Depression is not
corrected by an ongoing inward exploration of damaged systems within. We can gaze internally for decades and never
get any further than a thousand different psychological wounds that have
festered because we keep looking at them and refuse to turn away. Unlike physical injuries, psychological
injuries do not improve with increased concentration upon them. Whenever Jesus healed, whether it was the
lepers or the blind, He did not give them instructions for continued care to
the damaged body part. He made the blind
man wash the mud out of his eyes and be done with it, told the lepers to go to
the priest and have their clean skin verified by the priest, ordered the
paralyzed man to pick up his mat and walk.
All focus was upon the new life that had come, not the old life that had
been a plague of sorrow. The injuries
done to the personality are, if they are not physical in nature, the result of
Sin and its penetrating corrosive work.
Whether it be the "sins of the fathers" or "the sins of
the sons", we cannot say. Sometimes
we are wrecked by the sins we commit, other times it is the sins committed
against us that take us apart.
Regardless, it is the Cross of Christ that must be worked into us if the
psychological damage caused by Sin is to be worked out of us. Even the most disturbed among us can be
brought into joy by an ever growing trust in God that He is good and His love
for us in Christ unceasing. The simple
prayer, "Jesus, you are good and I trust now in your love for me" if
voiced again and again during the day will begin, perhaps slowly, to heal our
personalities of the harm done to them; not because it is a magical prayer but
because it opens us to the touch of Christ at points where we have not before
given Him access. Jesus asked the odd
question, "Do you want to get well?" not because He was trying to
draw out of the paralyzed man a profound statement of faith but because our
Lord will only work in us where we give Him permission and it was not clear
that the paralytic was open to God dealing with him. If we want our personalities to get well, at
some point we must take our eyes off the damaged parts of us and look squarely
at Jesus and keep our eyes fixed on Him long enough for Christ to enter the
inner courts of our personality and make us new.
We were therefore buried with him through baptism
into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the
glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4 NIV
1 comment:
To fight depression, one way I have proved working fine that is doing a lot work out or hiking, and then drinking tons of water, having good sleep, diet. Of course, the most important thing is staying with God the Father and Jesus Christ.
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