Depression's Ugly Face

By: Jessica Finney

I am sure all of us have either went through depression or know someone who has.  A deep depression is when the world keeps getting darker and you don't see anyway out.  You can't even see a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel.

A lot of the time, you can see how it hurts the ones that love you but you feel helpless to know what to do and it just makes it worse.

The devil uses this as his playground, when we go through it because he doesn't want us to ever get the joy back that God wants to give us.  I think it is a taste of what hell will be like. Have you ever thought about that? If heaven is full of joy, happiness, and praising God. Then I feel like hell isn't just the lake of fire (although that will be bad) but also all the negative emotions we face down here but multiplied.

Of course one of the things you think about as you are going through depression is suicide.  Some feel that is the only way out and they feel they aren't strong enough to deal with it anymore.  When I went through it the devil kept telling me my family would be better off.  Sure they would grieve but eventually they wouldn't see me like that anymore and be able to go on with their lives. Thank God that He had a hold of me and I never even attempted it.

Even when we think we have made it through it sometimes it isn't completely lifted until years later, when all of a sudden we feel a huge weight lift off of our shoulders that we had carried so long that we didn't even know we were carrying it.  This happened to me when I was singing Above All and I felt the Holy Spirit cover me and let me feel an overpowering feeling of how much God really loved me that He thought of me above everything else.

Now sometimes when things are just not going right in my life, it is easy to see depression's ugly face coming again but this is when it is so important to pray to God for Him to take it away from you and tell the devil that he isn't taking your joy away from you again.  That no matter what I am going through that God wants me to have the joy that only He can give.

Psalms 30:5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life, weeping may endure for a night but JOY comes in the morning.

Dear heavenly father, thank you for getting me out of the deep depression that I was in and reminding me that all I really need is you. Thank you for the ones that stood by my side and I pray that you give the ones that are going through it now strength.  I also pray that you will help us bring more people to you so that they don't have to go through the lake of fire.  Please give everyone that is reading this a touch of your hand that we may all feel your love and share your joy.  It is in Jesus, name. Amen.

Worry

By Jessica Finney

How many time have we all worried about something?  It could be about our job, unemployment, illness (ours or a family member's), and the list goes on and on.  We sometimes forget the other circumstances that God has got us through in the past.

Mathew 6:25-34 Therefor I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for thy neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing/  Consider the lilies of the field how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat?" or 'What shall we drink?" or "What shall we wear?" For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Isn't it wonderful? All we have to do is seek God and tell him our troubles, and He will take care of us.  So why do we try do it all on our own?

I don't know about you, but sometimes I don't tell God everything that I should.  Sometimes I think my worries on the little things are silly, but sometimes they are big to me.  And you know what if they are big or little to me, God loves us so much that He wants to be in every part of our lives.  By trusting God in all parts of our lives brings us into a closer relationship with Him, which He longs for.

Dear heavenly Father, thank you for always being there for me in the small and the big parts of my life.  Please help me not to worry and give all my troubles to you.  I know that you have my best interest in mind and your ways are better then mine.  Help me to go in the direction that you want me too.  In Jesus name, Amen.

Friendship

by Jessica Finney

Proverbs 18:24 A man who has  friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

There aren't too many people who will stick closer than a brother.  Most of the time brothers can torment their sisters or brothers, but no one else would dare  mess with them; they will have a fight on their hands.

I have had some friends and family that have went through a lot of troubles along their way.  Nothing that they have brought on themselves but some pretty drastic events in their lives.  As I am sure everyone can relate to.  

Do you notice in those verses it doesn't say anything about going to them to give them advice? Maybe we could ask Job's friends and see how that worked out for them.  We know that wasn't pretty.  It is so easy to try to say the right things that might make them feel better.  I am so guilty of that, when you know sometimes they just need you to stick close without saying a word.  I am not very good at that.  I want to try to make them smile when in reality I am making it worse.  

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor.  For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls. For he has no one to help him up.

My cousin gave me a paper that had that verse on it with two girls on it holding each other up.  It was a perfect picture of what we are suppose to do.  Not only to be there for our friends but also to show  others about how God loves them. Because what better way to show God's love then to be there for one another?!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the many friends that you have given me and especially for those who stick closer to me then a brother.  Help me be the friend they need and put away my selfishness and show them the love they deserve.  Help me to keep my mouth shut when it is needed and open when you are using me to say what you want.  Help me to know the difference.  In Jesus name, Amen