Depression

Healing of The Mind

Zachary Williams and Dolly Parton – There Was Jesus

When endless death, destruction and chaos swept through my life, every area had been touched with loss. I had been stripped. A heap on the floor, I cried to God for mercy, “If one more branch gets pruned, I will not be able to get up.” Depression descended on me like a heavy wet blanket.

God was trying to get my attention. “Here I am Lord, I want more of you Jesus, more of your wisdom and more of your Holy Spirit,” because that’s all I have. If I don’t have you Jesus, I’ve got nothing.” And with His wisdom and the power of His Holy Spirit, I was delivered from depression.

Depression has a strong spiritual root and should be addressed first, according to what the Word of God says. Depression is sadness or sorrow.

In the scripture, God states there are two kinds of sorrow…godly sorrow and worldly sorrow.

And depression’s root is worldly sorrow from unrepented sin.

Sin births guilt, which births worldly sorrow which is depression.

However, there are times when there is a disease cause of depression or drug side effect, but the first line of defense, in my opinion should be addressing the sin root.

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret (guilt), but worldly sorrow brings death.

2 Corinthians 7:10

WORLDLY SORROW

If guilt is present in our heart, then what we possess is worldly sorrow. Guilt is the key here. Guilt from unrepented sin produces sadness or sorrow, which leads to death or destruction – addictions, violence, abuse, suicide, destructive behavior etc.

The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins which produces guilt; so guilt is really the voice of God. BUT if we ignore that guilt and do not repent of our sins, then what is further produced in our hearts is worldly sorrow and eventually the death of something. Something has to die for our unrepented sin. This worldly sorrow says, “I’m sad because of the earthly consequences, but not because of the sin.” Guilt remains and death is the final result.

Here is an example:

When my daughter was 5 she possessed a cherished Jessie doll from the Toy Story movie. It had a soft body and a hard plastic head. Her younger sister wanted to have the doll, so to prevent this, she hit her little sister over the head with the hard plastic part of the toy’s body. Because she used her doll to inflict harm, I took it away for a period of time. I explained the crime and the punishment. She exclaimed, “Bummer, I should have used something else!”

Another example would be if a man got caught cheating on his wife. If he had worldly sorrow, then he would be sorry because his wife found out, but not sorrowful for his deception and sexual immorality against her.

GODLY SORROW

Godly sorrow comes from a heart that KNOWS that our sin was first committed against Christ, which brings true sorrow that leads to repentance. Jesus then forgives us of our sins and what is produced is life and no guilt or regret.

“I am sorry Jesus that I sinned first and foremost against against you.” “I re-crucified you with my sin.”

Committing sin against Jesus, who died for our sins, is why we are sorrowful. Our repentance causes our sins to be forgiven and NO GUILT then remains.

Guilt is the key word. When guilt is gone, we know our sins have been forgiven, cleansed by the Savior, never to be remembered.

Saints whose robes have been washed clean in the blood of the Lamb do not have guilt.

They have LIFE!

SHAME

Sin is an accuser. Shame is the result of being accused by ourselves or another person of our sin. Justifiably, God has every right to stand and judge us of our sin. His opinion produces shame in us. But His forgiveness wipes it away.

So, guilt is from sin and shame is from accusation, whether self or man’s. It is a result of sin. When our sins have been washed away, shame is nowhere to be found. We can stand before God and others with a pure heart. No one can then shame us anymore.

Remember, worldly sorrow says, “I am sorry because I got caught or sad because of the consequences.” This creates guilt, shame and death. Shame comes because we know deep down in our hearts we are guilty of sin and opinions remind us of what we have done.

But when we have Godly sorrow and repent, Jesus’ forgiveness removes all of our shame…all of man’s voices of condemnation, including our own.

No one can accuse me, because my sins have been washed away. No more shame!

Job says in Job chapter 42 verse 3 and 6. “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know”…guilt.

“Therefore, I despise myself”…shame.

