Why Does God Allow Depression?

I used to ask myself that question many times. When you’re chronically depressed, you see the world differently than other people. A mildly disappointing event—like being a few minutes late to where you were going due to heavy traffic—can be a “sign” that things are, in fact, working against you. If taken to its extreme, that line of thinking leads to the conclusion that God doesn’t really care about you. If He did, He certainly wouldn’t allow you to go on suffering every day. Your own mind wouldn’t be your enemy. You wouldn’t be such a screwed-up mess—with relationships you hold at a distance in order to try and contain that mess that is your life.

I may not have an easily-packaged answer as to why God allows depression to exist. But there are a couple things I know to be true: 1) God doesn’t represent depression—He’s not in favor of it, He doesn’t condone it, and it’s not His plan for anyone. 2) God represents the exact opposite—Caring. Hope. Love. “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5)—if God is light, He can’t be a part of depression, because depression represents darkness—that place of discouragement, hopelessness, and even utter contempt for life.

But even though He’s not a part of the darkness, He will be with you in your darkness—He will be shining His light and showing you the way out. God’s light is so bright that you can’t help but see it—or at least perceive that it’s there. The problem is that you think you can’t possibly get to it, or that for you it simply won’t work—there’s no solution to your depression. So it seems “safe,” inevitable, even right for you to stay immersed in it.

Your depression is not a problem for God—though the enemy would like you to believe that; he’d like you to think that God has got to be utterly disappointed in you and not willing to waste any more time trying to get you out of depression. And if God’s disappointed, well then why should you bother to hold out any hope for yourself? The Lord says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jeremiah 31:3). His love doesn’t run out on us, and His kindness does not fail. He will keep loving us and being kind to us no matter what. Depression cannot separate you from His love; nothing can! “…neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).

One more thing I know (we’ll call this number 3)—God shows His love in a variety of ways. 

Sometimes what may not look like love to you at the time actually, undoubtedly is—and you’re certain to realize it later on down the road. Sometimes His love looks like isolation—but His goal really isn’t to isolate you—it’s to get you to look to Him. Jesus holds the keys of sin and death—and if He’s got all that, well, He’s got the keys to depression too. Sometimes when He offers us keys, though, we don’t recognize them as keys at the time—they may appear to be more of a hammer or a hairbrush, something to knock us over the head or to merely meet a physical need. Later on, when we look back, we can see how our good Father was orchestrating everything for our good.

So why does God not just whisk depression away? He certainly could—but He also sees the bigger picture. And I think that most of the time, when He looks at that picture, He likes to see us leaning on Him. And we learn to do that in the quiet place, when we are able to hear His voice because we’ve tried everything else and we just have to hear Him—because there’s no other solution. And that’s when He becomes our Source—the voice that whispers, ‘You can get up today—you can do this. One step at a time. I am with you.’

Depression is not your “lot in life” nor God’s plan for you. No way! His plan is to give you a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). According to Isaiah 49:16, He’s engraved you on the palms of His hands. And that means, He’s not going to forget you. Even though you’re in the Valley of Depression, He’s with you—by way of His rod and staff, which comfort you—correcting and guiding, making sure you’re headed in the right direction. Because of His great love for you.  As many course-corrections as it takes, He’s willing to go the proverbial “extra mile,” and then some.

No, God didn’t create depression. But He certainly will create pathways through it, and gateways out of it. In the end, you will have a hand to offer someone else who is stuck in the valley—because you will know the way out. So maybe the question shouldn’t be “Why does God allow depression to exist?” but rather “What kind of testimony will I have once I’ve made it to the other side?”