Depression: 10 Principles for Christians to Remember

Depression is something that many Christians battle. Depression will be one of the subjects of a new series beginning September 30 at The Red Brick Church, Leading Your Emotions. Here is an excerpt of what I am wrote on our church web site about the series:

Are you emotions leading you? Or are you leading your emotions?

Make no mistake. Emotions are a gift. None of us would want to go through life without happiness or even sadness. Who would want to experience the birth of a child with the emotions of Mr. Spock? There is a time when we should feel the emotion of concern for the people we love. Emotions are gifts from God that allow us to experience life.

Yet, if we allow emotions to control our lives, they can be cruel dictators. Legitimate sadness can give way to the quicksand of depression. Proper concern quickly becomes unmanageable anxiety. Righteous anger can turn into bitterness or tantrums.

Too many people find that their emotions are leading them rather than they are leading their emotions. It makes life miserable.

It is not time for the series yet. But until then here is some encouragement. A few weeks ago, David Murray shared 10 Principles for Christians to Remember About Depression. It is a post well worth reading:

1. All kinds of people get depression: Depression smashes caricatures about depression. It’s not a choice that weak losers make. No, it affects rich and poor, the very old and the very young and every age in between, Type A and B…and every other type too.

2. Build relationship in order to build trust: It’s the old “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” As with pulpit ministry, our words carry so much more weight and credibility when there is a relationship between the speaker and hearer.

3. Good listening is massive medicine: Sometimes we run out of things to say or don’t know what to say. However, don’t underestimate the healing power of real listening. I experienced this recently when I shared with my wife an anxiety I had been carrying. There wasn’t much she could say to resolve the problem, but I slept so much better after she simply listened to me.

4. Jumping to simplistic conclusions is . . .

Read the rest here.