Is depression always rooted in sinful attitudes?
There is a movement in Christianity today that says yes and affirms that depression is generally rooted in sinful attitudes.
I am going to refute that today, while affirming that sinful attitudes can contribute to depression, so it is on a case-by-case basis.
For years I suffered from what is now called emotional exhaustion, and it developed into full-blown depression for a few years. Emotional exhaustion, closely related to depression, is caused by prolonged stress, which can have all sorts of causes, some can involve sin and some do not.
Emotional exhaustion is known to clear up when the external circumstances causing the stress are eliminated. Depression on the other hand may not clear up on it's own. In my case there were physiological and external issues, all of which had to be fixed before the symptoms finally cleared up.
However, there are those who claim that all depression (including emotional exhaustion) are the consequences of sinful attitudes.
The verses saying do not fear, and do not be anxious for the future are the main case for this position, that you wouldn't be in anxiety and thus not depressed if you were in compliance with scripture.
As someone who spent years dealing with my own emotional exhaustion, and subsequent depression, I am going to refute that position which I consider naive at best, and downright cruel at worst.
As always, the only valid defense is one made from scripture.
First my own somewhat lengthy story, which I believe is not a tale of defeat and sin, but a story of a mighty victory over adversity given by God's grace.
And finally, I will give scriptural proof and tie things together.
I am 65 years old and recently retired as of this writing. I'm older now and had pretty severe depression for a long time years ago.
It mostly began in my mid-thirties when I started having migraines, at first, they were rare and only after a long day out in the sun. Over time they became more frequent and were also caused by lack of a good night's sleep. I also developed allergies and sleep apnea, so I have a CPAP machine, which helps, and I have to keep the house absolutely clean, or my nose closes off at night and I can't breathe. Years of allergy shots made it better but did not cure it.
By my early fifties other health problems had arisen, I developed what was then called chronic fatigue syndrome, although I think the more accurate term today is metabolic syndrome. That combined with noisy neighbors in a condo meant I suffered from chronic lack of sleep, and therefore chronic migraines. Like many migraine sufferers, I knew when I got up in the morning if I was going to have a migraine that day, which was about twice a week. I learned to work through them and took very few sick days for migraines.
I had also developed hyperacusis (sensitivity to sound) in college and have struggled to sleep even since that time as even small noises will awaken me or prevent sleep. I started calling it the never-ending battle to get a good night's sleep from roughly age thirty when the allergies kicked in.
I have worked hard to overcome these problems. While living in that condo I built a sound-insulated bed chamber for my mattress with ventilation, heating, and cooling built in. I was pretty proud of that, and I still have it and it's useful for people with hyperacusis (sensitivity to sound). It stops pretty much all airborne noise but was ineffective against structural noise - thumps and bumps - which unfortunately was the type of noise I was dealing with. I also tried heavy floor insulation, (heavy rubber mats 3" thick especially for appliances), but they also failed to stop the structural noise. I tried, which is the point, and I never really gave up either.
My migraines weren't just painful, and lasting for hours, they also gave me fuzzy headed thinking or brain fog, which lasted the entire day. Pain relievers could mitigate the pain a little but did not relieve the brain fog. And even on days with no migraines, the brain fog was often there.
All of this began to affect my work, so by the mid-fifties I was looking at a career-ending cluster of health issues. And I was in constant pain and misery. My choice however was to soldier on and try to endure to retirement, while continuing to look for solutions. I never told my boss at work about any of this, and I did not take many sick days as I mentioned.
Can you imagine being in meetings, working with people, and trying to concentrate on software development while enduring intense pain and brain fog all at the same time? That was my daily life for years.
I also didn't travel well, as I could not get a good night's sleep in a hotel, they were too noisy. And an airplane ride was a guarantee of an excruciating migraine on the plane, always, every time. And I had to travel for work, and I had to travel to visit family over Christmas as they lived on the opposite side of the continent before my move. To this day I hate air travel, and I hate hotels (which are never ending door-slamming torture chambers to me).
During the worst of it though, after years of it, my emotions flat lined. I knew what clinical depression was, and recognized the symptoms, and I knew that increased irritability was part of it, so I was careful to not take offense at other people's behavior, knowing it was an illusion, and they meant no offense. I am forced to admit I did not do this perfectly. I do not attempt to justify any of the mistakes I made, nor am I going to rehash them here. The point is, I tried, I had the right idea, but as a sinner I wasn't able to do things perfectly.
