Depression, if you’ve ever suffered with it, you know it can be a dark, discouraging place to be. At its worst, it’s been called the “dark night of the soul.” But there is hope for those experiencing discouragement, depression, and hopelessness.

Today we’ll start looking at people in biblical times who experienced feelings of depression and what can we learn from their lives and God’s interactions with them?

 

We’re in a series on “Handling Emotions Biblically.” Over the first few weeks, we talked about how to handle anger in God-honoring ways. You can click the link to read those posts.

Last week we began discussing depression, in particular, the different definitions of depression: the medical definition, the cultural and the biblical. Today Part 2.

 

Handling Depression Biblically – Part 2

 

Last week I said that no one is immune to feelings of depression. For some it’s a mild sense of sadness, for others it can feel debilitating. Today we’re going to look at the biblical definition again and how it compares to discouragement. We will, also, look at Elijah’s and Jeremiah’s lives and how they responded to these feelings.

 

Depression or Discouragement?

 

The feelings involved in both depression and discouragement are much the same. They can be extremely painful and difficult and can tempt us to give in to them. The depressed person responds by shutting down. He or she stops functioning in some or all areas of life.

She may stop going to work, quit cleaning the house, avoid people, or refuse to get out of bed altogether. But when a person is discouraged, as I’m defining it here, he or she keeps going, keeps handling life, in spite of their feelings to the contrary.

So, I would define depression as, “a debilitating mood, feeling or attitude of hopelessness which becomes a person’s reason for not handling the most important issues of life.”

The difference between discouragement and depression is immobility. With depression, there is an almost total reliance on feelings and those feelings become the basis for their action or inaction.

Numerous people in the Bible experienced feelings of discouragement and/or depression, including Elijah, David, Jonah, Jeremiah, and Cain.

Today we’ll look at two of the prophets, Elijah and Jeremiah, and next week we’ll talk about David, Jonah, and Cain.

 

Elijah

 

In 1 Kings 19, the Prophet Elijah had been faithfully serving God by warning Ahab and Jezebel of God’s coming judgment. He had prophesied a three-year drought and most recently challenged the prophets of Baal to a showdown. He had watched God work through him to defeat the 400 pagan prophets. But when Jezebel learned that he had killed them, she threatened to do the same to him. Elijah’s response … he ran and hid.

¹ And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. ² Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” ³ And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”

Elijah was exhausted, probably, physically and spiritually. Like all of us, when we’re exhausted, things can seem much worse than they are. At those times, we tend to get our eyes off God and on to our own strength or the lack of it.

As John MacArthur pointed out in his Daily Bible, he probably expected Ahab and Jezebel to repent after that great display of God’s power and when they didn’t, he became discouraged.

God didn’t rebuke him. Instead, He provided what he needed, food and rest:

5 Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” 8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

Elijah had, also, decided he was the only one left serving God and that Jezebel was going to kill him. He may have felt that all the risks he had taken were for nothing. While that seems amazing to us, that’s the nature of discouragement and depression. They warp our sense of reality.

So, second, Elijah needed God’s perspective on the situation. After announcing His presence with a mighty wind, an earthquake, and fire, God spoke to him and revealed His plan and instructions (1 Kings 19.15-17).

But only after meeting his physical needs, did God address his self-pity and the false belief that he was the only one left who was serving God:

Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him (v. 19.18).

God designed sabbath rest to help us avoid spiritual burnout and physical exhaustion (Mk. 2.27). When we find ourselves discouraged and without the desire to meet our responsibilities, we need to step back and look for ways to take some sabbath time.

We may need sleep as Elijah did, but we also need refreshment, not by vegging out in front of the TV, but by doing things that genuinely bring us joy and satisfaction. We, also, need to refocus our attention on God: His promises, His provision, His truth. As a dear friend told me recently, when we get discouraged, it’s too easy to live inside our own heads.

 

Jeremiah

 

Jeremiah is sometimes called “the weeping prophet” and with good reason. Because of sin and idolatry, the nation of Israel had been divided into two. The northern kingdom had already been taken into captivity by the Assyrians as God’s judgment on generations of idolatry. The southern kingdom, in spite of what they had witnessed with their sister nation, was headed for the same fate, this time at the hands of the Babylonians.

Jeremiah was the last prophet sent to warn them. He was probably about 17 when God called him to a difficult job. Jeremiah preached for 40 years without any real success, even though he warned the people over and over (Jer. 16.10-13).

God told Jeremiah that because of the horrible times to come, he was not to marry or have children (Jer. 16.2-4). Friends and neighbors turned against him because they didn’t want to hear his warnings. So, besides the grief of knowing the fate that awaited his people, there was the loneliness and the discouragement of what must have looked like an unfruitful life. Jeremiah began to doubt:

Then I said,

The Lord’s response:

¹⁹ This is how the Lord responds:

Like Jeremiah and Elijah, you and I may have times when we feel like our lives have been wasted, times when it seems like we’re working hard and not seeing much gain, times when we’re disappointed with people in leadership. We will almost certainly see blessings in the lives of others that we wish we had and experience deep painful rejection. People may, even, threaten to do us harm as Jezebel did to Elijah.

When that happens we may experience feelings of discouragement, depression, and hopelessness, but we don’t have to give in to them. Neither do we have to grit our teeth and bear it or pick ourselves up by our bootstraps. Instead, we need to turn to God.

And just as Jeremiah and Elijah learned, God is faithful. He will never leave us or forsake us. He has promised to control the circumstances of our lives in such a way that, while they may be difficult and require complete dependence on Him, He will see us through.

He’ll give us the strength we need to take care of our responsibilities, in spite of our feelings. And when we get up and get started, even small accomplishments can encourage us and give us the desire to keep going.

 

God will give us the strength we need to take care of our responsibilities, in spite of our feelings. And when we get up and get started, even small accomplishments can encourage us and give us the desire to keep going.

 

You can read the next post in the series where we’ll continue looking at people in the Bible who experienced feelings of depression and in the coming weeks we’ll talk about: guilt, fear and worry, and trials and suffering.

I hope you’ll be here each week.

Blessings,
Donna

If you are struggling with depression, you can find a Biblical Counselor in your area (often free of charge) by contacting the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors.

 

I sometimes LINKUP with these blogs.

 

This post may contain affiliate links. You can read my full disclosure statement here.

 

All the Posts in this Series:

Handling Emotions Biblically

On Anger:

Handling Anger Biblically Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

On Depression:

Handling Depression Biblically – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

On Fear, Worry & Anxiety:

Handling Fear & Worry Biblically: Acceptable Sins?, Part 2

On Guilt:

Handling Guilt Biblically Part 1, Part 2

On Responding to Tests & Trials:

Handling Tests & Trials Biblically: The Divine Squeeze, Part 2: Coming Forth as Gold