Depression and the Lies It Tells预览

Are You Happy?

A few years ago, I asked someone, “Are you happy?” She immediately said, “Yes, I am!” I often ask this question in counseling, and most people respond based on what they do, their job, their ministry, or their achievements.

But the busier people are, the more disconnected they often become from who they truly are. When rejection, betrayal, or failure enters their lives, their true emotions rise to the surface: sorrow, fear, anger, because their sense of identity was built on approval rather than truth.

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:10 (NIV)

What loving father would ignore his child’s sorrow? If earthly fathers, though imperfect, care for their children, how much more will our perfect Heavenly Father?

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Matthew 7:9–11 (NIV)

You are not a mistake. You are the precise expression of God’s love.

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
2 Corinthians 8:9 (NIV)

Depression isolates. It urges people to hide, to pull away. And while it’s hard to open up, it’s even harder to stay hidden. The Bible tells us that in the counsel of many, there is wisdom and success. We were not made to walk alone. The Holy Spirit is always with us and He often works through others.