Am I sinning against God if I am depressed?
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Guest
Hi,
I don't have a lot of time, but I wanted to say that thankfully, it has been a long time since I've been depressed, but what helped me the most spiritually at my worst was the advice found in the Psalms. At the most, there are times when depression can be a consequence of sin, but depression itself is not sin. Feelings aren't sins. Also, God does not expect us to punish ourselves if the depression is a consequence of sin. It's just meant for us to address the sin if that is the case, and most certainly there are many times when depression is not the result of sin.
The Psalms contain both expressions of emotions and advice for dealing with those emotions in the form of hope.
In one Psalm, David is in so much pain that he says, "I feel like a dead man...out of body...out of mind."
Psalm 27 brought me wonderful comfort during my worst time with depression. It ends with "Wait on the Lord and He will strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." It was telling me to hold on and that it was going to get better.
Psalm 23 says, "He restoreth my soul." I read that at my worst. I wasn't completely sure of its meaning, but I later found out that the translation of "restore" in the Bible means not only that God will heal you, but he will make you better than you were before.
Please be assured that you are not sinning because you are depressed. Also, often we say we are depressed when we are experiencing grief. Jesus experienced grief so severely that he felt he was at the point of death. Human beings are meant to feel emotion, and it is not a sin. Jesus was not always happy go lucky by any means. He felt and expressed emotions including anger and grief that were appropriate for the circumstances without sinning.
I'm sorry that I don't have a lot of advice because I don't have all of the specifics, but you are most certainly not sinning against God if you are depressed. Even if some depression was the result of a sin, it wouldn't be sinning to experience that emotion. Depression is often a warning signal that something is wrong. Just like when we experience pain when we touch a hot oven. The pain isn't the problem, it's that we touched the hot oven. It's not a sin to feel pain.
Also, absolutely nothing can separate you from God's love. Even if you have trouble feeling His love, He most certainly does love you. He is especially close to those with a broken heart.
Take care and God bless you,
luvpiggy
I don't have a lot of time, but I wanted to say that thankfully, it has been a long time since I've been depressed, but what helped me the most spiritually at my worst was the advice found in the Psalms. At the most, there are times when depression can be a consequence of sin, but depression itself is not sin. Feelings aren't sins. Also, God does not expect us to punish ourselves if the depression is a consequence of sin. It's just meant for us to address the sin if that is the case, and most certainly there are many times when depression is not the result of sin.
The Psalms contain both expressions of emotions and advice for dealing with those emotions in the form of hope.
In one Psalm, David is in so much pain that he says, "I feel like a dead man...out of body...out of mind."
Psalm 27 brought me wonderful comfort during my worst time with depression. It ends with "Wait on the Lord and He will strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." It was telling me to hold on and that it was going to get better.
Psalm 23 says, "He restoreth my soul." I read that at my worst. I wasn't completely sure of its meaning, but I later found out that the translation of "restore" in the Bible means not only that God will heal you, but he will make you better than you were before.
Please be assured that you are not sinning because you are depressed. Also, often we say we are depressed when we are experiencing grief. Jesus experienced grief so severely that he felt he was at the point of death. Human beings are meant to feel emotion, and it is not a sin. Jesus was not always happy go lucky by any means. He felt and expressed emotions including anger and grief that were appropriate for the circumstances without sinning.
I'm sorry that I don't have a lot of advice because I don't have all of the specifics, but you are most certainly not sinning against God if you are depressed. Even if some depression was the result of a sin, it wouldn't be sinning to experience that emotion. Depression is often a warning signal that something is wrong. Just like when we experience pain when we touch a hot oven. The pain isn't the problem, it's that we touched the hot oven. It's not a sin to feel pain.
Also, absolutely nothing can separate you from God's love. Even if you have trouble feeling His love, He most certainly does love you. He is especially close to those with a broken heart.
Take care and God bless you,
luvpiggy
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Guest
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Guest
Psalm 43:5 (New International Version)
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Psalm 62:5 (New International Version)
Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.
Psalm 130:5 (New International Version)
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
Isaiah 40:31 (New International Version)
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 41:10 (New International Version)
So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Also, keep in mind that depression is a genuine medical ailment just like an ulcer, migraine, even cancer. In these examples you definitely would not be sinning if your stomach hurt, your head hurt, or your body cells were turning bad.
Just because depression is primarily considered an emotional/mental ailment (though many people feel physical symptoms due to the depression), doesn't make it any less of an ailment than a physical one. God would not consider you sinning against Him if you had any of these physical ailments mentioned--or any others. Why would He consider you sinning because your ailment is emotional/mental?
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Psalm 62:5 (New International Version)
Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.
Psalm 130:5 (New International Version)
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
Isaiah 40:31 (New International Version)
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 41:10 (New International Version)
So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Also, keep in mind that depression is a genuine medical ailment just like an ulcer, migraine, even cancer. In these examples you definitely would not be sinning if your stomach hurt, your head hurt, or your body cells were turning bad.
Just because depression is primarily considered an emotional/mental ailment (though many people feel physical symptoms due to the depression), doesn't make it any less of an ailment than a physical one. God would not consider you sinning against Him if you had any of these physical ailments mentioned--or any others. Why would He consider you sinning because your ailment is emotional/mental?