At some point I realized I did not want to live; this life was not worth living. The world had turned grey, colorless. I knew this was an illusion caused by depression. A surprise was I had a kind of dissociative way of looking at it. I felt like an observer watching myself go through the motions of life. There was no joy or happiness, just enduring. Classic symptoms of depression and what I later learned is called dissociation. When researching this article, I discovered that dissociation is a known coping mechanism for severe depression. So I had it all. My depression was not minor, or short-lived.
In my theological studies, I learned years before from Martin Luther that when you have issues like this you run to God, not away from Him.
My attitude was pretty simple. I asked Him to deliver me from these problems but accepted them if that was part of His will, "thy will be done". It never occurred to me to be angry at God, or to take my life, as I view suicide to be self-murder, or to abandon my faith. I just soldiered on and gritted my teeth, and I never gave up. I also never ceased praising God. My subjective feelings did not override what I believed. I knew then to not trust emotions, especially my own, they are frequently the gateway to deception.
Objectively, I knew I was saved, headed to Heaven, which is worth an eternity of praise to Him, a short period of trial and tribulation did not change that. I didn't feel joyful, but that didn't matter to me, I still had plenty to be joyful about.
In short, I was completely honest with God, I didn't try to hide my feelings or my lack of desire to live, but laid it before Him and asked for help, trusting Him with the results.
Depression also robs you of your hope, everything felt hopeless, but again, I refused to believe it, knowing it was an illusion, and I soldiered on. My hope was in Christ. Feelings changed nothing.
My sense of self-worth was down too, but I never had much of that to begin with, so surprisingly that wasn't the worst part of the fight. Any value I have is given to me by God, and I already knew that.
By this time in my life, I had been a Christian for a long time and had seen Him deliver me from many previous circumstances. But this was the biggest storm I had ever had in my life.
I did try an over-the-counter supplement (curcumin BCM-95) that had been shown to be as effective as 20mg of Prozac (the very first and weakest antidepressant), without the side effects. It helped, but only a tiny bit. When it was discovered to cause liver failure in some people I went off it.
My take is that clinical depression is a form of emotional exhaustion, certainly mine was, like heat exhaustion where you no longer have the strength to deal with it, caused by stress (real or imagined), and your emotions simply shut down.
It's the imagined part the anti-depression crowd focusses on, and rightfully so, if you have sinful attitudes (like anger, bitterness, or unforgiveness) that are contributing to the issue you need to deal with them.
But when dealt with, the storm may still be there.
My main issue that I could identify was self-reliance - a form of pride - by the end of this I no longer dared to take credit for anything I did, I used Paul's example, not me but the grace of God. I now saw my talents and abilities as gifts from God that could be removed at any moment. I recognized early on that that was an attitude issue I had, but the storm remained.
The deliverance waited. For years.
Finally, my dad who over time sent several ideas my way (he worked in the medical field), suggested I try acetyl-l-carnitine (alcar) as a supplement. It cured my CFS and migraines instantly, including the brain fog. I know people tend to exaggerate, but I literally have not had a migraine since, not even a serious headache, and it's been years. It is now known to be one of a cluster of supplements that help with metabolic syndrome. At the time it was only known to help with CFS in some people. Nobody else I know has benefitted from alcar either.
But the noisy neighbors remained, so the torment continued for a little while longer, but it wasn't as bad. Life was tough still, but I no longer wanted it to end.
During the worst part I was a deacon at our Church and was one of the two worship leaders there. I was leading an active productive life, leading Bible studies, and in abject misery at the same time. I hid it from everyone except my adult immediate family. I was also a single parent at the time and hid it from my son. I told him later and he said I thought you were a happy person. Yeah, I was good at acting like one, and frankly it helped me feel better when I did, no pity parties allowed there.
But it went deeper than that, years previously I had resolved to be a happy person, to always make the best of things. I observed that when facing troubled times, it took more work to be a happy person, but I always kept that resolution. I never gave in to the pity party temptation, I fought to maintain a good attitude at all times.
I also did not want anyone to suffer because of me, to put my stuff on others. Most of all my son. I was all he had, I needed to get him off to a good start in life, that included paying for his college tuition. Which I did.
Eventually (years after my son graduated from college) I got a fully remote position on the heels of the covid lockdowns and moved to another state (my pre-retirement move at 61). Now I have a house in a small country town on 2/3 of an acre. No more problems with noisy neighbors bumping and thumping in the night in that tiny four-plex two-story condo that amplified the slightest noise like a drum. But I have neighbors with chickens and barking dogs now, but that is airborne noise, and my sound insulated bed chamber along with noise cancelling headphones with white noise pumped into them (tech has improved greatly in the last 10 years), completely stops it, so now at last, I generally get a good night's sleep.
