An Attempt at a Biblical View of Depression

Recently a precious member of our church and I had a written discussion (texts and emails) about the issue of depression.  After reading several websites and praying about this issue, I decided to share the heart of our discussion about the subject in the hopes of helping others.  I say this because depression is often a difficult subject for Christians to discuss as many leaders are not sure how to approach the subject without demeaning the character of God or taking away a Christian’s responsibility. 

Here is the heart of our last exchange:

There are many examples of Bible characters who struggled with a depression that was real, so to say that depression is not real or that it is always sin is not true.  Depression IS real but also CAN be a sin when we allow it to control those parts of our lives where God said, in His Word, that He should be in absolute control.   In other words, depression is sin only when we do not allow God to control our lives in the way He says we can allow His control over.  (By the way, there are areas which we can have no control over, such as other’s actions, but we can surrender our reactions to these kind of situations.)

Depression is real and there are many Bible characters who struggled with various types of depression: 

David - Psalm 38:4; 42:11

Elijah - 1 Kings 19:4

Jonah - Jonah 4:3

Job - Job 3:11, 26

Moses - Exodus 32:32

Jeremiah - Jeremiah 20:14, 18

I hope you believe, as I do, that God has given wonderful promises about helping us in all the types of depression and we should be convinced that God does not want any Christian living perpetually in a defeated state.  We are going to always struggle with our emotions and depression can be one of the hardest emotions we face in our lifetime.  But we can know that God wants to help us defeat permanently some sources of depression and then have the strength to “bear up” under all the other kinds of depression.  Here are some of those promises:

Psalm 34:18

2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 16-18

Galatians 2:20

Isaiah 40:31

I believe, that the key to those Bible truths helping us with those moments of “deep” depression is to determine first what is causing the depression and then find the Bible truths that help us know a course of care for that source of depression.  Some of the causes in the Bible for depression can include:

Physical imbalances - Matthew 26:41 (Getting help medically when needed)

Guilty conscience - 1 John 1:9 (Getting our own hearts right with God)

Stress - Matthew 11:28-30 (Learning to rely on God instead of mankind)

Abuse - Philippians 3 (Going forward instead of living solely in the past hurts)

Unthankful heart - Colossians 3:15 (Giving thanks even in hard times)

These are just a few of the examples the Bible gives of what can cause depression and they may or may not work together in a single life.  Some people may have one source problem and some may have more than one.  But depression is a real issue and God wants to help us.