What is your least favorite type of movie? My least favorite movies are tragedies. I hate movies that end with me feeling sad.
A pastor in Texas tells a story of a time he went to see a movie with his wife. The movie was really popular and she was very excited, so she bought tickets and they went to the theater. This movie was called The Fault in Our Stars. If you have never seen it, the movie follows two teenagers who meet in a support group for cancer patients and they fall in love.
The pastor walked into this movie knowing nothing about it and was expecting that it was gonna be a happy feel-good movie, but about halfway through he started to get concerned about the ending. So he pulled out his phone and looked up the plot on Wikipedia in the middle of the theater. And he found out that the movie ends with the teenage boy tragically dying of cancer and the girl is left there devastated. What a depressing movie. He hates sad movies, so you know what he did? He told his wife he was going to the restroom but instead, he walked straight out of the theater and waited in the car until the movie was over. He refused to watch the end of the movie. He didn’t want to have to experience the feelings of heartache and tragedy that came with that movie. So he just walked out of the theater.
There are going to be times in our lives when we are going to experience tragedy. We are going to feel devastated and heartbroken. There are experiences and moments in this life that will lead to sorrow but unlike that pastor seeing The Fault in Our Stars, when those moments come, we can’t just leave and wait in the car, So what do we do? What do we do when the depression comes but we can’t just walk out of the theater?
Today we are going to see what God’s Word says about depression. But to start I think we need to understand something-
Depression is real and has real causes.
If you see a sad movie and go home feeling sad, you know exactly why you are sad, you know what caused that pain. It’s the same way with depression. I know sometimes it can feel like it is coming from nowhere, but there’s always a reason why we are depressed. This isn’t a comprehensive list, but these are a few of the main causes.
For some people depression is biological. Sometimes it is a chemical imbalance in our brains and sometimes we are just exhausted. When we don’t take care of our bodies, get enough sleep, and eat well, we can become so exhausted that it will lead to depression.
It can also be caused by anxiety. When something is on your mind and it’s wearing you down, often you can’t sleep and you become easily irritated. Of course that would cause depression. We are going to talk more about anxiety next week, so make sure you are here for that.
Depression can also be circumstantial. Some of you have experienced heartbreak. Someone you loved walked out of your life, you broke up with your boyfriend or girlfriend, a family member is sick, or maybe you are sick. Maybe you lost a loved one. Maybe you have experienced disappointment after disappointment, and you are wondering if you are ever going to catch a break. All of that hurt can lead to depression.
Now I don’t say this all to bring more sadness in your life, but I am saying this so that if you are struggling with depression today, I want you to know that your feelings are real. You are not broken or weird because of this pain you are experiencing. In fact, a lot of Godly people have gone through seasons of depression. So don’t let yourself believe that you are the only one going through this. Don’t let Satan isolate you and make you believe that there is no help for you. Don’t let him make you believe that no one understands or cares about what you are going through. That is a lie. I know we say this all the time when talking about depression and mental health, but it’s because it is so important and you need to hear it. You need to hear that you are not on your own. You need to hear it and you need to believe it.
You are not alone
And I am going to prove it to you.
Naomi is a woman we read about in the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. In a short time, Noami lost her husband and both of her sons. She lost the most important people in her life. Look at her response
In Ruth 1:20-21 she says, “‘Don’t call me Naomi,’ she told them. ‘Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.’”
She was so bitter and hurt she literally changed her name to show it.
The prophet Elijah once ran over 100 miles to try and get away from the queen of Israel who was trying to kill him. He wore himself out so much trying to save his own life, that by the time he stopped running he didn’t even want to survive. He was so burnt out and exhausted that he begged God to let him die.
King David spent a lot of his life depressed, and he wrote songs expressing the pain and sadness he was feeling. Look at what he writes in Psalm 6:6-7
He says, “I am worn out from sobbing. All night I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears. My vision is blurred by grief; my eyes are worn out because of all my enemies.”
This is the King of God’s people talking.
Jeremiah is a prophet in the Old Testament and he is literally called the “weeping prophet.” He is believed to have written the book of Lamentations. In the book, he is mourning the loss and destruction of his homeland and the captivity of his people. In one of the saddest verses of the entire book he says, “I have forgotten what happiness is.”
Even Jesus knows what this feels like. Look at how Isaiah 53:3 describes our Savior
“He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.”
If you are feeling depressed, know that even the Son of God understands what you are going through.
Now I have a question: why do you think God kept these stories in the Bible? Why did God want us to know about Jesus’ rejection, David’s heartbreak, Elijah's exhaustion, and Naomi’s frustration?
I think one of the reasons these stories are in the Bible is because God wanted to remind us that we are not alone. Reading these stories we can know that we are in good company. Many men and women of God understand what it feels like to want to give up, and in each situation, God was with them, and He was the one who helped them out of their depression. He wants to do the same for you.
God knows you better than anyone else, better than you know yourself. He knows your heart and He promises that when you are in pain He will be close to you. Look at Psalm 34:18
“The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
That psalm was written by King David. Meaning the same person who wrote, “I am worn out from sobbing” also wrote, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.” This wasn’t just words to David, this was a promise he clung to. He held on to the fact that no matter how hard life got, no matter how sad he may feel, no matter who walked out of his life, God was going to be with Him.
The same is true of Jeremiah, look at what the “weeping prophet” writes in Lamentations, just a few verses after he writes “I have forgotten what happiness is,” he writes this-
“Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!’”
What is he saying here? He is saying because the Lord is with me - I can have hope. Because the God of the universe loves me I can have hope. No matter what we go through, no matter what sorrows come– and they will come– we can put our hope in the Lord. Because His love never fails us.
So we know we aren’t alone, we know that other people feel our pain and we know that God is with us. We also know that because God is with us, we can have hope even in the darkest times. But what do we do with that? How does that help us? How do we cope with depression?
In all of these stories that we talked about today, these people were brutally honest with God and with other people about how they were feeling. They didn’t try to hide their pain or pretend to be happy, they said exactly how they were feeling and they cried out to God. If we want to stop feeling so alone, first we have to be honest with God about what we are going through, and then we have to be honest with other people in our lives. We have to be able to tell someone “I’m hurting and I need help.” Don’t try and deal with this alone.
2. Remember God is with you.
I know this sounds like a Christian cliche, but if we can remember that God is with us and that His love will never fail us, if we can just hold on to that, we can have hope even in the darkest times. That’s why in this series we are challenging you to memorize Lamentations 3:21-24. Every morning when you wake up this week, I want to encourage you to start your day by reading those verses and praying. Pray God will remind you of this truth throughout your day. I promise if you can remember that God is with you and that His love is never going to fail you, you will be able to find hope and a light at the end of even the darkest tunnel.
3. Do something to help someone else.
Depression puts all the focus on me and my problems. When we do that, we are only going to get more depressed. We need to get our eyes off ourselves and on to the burdens and needs of others. There are people who are hurting, who need help. Get your eyes off your own problems and take some time to help someone who is struggling. That’s what God told Elijah to do. Remember Elijah wanted to die because he was so worn out and all his focus was on himself. God told him, “Listen I still have work for you to do, so stop focusing on your problems and go help someone else.”
If you want to get out of depression, be honest with yourself and others, remember God is with you, and go do something to help someone else. I want to challenge you to pray and ask God to show you someone you can help. Whether it's a friend in need, someone in your family, or even serving in the church. Ask God to show you what needs He wants you to help meet.
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