After the move, my performance at work improved dramatically as a result of getting a good night's sleep, and my career was back, and life was good again. God put me in a good Church where my musical talents were needed, so I got to feel useful, a gift from Him. And the last four years of my working life were my best in some ways.
And lastly, I initially forgot to put this one in. I developed pulsatile tinnitus. My ears started to chirp randomly. For a person with hyperacusis this is an instantly debilitating condition. At first, I thought it was neurological, a more serious form of my pre-existing tinnitus. And that was bad, no cure. I found people had committed suicide over these issues. So I was worried, it had my full attention, still searching for options about what I could do.
At some point I noticed the chirps were synchronized to my heartbeat, which meant they were mechanical and not neurological. That was also when I discovered the name pulsatile tinnitus, because it is pulse related. And that was when I found the suicide stories. There was no cure, no surgery, nothing.
Fortunately, this came in during the post alcar era (as opposed to the ante-alcar era), so I had some strength, I wasn't a zombie any more.
So I started thinking like an engineer and an amateur scientist (I am both) and concluded the most likely cause that such a thing would occur later in life is the arteries had narrowed. The most likely causes were high cholesterol, which I had been trying to treat with diet and exercise, and I had put on a little weight. I already knew that if you get your cholesterol way down, blocked arteries would slowly clear over the years, just like an ex-smokers lung.
So I went to my doctor and got on statins, never told him the real reason I did it. My cholesterol was high enough I could just walk in and ask. Sure enough, within 30 days the condition had alleviated enough I was ok. I spent years after that learning that diet mattered a lot too. Everything I eat now has to pass the ear test.
Now I admit, when this happened, I mocked it. I thought it was hilarious. I was like really? This too? You've got to be kidding me! As part of my good attitude vow, one of the maxims I live by, is if I have a choice to laugh or cry, I choose to laugh, as laughter does the heart good like a medicine.
The net result was I started statins and modified my diet slightly. Such a potentially major issue ended up being just a small blip and digression from the main storm. To this day I think of it as comic relief, God's way of cleaning up my diet and getting me on statins. Which is why I forgot about it entirely in the first writing of this document.
When I told my depression/life-was-not-worth-living story to an elder once, he responded it was pretty good evidence that I was genuinely saved, because I did not repudiate Christ when the going got tough.
Now it may sound like I am touting my strength and perseverance here, and frankly, now that I write this, I am realizing my story is kind of amazing, but I am saying the opposite. Once the bad depression kicked in, my emotional strength was gone, I had nothing, I was running on fumes, going through the motions, God carried me through the whole thing. I sometimes felt like a shark, I had to keep moving or I would die.
I always thought I was weak and rather pathetic during those times, allowing myself to be crushed by circumstances like that. But upon writing this, looking back, I am having the epiphany that I was as tough as nails. The definition of inner strength is to not give up when the going gets tough and to not lash out and blame others for your problems. I also avoided becoming an emotional leech, sucking off of others. God takes the full credit; I don't believe for a second that strength came from me. What a testimony to God's grace. While writing this I realize I need to repent of not giving God more credit for the mighty victory he gave me.
Let me state it in even stronger terms. I was assailed by adversity that kept coming for almost my entire life. And it got worse and worse and worse until the alcar event at roughly age 55, when it finally took a turn for the better, and it kept getting better after that, except the pulsatile tinnitus minor bump in the road.
And I never gave up, I fought the good fight, even when emotionally I was totally exhausted. I was battle weary, and I do not apologize for fighting that fight when it would have been easier to give up. I did not let adversity take from me what was important, my ministry, my job, and most of all my son's hope for a future. Even when all hope seemed gone, I got up every day and kept fighting. And I never quit striving to have a good attitude throughout. If that isn't a shining testimony of God's grace and triumph over adversity, I don't know what is. Although it sure didn't feel like it at the time.
The last thing I needed was a counselor to tell me I was in sin; of note I had no problems admitting my own sin to God, which is a gift from the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin, and I had plenty there to work with too. The reality is I was struggling with blaming myself for what had happened, thinking I deserved it because of my sin (which theologically is technically true). What I needed was God to tell me that He makes all things work together for good for us, and that He is our mighty refuge and our strength, a very present help in times of trouble. And that is exactly what I got.