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Guest
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Guest
Sara
In a word NO. Depression was felt by many of the men in the Old Testament. Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, King David. The book of Psalms is full of many heartfelt prayers to the Lord from King David. Even the Lord knew lonliness and rejection so don't feel bad. But know you are not alone and those who want to say it's Sin is maybe because they don't know what else to say? Who knows? But most of us here know the truth adn we are overcomers and can live in joy. Hang in there Sara
blessings
Jill~
In a word NO. Depression was felt by many of the men in the Old Testament. Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, King David. The book of Psalms is full of many heartfelt prayers to the Lord from King David. Even the Lord knew lonliness and rejection so don't feel bad. But know you are not alone and those who want to say it's Sin is maybe because they don't know what else to say? Who knows? But most of us here know the truth adn we are overcomers and can live in joy. Hang in there Sara
blessings
Jill~
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Guest
Hello SaraHall,Originally posted by SaraHall:
How do you get the closest to God?
I believe you get the closest to God by talking to him. I'll share some quotes with you that will give you an idea as to what I mean.
Through nature and revelation, through His providence, and by the influence of His Spirit, God speaks to us. But these are not enough; we need also to pour out our hearts to Him. In order to have spiritual life and energy, we must have actual intercourse with our heavenly Father. Our minds may be drawn out toward Him; we may meditate upon His works, His mercies, His blessings; but this is not, in the fullest sense, communing with Him. In order to commune with God, we must have something to say to Him concerning our actual life.
Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend. Not that it is necessary in order to make known to God what we are, but in order to enable us to receive Him. Prayer does not bring God down to us, but brings us up to Him.
We must pray always if we would grow in faith and experience. We are to be "instant in prayer," to "continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving." Romans 12:12; Colossians 4:2. Peter exhorts believers to be "sober, and watch unto prayer." 1 Peter 4:7. Paul directs, "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." Philippians 4:6. "But ye, beloved," says Jude, "praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God." Jude 20, 21. Unceasing prayer is the unbroken union of the soul with God, so that life from God flows into our life; and from our life, purity and holiness flow back to God.
Pray in your closet, and as you go about your daily labor let your heart be often uplifted to God. It was thus that Enoch walked with God. These silent prayers rise like precious incense before the throne of grace. Satan cannot overcome him whose heart is thus stayed upon God.
There is no time or place in which it is inappropriate to offer up a petition to God. There is nothing that can prevent us from lifting up our hearts in the spirit of earnest prayer. In the crowds of the street, in the midst of a business engagement, we may send up a petition to God and plead for divine guidance, as did Nehemiah when he made his request before King Artaxerxes. A closet of communion may be found wherever we are. We should have the door of the heart open continually and our invitation going up that Jesus may come and abide as a heavenly guest in the soul.
We need to have more distinct views of Jesus and a fuller comprehension of the value of eternal realities. The beauty of holiness is to fill the hearts of God’s children; and that this may be accomplished, we should seek for divine disclosures of heavenly things.
Let the soul be drawn out and upward, that God may grant us a breath of the heavenly atmosphere. We may keep so near to God that in every unexpected trial our thoughts will turn to Him as naturally as the flower turns to the sun.
Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children. "The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." James 5:11. His heart of love is touched by our sorrows and even by our utterances of them. Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe. Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. No calamity can befall the least of His children, no anxiety harass the soul, no joy cheer, no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest. "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." Psalm 147:3. The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share His watchcare, not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son.
I hope this will be of some help.
Have a blessed day communing with our Lord.
GIL
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Guest
Dearest Sara
I have been crying to our Lord Jesus since 1978 and i love every moment of it. There are wonderful people here to fellowship with but i would still rather cry to Jesus and this is why.
I have come so close to getting killed in this world to many times. Having a tank roll on top of me in Nam to almost falling to my death when I was an iron worker. I passed out on the iron over a 100 ft. fall to a concrete floor and our Lord Jesus still kept me alive. Then at a point of my life my girl left me which put me in emotional confusion, I didn't eat for seven days and was not about to eat anymore for the rest of my life or care for myself anymore, and only then the Lord came into my heart in the size of a golf ball. I stood up in amazment. I have been to the bottom of the bottomless pit of depression. I was in no way, wanting or willing to be saved, but Jesus saved me anyway.
I have a two page letter of how Jesus saved me. It is titled "Is There Life After We Die" well of course there is. Though we are slain in this world our Lord Jesus will give us another place to dwell in HIS prefect will. The Lord is my sheperd i don't even want. I cannot stop crying over how much love and care Jesus has giving me, even when i didn't want HIS love and care.
When you think your life is shattered and there's no way to be fixed again, love heals your heart!!!
tearsforjesus910@aol.com
Tears for Jesus Ministry
Welcome to the party!!!!
I have been crying to our Lord Jesus since 1978 and i love every moment of it. There are wonderful people here to fellowship with but i would still rather cry to Jesus and this is why.
I have come so close to getting killed in this world to many times. Having a tank roll on top of me in Nam to almost falling to my death when I was an iron worker. I passed out on the iron over a 100 ft. fall to a concrete floor and our Lord Jesus still kept me alive. Then at a point of my life my girl left me which put me in emotional confusion, I didn't eat for seven days and was not about to eat anymore for the rest of my life or care for myself anymore, and only then the Lord came into my heart in the size of a golf ball. I stood up in amazment. I have been to the bottom of the bottomless pit of depression. I was in no way, wanting or willing to be saved, but Jesus saved me anyway.
I have a two page letter of how Jesus saved me. It is titled "Is There Life After We Die" well of course there is. Though we are slain in this world our Lord Jesus will give us another place to dwell in HIS prefect will. The Lord is my sheperd i don't even want. I cannot stop crying over how much love and care Jesus has giving me, even when i didn't want HIS love and care.
When you think your life is shattered and there's no way to be fixed again, love heals your heart!!!
tearsforjesus910@aol.com
Tears for Jesus Ministry
Welcome to the party!!!!