Freedom From Depression and Anxiety: Traveling the Road WITH You - Days 6-10

Day Six: Deliverance, Honor, Salvation

Finally, the last three verses of Psalm 91. Apply these verse to God rescuing YOU from the pit of anxiety and/or depression you’ve been in.

¹⁴ “Because he^[b] loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”

When God says “Because he loves me,” I don’t think He’s saying our rescue is based on what we DO—but it’s a natural result of a relationship with Him. So it’s like He’s saying, “Because he has a relationship with me, of course I’ll come to his rescue [or hers].” Just like you would for a friend, right? He promises to be with us in trouble, and not only to DELIVER us, but to HONOR us. God doesn’t want us stuck in a place of shame and regret. He wants to lift our heads and show us that we’re actually….royalty. He is going to use our victories to bring honor to HIM—and in so doing, WE will be honored as well.

I think the part about “long life” can really apply to the issues of depression and anxiety. When God becomes more and more our source, I believe our lives can actually be lengthened. Constant worry and stress causes physical effects and can actually cut our lives SHORT.

Sometimes we want the “quick deliverance,” but we aren’t patient enough to allow God to SHOW us His salvation. He wants us to be able to look back to where we were and see how FAR we’ve come! That can only happen as we foster our love relationship with HIM. It’s like when you’ve known someone a long time, the bond strengthens and you make a lot of memories. The Father wants to recount memories with us and show us that He has been faithful and that we ARE truly recipients of salvation—not just our spirits, but our SOULS as well—the way we think, act, and live out our lives. Jesus came to save to the UTTERMOST—in every possible way.

I hope that you will consider praying: “God, I’ve been living a fearful and mediocre life. Show me the way out, and help me to take note of all of the ways in which you are saving me on this journey. Remind me of your love for me. You are my deliverer, and I put my trust in you today. I know I won’t be perfect at it, but I want to trust you. My journey will not look like anyone else’s, but I honestly want for me what YOU want. Thank you for being WITH me each step of the way. I know this battle won’t be won by might nor power of my own but by your SPIRIT that dwells within me. I will not be ashamed for coming to you again and again for help—because that is who you ARE—my very present help in trouble. Thank you, Lord, for seeing me—and for seeing me through. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Day Seven: Triggers and Contributors – The Cycle

What may trigger depression and anxiety can be different things for different people. I am very sensitive and influenced by smells. I have determined that kiwi-scented V05 conditioner smells enough like those little black ants that I think about it every time I use it. For that, I can employ mind over matter, but for other things it’s much harder. The smells of a dirty bathroom really have a negative effect on me—I immediately feel a sense of heaviness (depression). If it’s MY bathroom—and I’ve let it get to an overwhelming level of dirtiness—that just compounds my feelings of depression and gives me anxiety as well. Every time I go in, I’m thinking of how dirty it is, which makes it seem like “too much” for me to clean BECAUSE I’m feeling overwhelmed by it. Depression and anxiety create a vicious cycle.

Anxiety can be triggered by others’ negativity. It may not even be EXTREME negativity—but just enough to frustrate and bring on anxiety. For me, when this happens, it affects my relationship with that person and causes me to have less emotional trust for them.

Depression can be triggered by jealousy. Perhaps you perceive that friend X has a better relationship with friend Y than he or she does with YOU. There are other feelings involved as well—like insecurity; feelings of unworthiness (this is mostly from the enemy, whispering to you that no one REALLY wants to be that close to you); even feelings of shame that you struggle with depression—so therefore, you reason that you will never be the kind of friend people want to invest in—sure, they may invest in you, but you reason that it’s probably because they feel sorry for you. In this way, even the COMPASSION of others can be an unrecognized trigger.

I want to quote something from a health challenge I’m currently a part of. I believe “health” applies to all aspects of our lives: “When you start to address your fears and change your life for the better, you will feel free. Yes, more fears will arise. Yes, "bad" things will happen. Yes, difficulty will always present itself…But you'll realize that the paralysis that fear causes is worse than any pain that fear can inflict. You'll experience good things alongside the bad, and things will get easier.” Isn’t that the truth? Anxiety is rooted in fear, and though depression may not be ROOTED there, fear reinforces it—fear that others see you a certain way; fear of people KNOWING what you’re really going through and what they might think if they knew—the list goes on and on.

I know that paralysis—and it’s awful. Knowing what some of these “triggers” are and working to overcome them can help us to move forward, OUT of the paralyzing effects of our anxiety and depression. But we have to be willing.

Questions/responses for today: 

1.       Are you willing to learn to see yourself in a new way?

2.       Ask the Lord: What is the truth about me? Let Him speak to your heart. If you’re hearing something negative, it’s not from Him. Write down at least three things that are true about you, whether you feel you believe them or not.

