Overcoming Depression #1 of 2

There are multiple meanings for depression, but here are a few: unhappiness, downheartedness, despondency, discouragement, despair, hopelessness, desolation, and misery. Because of depression, some people withdraw from most human interaction, get on prescribed medication, or want to give up on life. Depression causes people to feel empty and unwanted. Some snap out of it within a short amount of time, and some seem to live in it for a portion of their life. Although there are times to seek medical help, a large portion of depression can be helped by controlling one’s attitude, feelings, and emotions. Allow me to give a few ways to help you overcome depressing stages that frequently linger in the shadows of your mind. 

Fix your focus.

Money, styles, and almost everything in this world changes regularly. You will never be able to please everyone, be the coolest person, or keep up with the latest trends. If you focus on the wrong things, you will become discouraged and depressed. Many deathbed confessions have revealed a unsatisfied focus. The dying person wishes they would have spent more time with family, thought more of God, and lived more for others. No one should have to come to the end of life before reevaluating their life, so do it now. What are you focusing on? Don’t run after something that can never satisfy you, look to Jesus. Don’t live for what will not fulfill you. Life is rushing by you. Enjoy what God has given you and where God has placed you. Living for success (materially or ministerially) is a moving target. Learn to be satisfied where God has placed you, with whom God has associated you, and in the position God has given you. Don’t focus on your struggles, focus on your blessings. Don’t focus on the obstacles, focus on the opportunities. Don’t focus on what you don’t have, focus on what you do have. Just as a picture is blurry because of bad focus, your life will also be blurry if you don’t have the right focus. 

Although this is not to sound harsh, much depression can be very egotistical. It’s easy to get into a slump because someone didn’t treat you right, recognize your work, remember who you are, or thank you for what you’ve done. The “me-focus” craves attention and gets bent out of shape when forgotten. If you can focus on God and others, it will starve this mentality, and depression will be put to death. 

Focus on the job and the responsibilities God has given you. The Bible compares Christians to soldiers, athletes, and farmers, all who must work hard and not quit when times get tough. The soldier endures hardness and stays on mission. The athlete is constantly striving for the win. And the farmer is working both early and late in order to get the desired crop. The end product is not controlled by the individual, but the process that will lead to the product is within our control. You must keep working the process to see the product. Keep fulfilling your job and the responsibilities God has given you, and in God’s timing, you will see the fruit of the product. Stay focused and do your part. 

Focus on who you are in Christ. If you are a child of God, you are “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). Whether or not others accept, like, or love you, you can know for sure that God accepts, likes, and loves all of His children. I love the response Jesus gave to His disciples after they returned from seeing miracles happen. They returned bragging about what they did and saw. Instead of congratulating them, Jesus told them that their focus should be on the fact that their names were written in Heaven (Luke 10:20). What a lesson for us today! We get so carried away with what we accomplish and lose sight of the most important area of life, that we are God’s children. Never lose focus of who you are. Everything else will seem secondary to that fact. 

Part 2, continued next week...