I’ve been absent for a month—meandering in the wilderness.
I won’t ask if you missed me but, if you haven’t noticed, my last three blogs were guest posts. I value what each of them had to say, but I also shared their words because I had nothing to say.
Spiritually depressed, without apparent reason, I wondered if I’d ever blog again.
Have you been soul empty? Lost the joy of the Lord?
Earlier this summer, I warned readers of Taking a Vacation from God which can lead to spiritual apathy. That wasn’t my case.
Spiritual blindness sprang up overnight. Blinded to the cause, I begged for a lifeline out of the miry pit.
Read my Bible, but His Word didn’t register.
Prayed, but my words fell flat.
Went to church, but the manna only nourished me for an hour.
I couldn’t blame my current circumstances for life was sweet. Or a lack of spiritual meat because I’d been studying God’s names; in awe of His love for me.
So I waited for the cloud to pass. My only hope in Him.
Then Pastor Joe referred me to the book Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Its Cure by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
The author said the cause of spiritual depression can be someone’s temperament, physical ailment, or unbelief. But another cause can be a reaction after a great blessing or exceptional experience such as Elijah in 1 Kings.
Made sense. After weeks of preparing a talk, He Knows My Name, my spiritual high came crashing. Is that how astronauts feel when they return from celestial heights to Earth?
What’s the cure? According to Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Psalm 42 is the antidote.
The Psalmist, King David, is depressed by his circumstances, but instead of commiserating, he talks to himself.
“We must talk to ourselves instead of allowing ourselves to talk to us.”
Lloyd-Martin explains. “Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. They start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc.”
Do you listen to the voices in your head? Is the main voice talking your Self?
We need to learn how to handle ourselves.
“You have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’—what business have you to be be disquieted?
You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’—instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way.
“Remind yourself of God. Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do.”
Ending on this note: “I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.”
Is this cure sure?
Well, I wouldn’t be writing this post if I hadn’t found the joy of the Lord even in this…..
Wilderness photo: www.JennyWredePhotography.com
Depressed woman: Pixabay
Even In This 