Depression. Hopelessness. Feeling as if the painful or uncomfortable situation you are in will never change. An overwhelming sense of being stuck in an undesirable place, with no deliverance in sight. Trust me, a lot of us have been there. But staying there is what I’m going to focus on.
Proverbs 31:25 She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.
If you haven’t read my post ‘We See You Carl’, check it out, what I outline there is what I use to combat things like depression. I attached a video to that post of the antelope with the night vision goggles. They are watching their predator roam around looking for them and they laugh at him because they now have the upper hand because they can see him coming in the dark. Sometimes life can pile good and bad things on our plate and even the strongest of us may have difficulty managing what is served. Some plates are filled with tragedy, some with overwhelming responsibilities, others with mounting situations that we ultimately cannot juggle.
Our God gives us the upper hand. Just as the antelope had the night vision goggles, God gives us the Holy Spirit. The negative thoughts that are characteristic of depression are evidence of our adversary stalking us. His footprints are very clear and we should be able to recognize them. Our situations may not immediately go away but our outlook on our situation is the difference maker. Do we succomb to our current situation or continue seeking a better situation. Verse 25 says that ‘she laughs without fear of the future’. This is what breaks depression. Casting out that fear that things won’t change.
The future can be daunting, we don’t know exactly what it will bring us. And our adversary wants us to believe that the future will bring no good thing. And if we embrace that thinking, or embrace depression, God cannot fulfill his thoughts toward us which are of good and not evil with an expected end. There will be an end to your current troubles, but if you are depressed, your troubles can leave you and the depression not. And this is the adversary’s goal. For you to think that the situation will never end and when it does, you are too involved in a negative thought pattern to rejoice in your deliverance and move on to better things.
Your future belongs to you and you play a huge role in how it plays out. So don’t let any person or situation rob you of your future. The P31 laughs without fear of the future. The joy of the Lord is her strength and whatever gets served on her plate, it doesn’t cause her to fear. She has her night vision goggles that expose the enemy and give her hope of a better day.
Reference: Proverbs 31:25 and the Geico antelope commercial