When Tabor, my son died from being overdosed with meds, I had terrible shame. People accused me of wrongdoing in my pregnancy, I accused myself of not realizing soon enough that he was getting overdosed, and friends thought we were responsible for his ill health. Their opinion and my self-accusations produced shame in me. It fell on me again as well as God’s opinion, when I realized the weight of my sin.

However, if shame remains after repenting, then there is deeper, hidden sin…sometimes we can’t see that remains in our hearts. This is why I recommend the Guilt/Sin inventory. It uncovers sin that wants to hide in the dark; darkness which covers us in a blanket of guilt and shame. Let’s bring it to light!

THE BAND-AID OF SELF MEDICATIONS

To KNOW in the heart that we are free from the guilt of sin, because of Jesus’ forgiveness, causes us to be free and happy.

But sin causes regret, grief, shame and isolation, which eventually leads us down the path of death. And this will always produce a sorrow that we can’t climb out of except to self-medicate.

Self-medications or prescribed drugs HIDE the sin that the soul is crying out to be free from. They drive us further into the dark so we can’t see our sin and numb the mind, so we ignore the sorrow and guilt. And that covered up, un-dealt-with sorrow from sin will boil up and raise its ugly head in a destructive way. And that, my friend, is what we call addictions, violence and suicide.

So, guilt is the measuring rod of depression according to 2nd Corinthians 7:1.

Where do I feel guilt?

With my patients, I have them walk through a guilt/sin inventory. In the first column, they write down a list of people, places or things in which they feel guilty about. In the second column they write down what happened, and the third column is what was our part in this or what is our sin.

Every guilt is written down in the first column and every sin (not emotions) attached to that guilt is written in the second. And there maybe 30 things you that produces the feeling of guilt. Write them down. This may take days to fill out and pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal your heart.

What begins to emerge is a running thread of the same sin through the whole inventory.

INVENTORY OF THE HEART

Taking an inventory of our heart is powerful and life changing. When we see on paper the VOLUME of sin that has been stored in there, it’s mind boggling to comprehend all the junk we have lived with day after day. We then begin to understand why we are depressed, sick, confused, angry, suicidal, violent, impatient, harsh and critical, with relationships crumbling and bad fruit produced instead of good fruit.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, an inventory reveals the sin and motives which lie deep within the heart that we cannot see. Sin which longs to hide, destroying us and those we care about.

There is great healing by writing down the sin produced in our hearts; seeing it with our own eyes, hearing our mouths repent and confess - cleaning it all out. It turns our hearts into new wine skins. It says in Mark 2:22, and no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.

When we see a speck in another’s eye, it can make us angry, critical or fearful or all the above. That speck creates a heart full of sin as long as a log. The speck is their sin and the log is our sin. The inventory reveals just how long our log is and surprisingly how many logs we have in our eyeballs. No wonder we are blind!!

As Jesus says, “Take the log out of your own eye and you will be able to see clearly.”

When we begin to see and face our sin, wisdom, meekness and understanding fills our heart. It is so beautiful! Healing begins as Jesus reveals and forgives the sin we have been carrying quite possibly for many years.

Take a Heart Inventory and conquer depression through the righteousness of Jesus when you are struggling with a relationship, family, job, addiction, pain, disease or sickness.

Let the Holy Spirit be your guide.

Repent, confess and make it right with others if and when needed. Healing will come, but it must first begin in our own heart.

So take a guilt inventory when your mind is plagued with depression.

I will use myself as an example of an inventory.

GUILT/SIN INVENTORY

PERSON, PLACE, THING:

My Mother

WHAT I FEEL GUILTY OF:

From age 11-18, I stole money from her purse.

WHAT IS MY SIN:

thievery, hatred for her, deceit, lies, laziness, idolatry, fear, rebellion covetousness, un- gratefulness, pride, greed .

After a full inventory has been taken, repent to Jesus naming each guilt and sin and then ask Him for forgiveness.

After repenting, confess this list to someone whom you trust.

Finally, after repentance and confession, BURN THE INVENTORY.

As a result, depression/sorrow will leave BECAUSE of the blood of Jesus that has washes us clean!

Praise Jesus for His forgiveness and the joy it brings.

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

Psalm 95:1