Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
The Lord promised that He would keep us in "perfect peace", if our minds stay anchored on Him (Isa. 26:3). Those believers who are not at perfect peace are those who have been listening to some spirit other than God's. Some of God's people have just enough religion to be miserable. They have too much of God in them to enjoy the world and too much of the world in them to enjoy God. "If you start getting miserable", Preacher Clark taught us, "you'd better start praying. Sin and sickness are right next door." Feeling miserable is a sign that our mind has been allured by the world away from the love of God.
The little congregation gathered at Aunt Leatha's house received this additional exhortation that Sunday afternoon: "Do you worry? You had better leave God's business alone! He's obligated to take care of you, and if taking care of you is His business, then you should be paying attention to something else. Jesus commanded his followers not even to give thought to the basic necessities, such as clothing, food, and shelter (Mt. 6:25)." Of course, we all are going to think about how best to arrange our finances, etc. Paul said that the parents ought to provide for the children's future (1Cor. 12:14). But no one living by faith frets about what is going to happen to them tomorrow, whether or not God is going to do His part to provide for His children.
You have noticed that there are some believers who go through times of miserableness, for no apparent reason. Many times, they will not, or cannot, listen to anyone else who tries to help them recover from the gloomy fog that surrounds them. The world, of course, has its own explanations for such a state, which is almost never acknowledged by the world's medical professionals to be what it really is: a spiritual condition. Most often, men diagnose a miserable person to be suffering from a mental illness, frequently treating that miserable person with drugs for "depression". This is the best men can do. Chances are, you know a miserable person now who has been diagnosed by one of the world's professionals as having a "chemical imbalance" and is being treated by doctors with powerful drugs. But over the years, it has struck me as strange that whenever I ask these "depressed" people which of their chemicals is out of balance, none of them has ever been told by their doctor which chemical it is.
My question has been, if medical professionals are bold enough to tell you that you are "depressed" because you have a chemical imbalance, then shouldn't those professionals be able also to tell you which of your chemicals is out of balance? And if they know which of your chemicals is out of balance, then why don't they just administer to you doses of that specific chemical, fix the imbalance, and avoid the addiction to heavy drugs that so often results from psychiatric treatments?
I am not saying that mental misery (what men often call "depression") is not real. I know first hand that it is. I am only saying that the root of mental misery is spiritual, not chemical. Insanity is one of the many maladies with which God curses a disobedient people (Dt. 28:28). But He has promised to bless those who trust in Him. "Depression" is a result of the spiritual condition called "unbelief". And unbelief, my friend, is a spiritual condition that can be fixed, not by powerful drugs and psychiatric counseling, but by child-like faith toward God. Perfect joy can be just a prayer away.
"Gird up the loins of your mind", wrote Peter, "be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Make up your mind that God is true and commit everything to Christ for safekeeping. God has promised to keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on him. The only question now is, "Do you believe that?"
In the main, mental health professionals who deal with "depression" are merely guessing at what the problem is. That is all that is left to do, though, if men are ignorant of the healing power of God and refuse to believe what God has promised: "Keep your mind on Me, and I will keep you in perfect peace." The correct diagnosis of miserable people is "oppression" not "depression", and Jesus came to set at liberty all who were oppressed of the devil.
The driving force behind much of the world's wrong diagnoses of mental problems is simply the love of money. How much money, do you think, miserable people would pay psychiatrists or other mental health professionals to help them if those people believed that their mental misery could be fixed if they would just repent and cry out to God? The holy Ghost would put every psychiatrist on earth out of business if men would just believe the Word of God and obey it.
In the process of spiritually growing up, we all have suffered times of misery, but in every case, when we recovered from whatever it was that had moved our spirits away from faith in God, the misery disappeared. God's sweet escape from misery is always there for whoever wants it.
Some people actually enjoy misery and really do not have it in their hearts to desire deliverance. They love the attention and sympathy that their condition brings them. Sometimes, they use their "illness" as an escape from responsibilities. These people love the foolish diagnoses offered them by the world and gladly pay mental health professionals to declare officially how pitiful they are. But whoever seeks God's deliverance from demons of "depression" or demons of any other "mental illness" can find it. Jesus said so.