Originally posted by Holly J:
I have recently decided to let God into my life. I bought my very first Bible and I am reading it and i really enjoy it. I have recently had a relapse. My depression and anxiety are coming back like how i used to be. I am on anti depressants but was thinking that I may need to up my dose. But I am curious. . . Has anyone's faith In God and prayers helped you tremendously with their anxiety and depression? I want to get baptized soon and I am hoping that my new faith will help me overcome this war in my head and wondering if i could hear some positive stories about your faith helping traumatizing situations. Thank you!
Hi Holly J,
I was so delighted to hear of your decision to follow Jesus and be baptized. I'm sorry to hear about your relapse, but no matter what happens to you in this world, if you have Jesus, you have everything. God does not always stop the storms in our life, but He is there watching over us and riding through the storms with us. I believe that your new found faith will help you overcome things that you are not even aware of right now and that this war in your head, as you state it, could even be a catalyst to doing so. Your post has me reminiscing about the time I bought my first Bible and how a short time later I was baptized. By the way, If you do not already know it, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."--Rom 10:17. If we want to grow and become stronger in faith we need to continuously read, study, and meditate on the Word of God.
I would like to share a quote that a friend of mine shared with me some years back.
"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."
In reference to your asking about some positive stories about faith, I'll will copy and paste something that I had written a few years back. I will call it "My Anchor."
I believe the environment in which one is born and raised can have a great influence on the type of person one grows up to be. But, regardless of the advantages or disadvantages that your environment may have brought your way, if you simply go through a routine of living the best you know how and do not have a clue as to why you are living and who you really are, things can grow to be rather empty. No doubt, as I was growing up, my attention and well-being was occupied by a naïve, childlike wonderment of the immediate world around me.
I was born and raised in the large city environment of Detroit. I did not grow up with any kind of religious background, but I had parents that were strict and they kept a close eye on my four brothers and me. I can be thankful that I made it through without getting involved with the gangs, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and brawling in the streets, etc. I am, however, saddened to say that at the age of 19, when I was in the Army, I started to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes. You see, I no longer had that childlike wonderment that kept me distracted from the real issues of life. I was on my own and the impact of who I was and what this world was really all about began to weigh heavy on my mind.
For the next ten years I went running to the oblivion of alcohol. Not having any kind of mental anchor point of which to even start figuring out what this world was all about, I guess I just wanted to somehow escape from it all. It may sound silly, but I was probably trying to find out what life was all about by running from it. A big part of my life was spent in bars and night clubs and I can tell you that there’s nothing to be found at the bottom of an empty whiskey glass except more emptiness. There was a popular TV show called “Cheers,” which centered around the bar scene. It had a theme song that talked about a place to go where everybody knows your name and how everybody is glad you came. I can relate to that, but the sad reality of it all is that it’s just a bunch of people trying to escape their miserable lost condition. The TV program doesn’t depict the real world of alcohol and the death and destruction it brings to people.
I finally got to the end of my rope and was not interested in hanging on any longer. I would often entertain the thought of killing myself (Like I wasn’t already doing it with the alcohol and cigarettes for the past ten years). I was no longer cautious about being arrested for things like driving under the influence. My behavior was becoming more bizarre while under the influence of alcohol. I just didn’t care about anything anymore. I never used to like going to sleep because I reasoned that I would just wake back up again.
As a Naval Aviation Electronics Technician, I was working on an aircraft one day with a co-worker named D. J. He had known about the “hot water” I was in because of my drinking. Things were pretty quiet between us and then he simply said that he had a friend named Jesus that could help. It was at that point that I started to realize that maybe there really was a God and I became interested in what the Bible was all about. Shortly after this I ended up going through the Navy’s six week “in-house” alcohol rehabilitation center. Everyone was assigned to a group with a counselor in charge. The main thrust of the group sessions seemed to be based on the idea of you being out in the middle of the ocean on a boat that had a rock on board. If you didn’t get rid of the rock the boat was going to sink and you would drown. The idea was for you to discover what your rock was and to get rid of it. Your rock, of course, was some major thing in your life that you needed to deal with and get rid of. When the six weeks were up and it was time to graduate I still had not discovered what my rock was and the counselor told me, point blank, (for what ever reason), that she didn’t think that I was going to make it. In other words, I was destined to end up in the gutter, prison, or dead because of my drinking. But, as I look back, I can be thankful that I did end up finding my rock and it was a solid rock. It was, however, not a rock that I would want to throw overboard in the boat of life--that rock being Christ Jesus. The Bible mentions God as being a rock because He is a fortress, a stronghold. I discovered Jesus to be that anchor that I didn’t have before. Jesus was my answer to what life was all about. The Bible speaks of Jesus as being the way, the truth, and the life.
As I had started to realize that Jesus was a friend that could help, I started to have special moments of seeing rays of hope shining through. I had become aware of the darkness that I had been living in. Even the things of nature looked and sounded different now. Things were bright and alive. To discover God meant that I had to discover that I was a sinner. I had to come to grips with the cross of Calvary where Christ died so that I might live. This is love in the purest sense. The Bible says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” I can recall the time when I was at a bar, soaking my brain in alcohol as usual, contemplating what this world was all about. I was thinking about what would be the greatest or most powerful thing in the world. I thought about people, with their position of power, money, military strengths, and nuclear power, etc. After the mental dust of all my thinking had settled it occurred to me that love had to be the greatest, most powerful, thing. Even though I couldn’t put my thumb on the definition of love, I somehow reasoned that this had to be true. I was quite elated to discover, later on, that the Bible comes right out and says, “God is love.” It was this power of love that was able to take upon all the sins of the world. At the crucifixion the people shouted, “If you are the Son of God come down from the cross and save yourself.” But love says I can’t do that. Love is totally absent of anything selfish. The nails were not holding Christ to the cross, He was holding the nails. Jesus loved us too much to come down from the cross. It was the power of love that took our sins and buried them in Christ’s death and it was the same power of love that couldn’t keep Christ buried in the tomb. This is why in Christ we can die and be raised up anew.
I’m glad to say that it has been over 22 years since I had a drink or smoked a cigarette. But, it’s about more than just having victory over some addiction or bad habit, it’s about an on going and growing relationship with God. It's not about just looking back to some point in time when you were baptized, but it's as the apostle Paul said, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."--Phil 3:14. The storms in life may be many and I may have to continue to throw unneeded baggage overboard in the boat of life, but I’m going to make it through by hanging on to my Rock and knowing that I have my sure anchor in Christ Jesus.
May the Lord richly bless you on your new journey with Him.
...This journey is an AWESOME one, Believe me!!!!