidden in the language, the definition, the culture, or the grammar. Everything in scripture is significant. We may not understand all the variables and every single application, but know that God has a purpose for everything, and it’s not always part of His purpose for us to understand. He wants us to trust.

A lack of trust or what some refer to as “blind faith,” is the reason that people fall into depressions. When you don’t know and trust God, you always insist on being able to understand everything. You want to know “Why?” and you are not satisfied if you don’t know and understand the reasons for the events in your life.

Pro 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Pro 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Pro 3:7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

When we encounter something that our ground view is insufficient to define or answer, we feel deprived and subsequently depressed. If we would trust in the Lord, the one who has the aerial view, we would have peace and joy no matter what was happening around us.

When Adam bit that apple, he gave Satan the victory because by making that decision, and taking that action, Adam proclaimed, “God, I don’t trust you.” Basically he “shunned” God, which is what we do when we don’t have faith and trust Him. This results in “oppress-shun, digress-shun, and depress-shun.” When we are experiencing dis-ease, that ought to be a signal to us that we need to return to our source of comfort to be strengthened.

The reason people fall into depression is the following:

They fail to link their identity with God, their Creator. This causes insecurity in their person hood, wherein they compare themselves and their lives against others; creating a measuring stick that cannot be overcome by earthly means. This also makes it easy for the enemy to attack them with doubt. It is the doubt that causes the lust of the eyes because the grass is always greener on the other side. Sodom looks great when you’re standing miles away in the desert.
Once the arrow of doubt hits it’s target, the receptors run feedback through our perceptions and if no Word is kicked into the equation as a type of filibuster to interrupt the attack, then a paradigm shift occurs in our perspectives, and our view of everything around us is altered ever so slightly. If this process continues unchecked, it will alter our world view, and cause us to turn away from the faith. Because of this doubt instigated change, we walk in more fear because we feel less secure. That lack of security breeds lust of the flesh, because now we have to find “things” to fill that emptiness.
At that point, the pride of life takes over because we attempt to use everything around us to replace God; to replace the security we had in Him. We lie to ourselves because we want to believe that we are self-sufficient; that we are our own gods and don’t need anyone, or any higher power outside ourselves. We do everything we can to feel a sense of worth, because we no longer have that; so we try to fill our lives with any association or material thing that we think will give us that intrinsic sense of value.

Let me sum it up this way. There are three keys to the attack.

Lust of the Eyes - infiltration by doubt
Lust of the Flesh - caused by subsequent fear of loss
Pride of Life - the result of the lies we tell ourselves about our resulting bad decisions.

Those three attack the following:

The gift of Power - dominion given to us by God - stolen from us by Satan; something we try in vain, within ourselves to reclaim.
The gift of Relationship - initiated by faith, harnessed by trust - what Satan wants to kill
The gift of Life - Immortality - destroyed by Satan - resurrected by Christ into a river of abundance; you will never thirst again.

How do we overcome? We need a spirit of thankfulness. If we thank God for everything, even when we don’t feel like it; even when things appear to be going wrong; even when we don’t understand the reasons why; if we stand in faith on the promises of God, we will always make it through.

1Th 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

We need to stand in faith with a grateful heart, even when we don’t immediately see the outcome we are hoping for, or even if that outcome never happens; because we trust in God who has an aerial view of our lives, and knows what is best for us. (Final part)