“Because of this our heart is faint; because of these things our eyes grow dim …” (Lam. 5:17, NKJV)
In the teaching of Day 954-955 we stated that before we can discuss the spiritual handling of depression, we first need to look at the way grace functions within the lives of believers. This brought us to the fundamental concepts of hope, faith and grace within our framework of belief. In the process we found out that there are three spiritual principles that work within believers:
- the Word that works in us
- Grace that works in us
- Faith that works in us.
We also found that all three these principles were not only at work in the New Testament era, but were even at work in the Old Testament! And the good news: they are all freely available. You merely need to unite it with faith, where it then becomes what “the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (Jam. 1:12), working within your life. It is of great importance that the spiritual person suffering from depression understands this, and actively pursues the working of these different elements in his life.
Once you have then professionally treated the physical causes and possible chemical imbalances in your brain, and the state of depression still persists, it is important to get help to deal with the possible psychological root cause of your depression.
In Schwartz. & Schwartz’s standard source, Depression: Theories & treatments, they argue that depression primarily has an effect on the person’s mood: “Depression is an affective, or mood disorder. It is an illness that immerses its sufferers in a world of self-blame, confusion, and hopelessness.” A spiritual approach to depression will thus not be aimed at dealing with issues related to the soul (where our emotions are nestled), but look at the deeper, underlying roots that may feed pain in the dimension of the soul. Freud’s psychodynamic work greatly contributed to our understanding that all non-treated trauma is stored subconsciously, and results in all kinds of emotional reactions (Lowry, M. E.: Major Depression: Prevention & treatment).
From a spiritual perspective we however have a slightly wider understanding of the matter. I want to contend that depression should rather be seen as a messenger alerting us to the existence of trauma that has not been processed by the individual. Instead of seeing it as an illness, it should rather be seen as a messenger who, through intense emotions, makes the sufferer alert of the fact that there are issues in the subconscious that have not been dealt with, and that influence his functioning, wholeness and integration of the self. His spirit is sick because of this. Lam. 5:17 describes it beautifully: depression makes the heart faint and the eyes dim.
As long as there is no direct intervention to bring the hidden trauma to the surface, no healing can follow. The dark messenger will thus keep on reminding the sufferer of the toxicity of unfinished business.
- Selah: Ponder the truth of the working of the Word, grace and faith in your life.
- Read: 2 Kings 1-4
- Memorise: 2 Kings 2:12
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read any of the books mentioned in the teaching.
