Reflect--and Be Encouraged

August 17

Depression often springs out of a sense of failure, of frustration in our endeavor to achieve a desired end. Our financial investments are devastated in a deplorable economy and we slump into depression. Our romantic dreams are dashed and we plunge into an emotional pit of despair.

Sometimes the cause of depression is not readily identifiable. Sometimes depression can intrude into an otherwise pleasant, ordinary day. We are engaging in routine pursuits when suddenly, for no perceptible reason, we are overtaken with a sense of heaviness that we recognize as depression.

The syndrome can be diagnosed and treated but often the sufferer continues in his misery for decades without confronting the emotional imbalance that causes depression and triggers it, virtually at will. Besides medication, which often has unpleasant side effects, there is another remedy for this malady.

Psalm 42:6 offers David’s solution. “I am depressed, therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon.” When we are in a difficult place—actual or emotional—if we will but reflect upon the Lord’s help to us in previous times of difficulty, we will be encouraged to trust Him to deliver us again.