3.       With God’s help, declare them over yourself. For example, “I am a good mom.” That may be something you really struggle with, as I have—the enemy wants you to believe you’re a failure in EVERY area, thus perpetuating and triggering that cycle.

4.       Are you ready for that cycle to come to an end?

Day Eight: Resting in God

Today, I’d like you to watch this video. If you’ve never just sat in God’s presence, just to experience Him, you can learn a little bit about how to do just that. The term commonly used for it is “soaking.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdMjfc7t8X0&spfreload=10

Graham says a few things I’d like to highlight, in terms of our journey out of anxiety and/or depression. He explains the reason for resting in this way: “When your mind and your emotions are pressured—and you’re feeling overwhelmed, your WILL defaults to a negative—pretty much all the time. Resting REMOVES that pressure and opens you up to the person of God.” God is a PERSON. And He’s the most IMPORTANT person for us to open ourselves up to.

Soaking, as Graham points out, “makes our inner man accessible to the joyful nature of God.” Particularly if you’ve struggled with anxiety or depression in your life, learning how to experience JOY is something you have to actually practice; you must be intentional about it. Being with God through soaking is a great start.

Graham says, “We GROW into a place of overcoming.” Notice he says that we GROW into it—we don’t automatically begin to experience it just because we try it out. Resting through soaking takes practice. Graham talks about some of the results—how we will begin to SEE ourselves from God’s perspective. That is key—isn’t HIS perspective the one we ultimately want for our lives?

I love the analogy Graham gives of “marinating in the Spirit.” It’s not simply sitting and then going away frustrated because ‘I was here, God—I showed up—I sat here waiting, but I didn’t feel anything.’ Soaking in His presence is a totally NEW place to be. There is no agenda, no outcome we are “shooting for,” no prescribed set of feelings we need to feel in order to deem the time spent as having been “worthwhile.” We simply enjoy who our God is—and HOW He is, with us.

Commit to soaking at least once over the next seven days, using Graham’s tips as a guide.

Day Nine: The Uncommon and the Common

There’s no anxiety or depression profile that is common to ALL people, but there are some things that are true ABOUT anxiety and depression that do apply across the board, the primary of which is that they are thieves—and they will rob you of life. Sound familiar in any way? “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;…” (John 10:10a). But Jesus is the remedy—the restorer of all that the thief has taken: “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10b).

When people make assumptions about what we’re going through, they generally MEAN well. Even if they have no clue, the most important thing is that we look for Jesus in every situation. And He can still use those who’ve had NO experience with anxiety or depression to love us and speak life to us. He wants us to have a FULL life—it’s what He gave HIS for. Have you stopped to think about that—that Jesus DIED for you to be free from anxiety/depression?

Especially remember not to push away the love of those closest to you—that love represents JESUS. And these are people HE’S given you. Thank God for them.

YOU are uncommon—unique; God sees YOU as an individual and cares about every detail of your life. What IS common—no matter who you are—is that God LOVES you. But He works in each of our lives in a very UNCOMMON, non-standard way—remember, He knows what we need before we even ask, so He’s constantly orchestrating events in our lives to bring us life.

Remember also that Jesus was tempted in every way yet did not sin. That means He was also tempted to fall into the pits of anxiety and depression—yet He overcame those things. He had MANY reasons and times where it would have been understandable for Him to take those things on. But He didn’t. Why? For the love of US. He wanted a FULL victory for us—that’s what He paid for; that’s what’s available to us.

Day Ten: The Process: Falling, Healing, Walking

You may fall 10,000 times…but there will come a day—if you really want your freedom and continue to fight for it—that you’ll notice you DIDN’T fall. You’ll be amazed that you’re actually standing, facing fears, wrestling giants—that you could not have faced or bested before. It’ll take you by surprise, as it did me. ‘So THIS is what freedom feels like,’ you’ll think to yourself. You may actually get a bit giddy.

In the meantime, sometimes it’s just HARD to keep going—to keep BELIEVING. I used to even project my depression onto…everything! I’d say things like “Things are never gonna change,” and I’d put heavy expectations on my husband because, well, if he took CARE of certain things, I probably wouldn’t be so depressed. But I’ve learned that though I ALLOWED things that “bugged” me to contribute to my depression, they weren’t the SOURCE of it—and taking care of them did not “fix” it.

There are roots that go deep. You may know some—even many—of them, but some you may be completely unaware of. Ask the Lord to help you find those roots—and to empower you to UPROOT them. Maybe there’s unforgiveness; perhaps there’s been past abuse; it’s quite possible that the dysfunctions of your family of origin affected how you “deal” with life and respond to stressors. God WILL show you what needs to be done—but don’t forget…it’s a process. But today the healing can BEGIN. If you’ve told the Lord that’s what you want—and you meant it—I have no doubt that He’ll meet you and show you the answers you seek. Tune in to Him. Walking it out may not be easy, but nobody learns to walk without falling down. That’s why it’s such a victory in the end.