Depression and Anxiety

Introduction:

- Personal History with Depression and Anxiety

- Charles Spurgeon

o at 24: “My spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for.”

o Spurgeon struggled with a “causeless depression” his whole life.

o Spurgeon’s Definition: A “shapeless, undefinable, yet all-beclouding hopelessness that cannot be reasoned with.”

o Though Spurgeon said it was causes, he mentioned many throughout his life

§ Struggled with reality of Hell before Christ

§ Slandered constantly by others

· Grew a beard because people would joke about the shape of his face

· Lost friends and received bitter reproach during theological controversy

§ Felt the weight and responsibility of preaching God’s Word

§ Suffered after the death of 7 people who died in a church fire

§ Physical pain (gout)

§ Busyness – cared for an orphanage, church of 4000 members, weekly sermon, weekly magazine to edit, weekly average of 500 letters to be answered

Causes to Depression and Anxiety (there are many factors, so this is not an exhaustive list)

1. Spiritual Warfare

a. The enemy is real and at work

b. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

c. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. –

2. Sin

a. At times our dark places are caused by our own choices. Reaping and Sowing

b. Laziness and procrastination can yield anxiety when it is the night before a test

3. Self-Sufficiency

a. Pride, putting everything on your own shoulders, not sharing with others.

i. “I’m fine” Freaked Out, Insecure, Neurotic, Emotional

4. Unrealistic Expectations (from others and yourself)

a. Culture “you can be anything you want to be”, not always true, we have limitations

5. Flesh

a. We are finite creatures, we have a breaking point

b. Only so many people I can be in relationship with

6. Success

a. What’s next after a big goal?

b. Hard to down-shift and forced down time can sometimes trip us up. (summer break), at the same time sometimes it is hard to get back going (vacation after my vacation)

7. Suffering

a. Death, disaster, and pain from living in a fallen world

b. Normally unexpected

8. Financial Pressure

a. Student loan debt, looking at a small bank account wondering how you will pay for bills and essentials

9. Other’s Sin

a. The sinful choices of others – friends making bad choices, family chaos, divorce

10. Comparison

a. Always seems like someone is doing everything better or has a better more ideal life than you.

b. Makes you ask the questions, Am I good enough, am I doing the right things, is does what I am doing actually matter?

11. Critics

a. Bullies, family, or friends. Face-Face, online (social media).

b. Sticks and Stone may break my bones, but words can never hurt me is a lie. These wounds hurt deeply.

12. Family Neglect

a. Awkward relationships, maybe due to neglect, lack of openness or dishonesty

13. Physical Sickness

a. Broken bones sideline athletics, question identity and purpose

14. Spiritual Sickness

a. Not sure why or how, but you are just down, hard to find words to pray

15. Human Frailty

a. Fallen bodies, real battles with depression

And these factors don’t work in isolation, but are often paired or grouped together, wearing us down.

And, we are all uniquely predisposed in certain of these sources of discouragement. For example, someone who is prone to fear of man may find the voices of critics to be particularly discouraging, whereas someone who struggles with worry may find financial pressure to be overwhelming.

Truth

1. Jesus is victorious

a. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. –

2. God is with you

a. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. –

3. God is Sovereign

a. Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. –

b. “It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by his hand, that my trials were never measured out by him, not sent to me by his arrangement of their weight and quantity.” Spurgeon

4. God is parenting us

a. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” -

5. Brokenness produces humility

a. “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. -

6. We are learning to care

a. I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. - ESV

b. “I would go into the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.” ~Spurgeon

7. We are learning to die

a. Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. -

8. God is not finished

a. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - ESV

Help

1. Remember that you are normal

a. Emotions are normal, grief is normal, sadness is normal, anxiety is normal.

2. Don’t expect a quick fix

a. We create a false hope when we think we are just going to wake up one day and be better. This is not how it happens for most. It is a slow-moving, toilsome process

b. God’s grace is not a drug to take to make the bad feelings go away, But there is a God who can meet me right there at that struggle

3. Repent where appropriate

a. Own your sin and claim the forgiveness that is yours through Christ’s redemptive work

b. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. –

c. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. –

4. Speak the gospel to yourself and others

a. Remind yourself of the grace of God through Jesus

i. Bible reading – For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brother. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom ehe called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. –

ii. Christian songs – Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, he washed me white as snow.

b. Talk about God’s grace with others. Talk about your thankfulness.

i. Swiss Family Robinson – when they ship wreck on the island the very first think they do is offer up a prayer of thanksgiving.

c. Sharing your faith can remind you of the truth you actually believe

5. Do the things you know you should do even when you don’t want to or see little change

a. "Never neglect your spiritual meals, or you will lack stamina and your spirits will sink. Live on the substantial doctrines of grace, and you will outlive and out-work those who delight in the pastry and syllabubs of 'modern thought.'" - Spurgeon

b. “All of us are leaky buckets”

c. Meditation, prayer, fellowship (church attendance)

6. Seek counsel from others

7. Create margin in your life

a. Every time you add something to your plate, you normally need to take something off

8. Sleep

a. Sleep is not only a matter of staying physically healthy, but mentally and emotionally healthy

b. God gave man rest. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” –

c. Practical suggestions, keep screens out of your room, if you can’t sleep read

9. Get outside

a. "A mouthful of sea air, or a stiff walk in the wind's face would not give grace to the soul, but it would yield oxygen to the body, which is next best." - Spurgeon

10. Take care of your body

11. Find a pressure release that you truly enjoy

a. Hobby, activity, Binging on Netflix is not a pressure release but a distraction

12. Talk openly and honestly with your family

a. Your parents are a gift to you

13. Build/maintain a prayer team

a. Can you name 3-5 people who are regularly praying for you, not just for a task, but for your spiritual vitality?

b. I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, -

14. Monitor voices speaking into your life

a. Choose who you listen to

i. Litmus test: Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. –

b. Technology breeds comparison – you may need to avoid certain voices until you can interact with them without it crushing you.

15. Pray for deliverance

a. The iron bolt which so mysteriously fastens the door of hope and holds our spirits in gloomy prison, needs a heavenly hand to push it back. ~Spurgeon

16. Train your heart towards the future reality

a. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us –

b. "Meditate with deep solemnity upon the fate of the lost sinner ... Shun all views of future punishment which would make it appear less terrible, and so take off the edge of your anxiety to save immortals from the quenchless flame ... Think much also of the bliss of the sinner saved, and like holy Baxter derive rich arguments from 'the saints' everlasting rest.' ... There will be no fear of your being lethargic if you are continually familiar with eternal realities." ~Spurgeon