War Zone- Week 11 Tactics of the Enemy vs. Strategies of the Believer (Spiritual Depression)

Today we will conclude our study on the tactics of the enemy with: Spiritual Depression. 

I want to add a disclaimer here: In this study we are dealing with spiritual depression (...usually related to a person’s spirituality or faith. Depression itself may arise from no outside circumstancesi), not clinical depression (caused by things such as genetics; life factors, such as trauma, negative experiences, loss, or stress; physical health problems such as thyroid diseaseii). If after you have tried the strategies in this study, you are still experiencing the symptoms of depression, please seek professional help.  Depression is nothing to play with and it is not a lack of faith to get medical assistance! 

Spiritual depression. The dark night of the soul. This phenomenon describes a malady that even the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time.iii 

Spiritual depression has many causes: 

1.Loss   

2.Worry 

3.Hidden sins/guilt 

4.Neglect of spiritual health 

5.Doubts/unbelief 

6.Fear 

7.Failure ... 

We are going to dig into the Word and look at the lives of some followers of God who struggled with spiritual depression.  While spiritual depression differs from clinical depression, it is no less serious or destructive in the life of the believer who is under attack! 

Example #1: King David (depression brought on by hidden sin). 

In Psalm 51:1-12 we read, Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the abundance of Your compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak, and You are blameless when You judge. I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You make me to know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones that You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with Your willing spirit. (MEV) 

Psalm 51:16-17, For You do not desire sacrifice, or I would give it, You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, 
O God, You will not despise. (MEV) 

David wrote this Psalm after his sin with Bathsheba.  When we harbor unconfessed sin in our hearts, we open the door for the enemy to have legal grounds to harass us.  David realized that he would be tormented by this sin until it was exposed to the light of Holy Spirit.  In Psalm 32:5 he wrote, I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not conceal. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. (MEV) 

Once David acknowledged his sin, he found forgiveness!  The consequences of his sin remained; however, the guilt and condemnation were removed!  His depression lifted and he was free to rejoice in his salvation! 

Example #2: Moses (depression brought on by worry). 

Numbers 11:10-16, Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the opening of his tent, and the anger of the Lord burned greatly. Moses was also displeased. Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You hurt Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your eyes, that You lay the burden of all this people on me? Have I conceived all this people? Have I given them birth, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse bears the nursing child,’ to the land which You swore to their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? For they weep to me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me. If You do this to me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in Your eyes, and do not let me see my misery.” 

Moses experienced depression here because he was worried about caring for the Israelites.  He allowed the weight of the burden of the people to weigh down his soul.  Rather than going to God in prayer for the solution to the situation, Moses complained to God.  He chose to wallow in self-pity rather than stand in faith and seek God.  As we read further in Numbers 11, we see that God already had a solution planned.  He anointed 70 elders of Israel to help Moses care for the people and had a flock of quail ready to come down inside the camp to provide meat for the people.   

Example #3 Job (depression brought on by loss). 

Job 3:11 and 24-26, “Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not expire when I came out of the womb? 24 For my sighing comes before I eat, and my groaning pours forth like the waters. 25 For the thing which I greatly feared has happened to me, and that which I dreaded has come to me. 26 I am not at peace; I have no quiet, I cannot rest, and turmoil has come.” (MEV) 

We know from reading Job 1 and 2 that the devil took everything from Job except for his wife and his own life. He took his children, his servants, his wealth, and his health.  In Job 3 we read Job’s words of depression and despair.  Job did not understand that God did not bring this calamity upon him but that it was the enemy.  He asked why he was even born if this was his end.   

If all of that was not bad enough, his three “friends” were of no comfort at all as they felt it was what Job had coming for his “obviously” sinful life.  I am here to tell you that God did not then, nor does He now bring/cause the bad things that happen to us in this life.   

John 10:10 tells us, The thief does not come, except to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. (MEV) 

If you look at your life and see stealing, killing, and destruction that tells you the thief (the devil) is at work in your life.  This is not necessarily an indication that there is sin in your life.  Job 1:8 indicates that Job was a righteous man.  “”And the Lord said to the Adversary, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and an upright man, who fears God, and avoids evil?”” (MEV) 

In Matthew 5:45 we read, so that you may [show yourselves to] be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on those who are evil and on those who are good, and makes the rain fall on the righteous [those who are morally upright] and the unrighteous [the unrepentant, those who oppose Him]. (AMP) 

Good things happen to those who are unbelieving, and bad things happen to believers. This scripture would seem to indicate that sometimes bad things happen simply because we live in a fallen world. There are many other reasons why bad things happen to godly people. Time will not permit us to dive deeper into this topic, however, we know that if we see life and abundance in our lives, we have God to thank for it!!!   

