“This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.”
Lamentations 3:21
Do you suffer from depression? Does a dark cloud hover over you when you first wake up in the morning? Do you ever wonder why in the midst of laughter and joy your heart inside feels like crying?
- Has it been a long time since you have really laughed?
- Is it hard for you to remember the last time that you felt pleasure even while doing the things you love most?
- Do you feel like you would rather remain in bed with the covers over your head?
- Do you notice you don’t really care about how you look these days? Would you rather just stay in your sweat pants all day?
- Does life just seem black and white to you?
- Does the smallest thing overwhelm you?
- Does God feel very far away?
If you can identify with many of those things I mentioned about, you might be suffering from burnout or depression. Today I want to give you permission to rest.
And I am here today to tell you there is hope. Having been many times in the valley of depression, I can tell you that joy comes in the morning. Soak this quote below.
The Lord has a choice, sweet wine for you, dear friends! He has beauty that only comes from the valley. Yes even the valley of depression!
Charles Spurgeon has some wonderful teaching for us regarding depression and how we train our minds. Spurgeon knew intimately the dark cellar of depression and reminds us to set our hope in Christ recalling to mind all of His glorious work and grace. Our eyes can look beyond the way I feel today and find my solace in Him alone!
“Memory is frequently the bondslave of despondency. Despairing minds call to remembrance every dark foreboding in the past, and dilate upon every gloomy feature in the present; thus memory, clothed in sackcloth, presents to the mind a cup of mingled gall and wormwood.
There is, however, no necessity for this. Wisdom can readily transform memory into an angel of comfort. That same recollection which in its left hand brings so many gloomy omens may be trained to bear in its right a wealth of hopeful signs. She need not wear a crown of iron, she may encircle her brow with a fillet of gold, all spangled with stars. Thus it was in Jeremiah’s experience: in the previous verse, memory had brought him to the deep humiliation of soul: “My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me;” and now this same memory restored him to life and comfort. “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.”
Like a two-edged sword, his memory first killed his pride with one edge, and then slew his despair with the other. As a general principle, if we would exercise our memories more wisely, we might, in our very darkest distress, strike a match which would instantaneously kindle the lamp of comfort.
There is no need for God to create a new thing upon the earth in order to restore believers to joy; if they would prayerfully rake the ashes of the past, they would find light for the present; and if they would turn to the book of truth and the throne of grace, their candle would soon shine as aforetime.
Be it ours to remember the
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