And if I didn't already know that depression causes your emotions to lie to you that would have been vital knowledge for a counselor to impart. I shudder to think what less analytical types, who trust their emotions do with depression. Sadly I guess we see it on the news all the time.
I wonder what it would have done to me too, if as someone who was already struggling with worthlessness and guilt a counselor had essentially confirmed and reinforced that. I can't imagine anything good would have come from it.
My strategy was to wait patiently while suffering for the right moment when providence allowed and eventually dealt with every issue that was causing the depression, by moving, sound-proofing, allergy shots, CPAP, new job, diet, statins, everything I knew how to do. And I did it all with a (sometimes forced) smile on my face and a good attitude. The things I never did were to have a pity party, or blame others, or go talk to a counselor when I knew perfectly well a counselor could not help me at all with any of the real problems, and frankly I didn't want to bare my soul to someone I didn't know. So I used God as my counselor instead; I bared my soul to Him. I frequently apologized to Him in prayer for whining (or venting). I recall joking about it: "sorry you have to listen to all this". I was totally honest with God about my feelings (I figured He already knew anyway). I went to Him as my best friend, my heavenly Father who loves me steadfastly and who is always on my side (never endorsing sin of course). I was also careful to avoid guilt manipulation, I was not singing a sob story to God, woe is me, nothing like that, just being honest and praising and trusting Him.
I never blamed Him or had held on to any vitriol about anything, as I mentioned my struggle was more with guilt, blaming myself, something I also had to fight against
Now consider what my alternatives were - if I had stopped fighting, and given up - I could have filed for long term disability, and when that ran out after five years, I could have become of ward of the state on permanent social security disability and medicaid. And there would have been no college for my son, who is now a mechanical engineer, with a nice house, nice wife, and I have two lovely granddaughters. My church would have lost a worship leader and a deacon.
Now if that happened to you, meaning you ended up on disability, I do not dare condemn you. If you fought well, and God put you there anyway, then I say the same thing, keep a good attitude and trust God. And keep an eye out for alternatives.
And now this storm is over for me, and frankly I am enjoying retirement and life is good. Looking back, I don't regret what I did, I am glad I fought tooth and nail every step of the way and never gave up and never surrendered. And I have more options now, as holding onto that job allowed me to end up better off financially now that I am retired.
Now, I claim that depression can be caused by external circumstances as well as sinful attitudes and sometimes it can be both. Even worse, people with depressive tendencies often had difficult childhoods that leave them broken and ill-equipped to deal with life's storms. This is from direct personal observation as well as lots of reading on the subject. I could write a lot on this, but the people involved would know who they are, so I am going to refrain.
Let me at least say that I agree with modern Biblical counselors here and have seen those people best served by getting off their anti-depressants and dealing with their issues. Coming to Christ is the most important step. Once you've got God taking care of you, you are in good hands.
Now I am going to give two Biblical examples of extreme anxiety and depression where the people involved did not sin, as the Bible explicitly says they did not. The first is Job, who scripture says did not sin with his mouth. But he said he wished he had died as a child (and thus gone to heaven and be spared the misery he was currently suffering). He was being honest with God, as I was. And that of course is a sign of severe depression. And Job's counselors of course accused him of sin, same as the counselors of today are accusing those in depression of sin as well.
I admit I did not dare compare myself to Job when I was going through it. He went through so much more than I did, it seemed my troubles were nothing in comparison, I felt guilty even thinking that way, but our attitudes in retrospect were similar.
So yes, I dare lay that accusation at the feet of today's depression-is-a-sin counselors, of being Job's counselors. Beating the sheep, by blaming people when they are down isn't the right way. Working through wrong attitudes will help, but as long the storm continues it won't fully alleviate the condition. The right response there is mercy. Come alongside them and encourage them to be strong and trust God in the face of adversity.
Stated more gently however, if you need to have a good cry then let it out, it's part of the grieving process, just learn to move on after you do it. And do it with God, the Holy Spirit is our comforter, it's His job, if you want to imagine Him hugging you while you have good cry, then do it, because spiritually that is exactly what He does.
But, a continuing pity party just makes things worse, and that is where it becomes sin. And that is where the modern counselors have a point.
I don't deny that some instances of depression can be fully accounted for by wrong attitudes, but usually the bad attitudes are in response to a legitimate storm, making it worse, but not being a primary cause. Additionally, we have to go through the mourning process from events and storms in our lives, please don't deny people the legitimacy of doing this.
Quite frankly, I think we need storms (and scripture states all this explicitly), to counter our pride and self-reliance, to flush out our bad attitudes, and to give us the precious gift of learning to trust God in ways we could not if we had never been through such things. Hallelujah!
