4 Ways to Deal with Depression as a Believer

As believers, we must understand that the devil will still come around, trying hard to frustrate our lives and see if we can turn our backs on God. But that will only be possible if you allow him. His aim is to mess with your mind and thoughts, to steal your joy and draw you away from God. 

Many things build up to form as depression but you can choose to allow it or reject it. That’s how I learnt that there is a joy that comes when you say NO to the devil.

In my little time here on earth, I have learnt that the confession of God's word is much more important than the mere words of our mouth. I never knew depression was much more than a feeling , I never knew it was a spirit so close tormenting my everyday living . I treated it like what I could control myself . Every now and then it would come and have me for a long time because I thought it was not such a big deal . It would show up in the middle of the nights , it would show up in the midst of my happy moments, it would show up while eating . It kept on harassing me and messing my day up even as a believer .  I would confess it away but my mind wasn’t ready to let go . My mouth was always saying something different from what my mind wants. On some days, I would get so depressed and sleep under the table. It stopped me from eating or taking good care of myself until one morning I was tired of being tired . 

Colossians 1:13 
For we have been delivered from the dominion of darkness and we have been transferred to the kingdom of His beloved son where there is redemption and forgiveness of sin. 

I never saw it as a darkness , it was easy to see homosexuality, manipulations and the sins that were obvious as darkness but just like most of us I thought it was nothing and there was no need to bother it until I got a revelation of what happened on the cross in relation to depression. Freedom happened on the cross , freedom from all kinds of diseases including emotional diseases . The challenge we have is we don’t see emotional issues as diseases hence we think we can handle them with our own strength. Light came and I saw it as a darkness , a darkness I have been allowing to have me and my thoughts . The first stage with healing and transformation is admitting you are dealing with an issue because if you do not admit , you can’t submit it to the word of God for renewal . That day wasn’t my first time of reading Colossians 1:13 but that was the first day of seeing depression as darkness and seeing that I actually have the ability to SAY NO .   

As a young child, saying no was termed rude , saying NO was an abomination. I didn’t grow up in an environment where you have the rights to say NO , infact it is expected of you  to ALWAYS say yes to everything everyone ask us to do so even though the same power that rose Jesus Christ from the dead was at work in me , my mind couldn’t bring myself to believe I could say NO to depression . Most of us have have watched people say YES TO ALL THEY FEEL , SAY YES TO ALL WE FEEL that we thing we don’t have the power to say NO . 


God is healing me and I hope you open your mind and believe that you can say no and on the other side of NO is YES to happiness , peace in the midst of storm.

Romans 8:11(NIV)
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

It is not enough to talk about Depression and its effect on people, especially believers. But then, how can one deal with depression? What way out and options do you have if you feel depressed as a child of God?

1. Engage Positive Confessions

Confessions put you up in a standard and position you want to be. You see yourself in those confessions and as a result, you become what you see. There is this amazing confession by Joyce Smith in the movie, Breakthrough where she tells her son saying "For what it's worth, you have a purpose and you are loved." Confessions like this help you to get back on track and although they may not mean so much at the time, you will definitely remember how good it worked when things get better. If you need a confession guide to lead you through, you  you can download the New Man Confession Handbook by clicking here.

2. Stay around Good People

Depression thrives when you close in on yourself. You should share your issues and have people connect with you. The love and care you find around them is more than enough to send away the spirit of depression. In our article here, we talked about the essence of spiritual and beneficial friendships You are trying to come out of the devil's pit of depression and you need people to help draw you out by their love, good words and compassion.

3. Pray, In tongues too.

You see, prayer can be underrated many times. While prayer can be done in the spirit (praying in tongues) and in understanding too, we are focusing on praying in tongues here. There is so much therapy in the Holy Spirit, especially when you blast in tongues, praying. The Holyghost fuels you and helps you build confidence in yourself, self esteem and ultimate trust in God to help you overcome the spirit of depression. You also have a surety in prayer that where there is light, no darkness can hide and where the spirit of God is, the spirit of depression has to leave immediately.

4. Believe God's word

Many times, the reason why we are depressed is because we worry about so many things even after God has given His assurance over them. God's word in Isaiah 46:11b assures us that God will do just what He has said, and will fulfill what He has planned to do. You must learn to believe God's word and hold on to it. God is very faithful and accountable to every word He says. As Apostle Joshua Selman would say, you must also learn that if God alone is taking the glory in every situation, He alone will take the shame. He puts premium value on His word and will not want it to fall to the ground. As such, you must be able to believe God's word even when things do not look like it.

Conclusion

Dear Believer, you must know that depression is the devil's trick to invade and try to cover the light in our hearts. He usually comes in when a believer loses a loved one, grieves over a lost opportunity or generally when things are not moving fine as expected. It is your duty as a believer to guard your heart against every form of depression and shut the devil out with his game against your heart. 

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