Fighting for Faith - Pt 2

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. (Psalm 139:11-12 ESV).

So, let’s be more specific today. If you’re depressed, how can you fight for faith? How can you believe while also stumbling through the dark? The first suggestion is to distinguish between fact and feeling. One truth I have come to realize is that most of the time in the midst of my depression, my feelings have zero connection to reality. This is a vital key to understand when you’re in the morass of mental illness. This is not to say that depression is not real. The pain and darkness are very real. However, we must recognize that we feel bad because something is seriously wrong with our body. We feel bad because our brain is rebelling, not necessarily because everything is really going to pieces. Reality is outside of our broken brain. It is defined by God’s word. It’s solid. If I try to process my life or circumstances through the dark lens of depression, I will be terrified. Depression turns our brain into a swirling mass of half-truths and distorted perceptions. If you’re depressed, it can be dangerous to evaluate anything in your life. Don’t scrutinize your circumstances or friendships or prospects for marriage. I can assure you that you will misinterpret reality. Instead, let me suggest that you defer those issues or decisions to God by thinking, “I’m leaving that to God for now. I’ll think about it later and trust him to handle it.” God is good. He is faithful. He loves you even though you don’t feel it. He can handle your life even when you can’t. Remember, faith is not a feeling. Faith is believing that God will do what he said, even when it doesn’t feel like it. I can guarantee that when you’re depressed, it won’t feel like God is faithful. But that feeling simply is not true. Don’t believe it. John Calvin, the great reformer was acutely sensitive to the imperfect feeling of our faith. He said that true faith “clings so fast to the inmost parts that, however it seems to be shaken or to bend this way or that, its light is never so extinguished or snuffed out that it does not at least lurk as it were beneath the ashes” (Institutes). Like David prays in our reading today, our faith may often slip away from our sight, but it does not slip away from God who gave it in the first place. Separate your feelings from the truth. You will have taken a large step in applying the spiritual portion of the solution to your depression.