A counter example though is there are people who sadly are just looking for an excuse to validate their misery, to garner sympathy, and to justify blaming circumstances and others for their problems. I do not mean to offer them any quarter at all.
And sadly, if you are a Biblical counselor, you may have people like that show up at your door, I don't know. Pray for God to give you wisdom to properly distinguish those who need mercy and encouragement from those who need a little rebuke.
My second example is about fear. We are told "do not fear" in scripture, do not be anxious for the future. And anxiety is a cause of depression. I maintain that there is healthy fear and unhealthy fear. Anticipating something that could occur, or you know with certainty is going to occur, and dealing with it or facing it is the healthy use of fear and is a form of courage. But constant worrying about things you cannot control and wallowing in it gets into what the Bible is warning against.
Here is my second example.
I am told there is a very rare extreme form of anxiety (which is just another word for fear), where intense stress can cause people to sweat drops of blood. I feel like I could just stop there and be done with it, but I want to go through this.
Jesus begged the father to take the cup from Him if possible but said the Father's will be done. My attitude was the same and was based on Christ's example. Again though, I knew my troubles were nothing in comparison to His.
Jesus was not in sin for being in extreme anxiety and stress, He knew with perfect knowledge exactly what was going to happen to Him, that He would suffer a long excruciating death by torture, in one of the most painful ways to die ever invented.
What Jesus didn't do was spend His entire life wallowing in self-pity that his fate was to suffer and die. This is what the Bible warns against.
Jesus said when you mistreat a Christian, you have mistreated Him. Those who wrongfully offer Job's counsel to those in depression are essentially counseling Christ like that in the garden.
I also note that Christ never asked for pity and neither did I, but He did ask they stand with Him in the final hour, and instead they fell asleep. I think that is our model for how to treat people going through storms, stand with them if they want you to, so they are not alone going through the storm.
We have established that sadness from events (Job), and anxiety (Jesus) can avoid being sinful, and yet be extreme. The question then is how are they in compliance with the verses saying do not fear?
The answer is in the related verses, do not be anxious for the future, as God will provide for you. The issue here is faith. Consider other relevant verses, where those who doubt will receive nothing from God, and the one that says faith can move mountains.
We see two kinds of faith in operation, one that God is our provider and will care for us, we are not to doubt that, ever. The other is faith for the specific prayer being made. And unlike the Charismatics, we admit that "if it be Thy will", is part of every prayer, with full submission to His will knowing He may not answer the prayer exactly as we ask. Submission is not doubt (as the hyper-charismatics would claim), as true faith submits our requests to His will.
So how do we reconcile all of this into a harmonious whole?
I propose the following resolution. Anything that is of faith is not of sin, and anything that is not in faith is in sin. And we are not on the hook to effectively deny our emotions as some are claiming.
If you are facing being thrown to the lion (persecution of Christians in the first 300 years), your correct behavior was to do what they did, pray for deliverance, and if it is His will, to face it with courage. The feeling of fear does not go away entirely, courage is to do what is right in spite of your emotions, not to pretend they aren't there. Jesus is our model here. Contrast that with open panic however, where faith has collapsed. Secular historians note with amazement that those Roman Christians and their children stood there and did not cry out, and let the lions take them, stoic in faith to the end. That is Holy Spirit given courage. And is an amaziong testimony to God's grace! They had no hope for this life, and they knew it, their hope was in Heaven.
But the Bible is filled with stories of people who were miraculously delivered in this life too. If it is His will, you too will be delivered, you are to trust Him with the results at all times.
If you are in a storm of life, feelings of hopelessness may come, but the trick is do not doubt God has something good in mind, and to endure it (as scripture says we can endure all things through Christ who strengthens us). Please note that the guarantee of endurance here is both temporal, and eternal in that our faith will not fail.
So, Job dealt with feelings of hopelessness (and he would be sin according to today's depression-is-a-sin counselors), by being honest with God, and ultimately trusting Him for the resolution, even if that resolution meant his death.
The second kind of faith is saving faith, which includes God as our provider, knowing that you are in good hands. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. You may stumble, but Jesus will pick you up, and will not allow your faith to fail.
Wallowing in self-pity as I called it, is really when you enter the realms of doubt. And again there are two kinds of doubt, simply doubting God is going to deliver you from the current circumstance, and doubting in God entirely. One is a sin yes, but is not eternal, the second has eternal consequences.