Loss is hard on even the strongest believer, however, if we take our grief and pain to God, we can find comfort and strength.  Yesterday I was reminded at Bible study that the “bad things” that happen in our lives do not change who our God is.  They do not remove us from his love or indicate that he has left us.  We must acknowledge this and declare it to the enemy in the face of loss, rather than allowing it to lead us into depression. 

These are just three from a list of people in the scripture who struggled with spiritual depression.  In each case if we read to the end of their story, we see how God brought them each through and provided for them.   

How then do we face and overcome spiritual depression in our lives today? 

First, we cast our cares on the Lord. 

1 Peter 5:7, Cast all your care upon Him, because He cares for you. (MEV) I do not know about you, but I find it easy to cast my cares on the Lord, however, I find it much more difficult to leave them there!!   

Philippians 4:6-7, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with gratitude, make your requests known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will protect your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (MEV) Here Paul tells us to pray about everything with a grateful heart and then God’s peace will protect our hearts and minds through Christ.  We need to remember to take everything to the Lord.  Nothing is too big or too small.   

Second, we rejoice as we walk through our trials.   

Philippians 4:4, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! (MEV)This does not say, rejoice when things are going well.  It does not say, rejoice if you feel blessed and happy.  It says, rejoice always!!!!  As I stated before, our situation does not change the goodness of our God.  We have a reason to rejoice no matter what we are facing in the moment.   

Psalm 16:11, You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (MEV) Psalm 22:3, Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. (NLT) When we get into his presence, we find our joy is made full! We enter his presence through praise!!! 

Hebrews 13:15, Through Him, then, let us continually offer to God the sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. (MEV) It is called a sacrifice of praise because praise does not always come easily to our lips. When things are hard it is easier to sulk, complain, grumble... then it is to lift praise to God.  However, it is hard to stay depressed when we get our praise on!!   

Third, we get into the Word.  

Hebrews 4:12, For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. (NLT) When we get into the Word and allow the Word to get into us it changes our perspective.  In 1 Corinthians 2:16 Paul tells us that we as children of God have the mind of Christ.  When we get into the Word, Holy Spirit uses it to transform our thinking to make it align with the thoughts of Christ.   

Colossians 3:16, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (ESV) As the Word gets into us, it opens our minds to understanding, allowing us to teach others.   

Joshua 1:8, This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. (ESV) Psalm 1:2, But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. (ESV) We need to meditate on the Word!  Keep it before us at all times. Ruminate on it and glean every ounce of wisdom we can from it! 

Finally, we focus on the blessings and promises of the Lord.  

Philippians 4:8-9, And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. (NLT) 

2 Corinthians 1:20, For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory. (NLT) 

2 Peter 1: 3-4, By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. (NLT) 

Hebrews 10:23, Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. (NLT) 

“Christians can expect that the promises God has made will be fulfilled because behind them is a God in whom they can have full confidence. God can be thoroughly relied on. When he makes a promise, that promise will be infallibly kept.”iv 

Search out the promises that speak about the things you are facing and stand on them! Don’t let doubt or fear cause you to waver into unbelief, but stand firm, trusting that our Great, All Knowing, All Loving, Compassionate, Holy Father will keep his Word! Numbers 23:19, God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind, Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? (NLT) 

In conclusion, when we begin to feel low and depressed, we need to take a spiritual inventory of our life to see if we have: loss, worry, hidden sin/guilt, neglect of spiritual health, doubts, fear,... that are impacting our faith and our spiritual well-being, leading to spiritual depression. If so, we must take the appropriate actions to put the enemy in his place (out of our lives!). We must cast our cares on the Lord, rejoice as we walk through our trials, get into the Word, focus on the blessings and promises of the Lord! 

Works Cited:

i https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/spiritual-depression#causes 

ii https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/spiritual-depression#causes 

iii https://www.christianity.com/wiki/christian-life/spiritual-depression-11617146.html 

iv Expositor's Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament Copyright 2004.