Battling Depression & Anxiety
Depression and Anxiety can appear more frequently than ever especially during this pandemic period, where we are forced to stay indoors, our goals and plans are stand still, jobs affected, losing a loved one, recreation activities seem to pose a threat to our health and soo much more. What can we do about it?
Truth: We all have the ability to improve our mental health
Our bodies and minds are not perfect. They can become injured or ill.
But we also have the gift of free will and conscious thought, and with that comes a battle of the mind.
We all as humans are waging a war to keep our thoughts healthy and our bodies well, Christian or not. The next question is: How do we deal with anxiety and depression, Perhaps before we can answer the question, we need to understand the bigger picture. Our brain and spiritual soul are interdependent on each other in ways that we cannot fully see. This means there are physical and spiritual strategies that deal with the condition of our brain and soul. God can heal both depression and anxiety. It is up to us to discern and seek wise counsel for the best path to take.
Billy Graham once said: “At its best, anxiety distracts us from our relationship with God and the truth that He is “Lord of heaven and earth” (Matthew 11:25). At its worst, anxiety is a crippling disease, taking over our minds and plunging our thoughts into darkness.”
The first step to becoming free of anxiety and depression is to give your life to Jesus Christ. Once you’ve taken this step, the next is to practice fixing your thoughts on Christ and his promises. (John 14:2-3). In the battlefield of our minds, we are to practice awareness of our thoughts and take them captive.
Ask for Anointing Prayer
It’s important for Christians to understand, anxiety and depression changes us. It changes our perception. It challenges our physical bodies. We know there is no logical explanation for adrenaline pumping through our veins as though we’re running from a Zombie Apocalypse. We know that we’re to pray our worries away. We know we are to go to God and rest our thoughts on Christ. We know that there is a battlefield in our minds and bodies. We know it’s not a Philippians 4 thing. We know it doesn’t make sense. We can, however, ask for anointing prayer. We can ask for our brothers and sisters in Christ to lay aside their assumptions and rest their hands upon us. We can ask for that. We can ask for help.
The Gospel is Everything
For those of us living with anxiety and depression, it feels as though our feelings and thoughts are actively trying to kill us. At the same time, we also know our feelings are lies that cannot and should not ever be trusted. The feeling of dread and panic sends our hearts into our throats and stomachs to the floor. The sense of impending doom is beyond exhausting. But we do have one anchor. While our feelings try to unmoor us, the gospel anchors us. It’s our life line. We know that God chose us before the creation of this world, we also know we live in a fallen world. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt God is with us. He doesn’t want us to suffer and he can heal us. What we don’t know is how he will heal us. Will God heal us supernaturally? Will He use friends, Biblical counselors, intercessory prayer and medication? God has been known to heal all of these ways, sometimes it’s a combination.
Self Care is God’s Care
Anxiety and Depression crops up when we least expect it. It happens when we’ve put too much on our plates. When we pile on the hustle, the busy, the doing, the too much, the too many yeses. Our body doesn’t know any other way but to say no. And our bodies shut down in ways we don’t expect. God didn’t design us to hustle 24-7. He designed us to Be Still and Know. To ‘Be still’ means to rest in God’s presence. This verse wasn’t written in the context of taking a spa day. It was written in the context of war. The meaning of the Psalm means to: stop, cease striving and stop fighting. It means to acknowledge who our God is and be in awe of him. Daily we should learn to be still before our Lord. It keeps the world from spinning off its axis within our minds. That means to become un-busy, to not hustle. We are to prioritize our time with Him and listen to what our bodies need. Rest, exercise, a good bedtime routine, getting eight hours of sleep, and consume healing foods. This is how we war against the battle of anxiety and depression.