Depression is your enemy. However, it wants you to believe it is your friend. It will stay with you always. It will go to bed with you and wake up with you, keeping you miserable. Depression is birthed in the notion of defeat and loneliness. It can be so powerful that even when you have had a great success, you still feel defeated.
The Bible gives us a great teaching chapter about depression – Psalms 24. It starts by recognizing that everything belongs to the Lord and is under His control (vs. 1-2). This is how we should begin our day. It should be in the recognition that the God that loves us is in charge and nothing comes my way unless He wills it or allows it. If He wills it, it is for my good. If He allows it, He will turn it for my good and He will always get the glory out of it all.
How does He get the glory? He gets the glory out of us when our goal is to be in His presence offering our lives back to Him. Verse Three asks who is ready to go before the Lord. It is before Him that our joy is complete. It is before Him that our purpose is fulfilled. Maybe our problem is that we have not been before the Lord lately. When was the last time you can say you were in the presence of God? Are you one who is waiting on God to show up? Verse Three also asks who will ascend into the hill of the Lord. It is up to us to go to Him and not Him come to us.
Verse Four gives us the roadmap to get to Him. It gives us four distinct steps. They are: do right (clean hands); be right (pure heart); submission (not lifted up his soul in vanity) and confession (nor sworn deceitfully) (walking in truth). Reverse that order and you have the way to the Lord’s presence. Verse Five tells us what we will receive once we are in His presence. It is what allows us to fight depression and keep a great attitude such as Joseph kept when he was sold as a slave into Potiphar’s house. In the Lord’s presence we will receive His blessings and His approval (righteousness). I will never feel like a loser receiving the blessings of the Lord and will never feel alone when I have His approval. Depression can’t get a grip on me when I am rejoicing over the many blessings of the Lord in my life.
Not only is Verse Four key, telling me what I must do to enter His presence, but Verse Six is vital as it gives me my mindset. Everyday I determine to seek the Lord. I want to know and stay in His will. He becomes the thing I desire. When I live these first six verses the next four words are not difficult. The scripture says, “Lift up your heads.” Notice it did not say the Lord will come and lift up your head or He will pick up your spirits in the midst of feeling bad. Rather, what the scripture informs us is that when the Lord Jesus becomes what you seek and it is in His presence that you desire to be, you will be so in control of your emotions that you will be able to do like David did in I Samuel 30 and “encourage yourself” and tell yourself to lift up your head.
The Bible promises us if we keep the right attitude and keep our spirits up, the King of glory shall come in. I love the title the “King of Glory”. Glory means I have been exalted. There is no exaltation without a submission. Glory means I have been resurrected. There is no resurrection without a death and a burial. The King of Glory is someone who has experienced an exaltation or resurrection. It is also someone who has been through a death and burial. However, it is resurrection that gives death and burial a new meaning. Your life will take on a whole new meaning when you come into your resurrection. When you come out of whatever you are going through God will use your resurrection (which is your glory) for His glory. This scripture says to me that when I seek the Lord and come into His presence, I can control my emotions to the point of refusing to go into a depression. Rather, I worship the Lord and in so doing allow the One who rules the process of transformation (death, burial and resurrection) to bring exaltation to my life. The exaltation or deliverance or victory He gives me, it all goes for His Glory.
Brothers and sisters, put an end to one day up and many days down. From this moment forward decide to walk with the Lord, stay in His presence and give God all the glory. In so doing you will continually posses the joy of the Lord and your life will be complete. He is the King of glory!
