I'm Depressed
18 My joy is gone; grief is upon me;
my heart is sick within me.
19 Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
from the length and breadth of the land:
"Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King not in her?"
"Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
and with their foreign idols?"
20 "The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved."
21 For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
Jeremiah 8:18-21
What do you do when you are depressed? Some of you are there right now. For some the clouds have broken and the sun is shining again. For others, it is around the corner. Here are a few things God’s word teaches us about depression.\
Unpeel it. Depression is like an onion. It is multifaceted. Look at the structure in Jeremiah 8. Like an onion with different layers, there are different layers to the sadness of these verses. Here we see that the depression is affecting the prophet in verses 18, 19, and 21. The people are affected in the second part of verse 19 and verse 20. God is speaking in the third part of verse 19.
Depression feels like a trap (like sickness, grief, sin…). We get so accostomed to it, we begin to think everything is normal. My brother had terrible reflux for years without complaining because he thought it was normal to hurt like he was hurting. Finally he physically lost so much weight that his parents started investigating what was going on, and found this terrible pain he had been experiencing. Now, after surgery, and some years of healing, he is healthy again. This pain had to be unpeeled. It had to be addressed. So an important first question is, “Do you want to be dealt with?” Some people don’t. Some people have become not only accostomed to the pain, but now it is their identity. They don’t know what would be left of them if they lost their pain too. So think hard about that question, “Do you want to deal with this depression?”
‚ Ask, “What is Lost?” Arch Hart says that the common cold of emotions is reactive depression. This is usually depression in reaction to something lost. Jeremiah lost much, and he knew it. He was in the priestly class, lived in suburban Jerusalem, and all that was going the way of the buffalo. His main loss was his people. They were lost to sin. Their wound was his wound (verse 21). Depression that lasts is not from just the loss, but from the attachment to the loss. We are not invited to counsel Jeremiah, but to learn about the heart of God from Jeremiah.
ƒ Ask, “What is real and what isn’t?” Judah (who Jeremiah was prophesying to) was in la la land. The land of make believe. They were living in denial. Their question in verse 19 show us that. They thought their security was the temple and their heritage—their past. (Jeremiah 7.4, 8-11, 30-34). They had false security. They got mixed up and we do too with the following:
Trusting in the temple instead of trusting in the God who fills the temple with his glory.
Loving the benefits/gifts instead of loving the Giver.
Loving forgiveness instead of loving the Forgiver.
Loving salvation instead of loving the Savior.
Loving the Bible instead of loving the God who reveals himself through the Bible
„ Ask, “Where is God in this?” No one grieves more over our sin and wounds than God. Can you imagine the grief of the Father who has kids that say, “I’d rather have another dad.” Or, “We don’t need you.” Or they simply stop talking to him? They were lost and they didn’t know it. Jeremiah knew where God was. God was where he promised to be—with him and for him (Jeremiah 1).
… Ask, “What is God possibly producing?” Look up Psalm 129.3 and Romans 5.3-5. God doesn’t want to waste this time in your life. He wants to produce something through it. God might be using this time to plough up some hard area in your heart so he can produce some beautiful fruit in your life. Does the plow hurt? You better believe it. But what is he producing?
† Go to the cross and say to the Lord, “by your wounds, I am healed (1 Peter 2.24).” How do we go to the cross? We must go humble and empty-handed. Let every thing go there—unload! What do we hear at the cross? “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” What do we see at the cross? We see what we deserved. We see where we should have been. We see our Jesus. We see that God has sent one to take our loss, our judgment and our junk and deal with it—for good. What happens when we leave the cross? Well, you can’t take any of your old stuff with you, because it nailed up there. Leave it. Don’t go try to get it down later.
‡ Don’t waste your depression. At the cross, God also gives you a mission. Read 2 Corinthians 1.3-5. God wants to give comfort to you. He also wants to give comfort through you
my heart is sick within me.
19 Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
from the length and breadth of the land:
"Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King not in her?"
"Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
and with their foreign idols?"
20 "The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved."
21 For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
Jeremiah 8:18-21
What do you do when you are depressed? Some of you are there right now. For some the clouds have broken and the sun is shining again. For others, it is around the corner. Here are a few things God’s word teaches us about depression.\
Unpeel it. Depression is like an onion. It is multifaceted. Look at the structure in Jeremiah 8. Like an onion with different layers, there are different layers to the sadness of these verses. Here we see that the depression is affecting the prophet in verses 18, 19, and 21. The people are affected in the second part of verse 19 and verse 20. God is speaking in the third part of verse 19.
Depression feels like a trap (like sickness, grief, sin…). We get so accostomed to it, we begin to think everything is normal. My brother had terrible reflux for years without complaining because he thought it was normal to hurt like he was hurting. Finally he physically lost so much weight that his parents started investigating what was going on, and found this terrible pain he had been experiencing. Now, after surgery, and some years of healing, he is healthy again. This pain had to be unpeeled. It had to be addressed. So an important first question is, “Do you want to be dealt with?” Some people don’t. Some people have become not only accostomed to the pain, but now it is their identity. They don’t know what would be left of them if they lost their pain too. So think hard about that question, “Do you want to deal with this depression?”
‚ Ask, “What is Lost?” Arch Hart says that the common cold of emotions is reactive depression. This is usually depression in reaction to something lost. Jeremiah lost much, and he knew it. He was in the priestly class, lived in suburban Jerusalem, and all that was going the way of the buffalo. His main loss was his people. They were lost to sin. Their wound was his wound (verse 21). Depression that lasts is not from just the loss, but from the attachment to the loss. We are not invited to counsel Jeremiah, but to learn about the heart of God from Jeremiah.
ƒ Ask, “What is real and what isn’t?” Judah (who Jeremiah was prophesying to) was in la la land. The land of make believe. They were living in denial. Their question in verse 19 show us that. They thought their security was the temple and their heritage—their past. (Jeremiah 7.4, 8-11, 30-34). They had false security. They got mixed up and we do too with the following:
Trusting in the temple instead of trusting in the God who fills the temple with his glory.
Loving the benefits/gifts instead of loving the Giver.
Loving forgiveness instead of loving the Forgiver.
Loving salvation instead of loving the Savior.
Loving the Bible instead of loving the God who reveals himself through the Bible
„ Ask, “Where is God in this?” No one grieves more over our sin and wounds than God. Can you imagine the grief of the Father who has kids that say, “I’d rather have another dad.” Or, “We don’t need you.” Or they simply stop talking to him? They were lost and they didn’t know it. Jeremiah knew where God was. God was where he promised to be—with him and for him (Jeremiah 1).
… Ask, “What is God possibly producing?” Look up Psalm 129.3 and Romans 5.3-5. God doesn’t want to waste this time in your life. He wants to produce something through it. God might be using this time to plough up some hard area in your heart so he can produce some beautiful fruit in your life. Does the plow hurt? You better believe it. But what is he producing?
† Go to the cross and say to the Lord, “by your wounds, I am healed (1 Peter 2.24).” How do we go to the cross? We must go humble and empty-handed. Let every thing go there—unload! What do we hear at the cross? “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” What do we see at the cross? We see what we deserved. We see where we should have been. We see our Jesus. We see that God has sent one to take our loss, our judgment and our junk and deal with it—for good. What happens when we leave the cross? Well, you can’t take any of your old stuff with you, because it nailed up there. Leave it. Don’t go try to get it down later.
‡ Don’t waste your depression. At the cross, God also gives you a mission. Read 2 Corinthians 1.3-5. God wants to give comfort to you. He also wants to give comfort through you
Comments