Let's focus only on the current circumstances one, the second one of course is for non-Christians and they have no claim on Him. It is different to doubt God will deliver you from the current circumstance, from accepting His will. Both have some unavoidable anxiety from the circumstance, but one knows God is in control, and will resolve it somehow, even if you cannot see that resolution yet. The other truly gives up all hope and rather than facing it, gives in to self-pity and possibly other sinful behaviors as well.
Now you can see how Job and Jesus were not in sin, even though Job showed clear depression, and Jesus showed extreme (and completely rational) anxiety. Jesus fully trusted His Father and was fully submitted to His will. But neither knew the hopeless fear caused by doubt.
As I mentioned earlier, we need suffering. The Bible clearly states we are sent persecution and suffering. Jesus said take up your cross and follow me.
Martin Luther wrote on this subject in his work "That A Christian Should Bear His Cross with Patience". He maintained (from scripture) that every Christian will endure affliction, persecution, and discipline, and the result is godliness (mortification of sin) and endurance. Which is a direct quote from scripture.
Luther pointed out we are united with Christ, as a result we share in His sufferings, and will eventually be glorified like Him (His human part). So to Luther (and to scripture) suffering is central to the Christian life.
Luther also pointed out that self-imposed crosses are meaningless (comes from self-righteousness), only God imposed crosses count.
So Luther agrees, the correct approach is to endure suffering with patience.
It also needs to be stated that suffering is part of the Lord's love for us. Heb 12 6 The Lord disciplines whom He loves, the passage goes on to say that only illegitimate children are spared discipline. We all need it, as it builds holiness in our lives. And we need the proper understanding of how to deal with it when we are going through it, which is the purpose of this paper.
So in some sense we all deserve the fiery trials of life, but they are not punishment in the sense of judgement but are rather the loving discipline of our Lord who raises us up as His children. But falling into depression itself is not inherently sinful as I already shown.
In fact we are to rejoice in our suffering as Romans 5:3-4 points out, because of how it builds our character:
rom 5:3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;
rom 5:4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;
Notice the last one, hope. Adversity actually srengthens our hope. Quite the surprise I think, but in retrospect it had that effect in me.
In my case I will admit the rejoicing came later, so I didn't do this perfectly, as I lacked a good theology of suffering at the time. But I always knew God was doing something good in my life. Hopefully this will help you when you are going through it.
When I think about it, my story isn't that unique. I've known a lot of Christians over the years, who've been through a lot, and God gave them the victory just like He did me. The tale of suffering is the tale of many Christians. My sister had breast cancer in her early 50's. Depression is a thing in my family, several of us have struggled with it. I've known people who lost young children to cancer, the list goes on. This is the tale of life and normal Christian living as Luther pointed out. And it's part of the sanctification process. I've also known "Christians" who fell away when the storms of life hit them, never to return (the tale of the thorny soil). God did not give them the victory.
My dad's story is my final application of this. I watched my dad die, on a three-day death watch. It was not pretty, and my dad had a good death by any standard. Our whole family was there, we all sat there for three days with him, celebrating his life with him, and standing by him through it. But those were still three days of intense suffering and misery for him. With months of pain leading up to the final rapid decline.
I know that when I get older, I am going to die. And I will possibly go through a period of prolonged pain and suffering leading up to it as many do, and if that happens I will likely long for the release of death, and it won't be wrong for me to do so. And I will also try make the best of it by God's grace and try to be an example of how to go through it, as my dad did, and he was an unbeliever. My dad told the same story, he went through it with his mom. My experience with depression and other hardships have prepared me for my future. And I hope it helps you as well, my dear readers.
In the meantime, every day is a blessing, rejoice and be glad in it.
We know all things work together for good for us. I knew that when I was in depression, I knew God would get something good out of it.
And if you are enduring the fiery trials of life, and it feels like defeat, know that as long as you don't repudiate Christ, it is a victory in progress. You are a victory in progress. Every Christian is. The victory was won by Christ on the cross. The trials of this life are temporary and will pass. But Heaven will be eternal. And every trial that you endure in Christ's name will be met with reward in heaven, as you are a testimony to God's grace, for God's glory.
The Bible says we can't imagine how good Heaven is going to be. In the words of Harrison Ford, I can imagine quite a lot.
So endure with patience and a good attitude as best you can.
If you are in a storm or depression, don't quit, don't give up, keep going, do what you can, trust God. Don't trust in your own strength but still use it for all it's worth, as it's God's gift to you. You can endure all things through Christ who strengthens you. You are not alone. God is with you. And great is your reward in Heaven.