Transformational Tip
Our childhood experiences contribute to our present makeup, as does our biogenetic and spiritual history. In our struggle to overcome depression, we need to remember that while our psychological and biogenetic past cannot be changed, the way we view it can be changed as God changes our spiritual condition. (Thank You God)
If we draw our identity from the negative symptom cluster around us (feelings of angry, helpless, hopeless, isolated, and perhaps even suicidal) rather than from our true identity as a “new creation in Christ Jesus,” then indeed we are continually being sucked into a black hole of despair, and we are easily trapped in a self-reinforcing belief system about ourselves: I’m worthless, there is no hope. And by the way…this is exactly where Satan would like us to be.
Healing can begin to come when we recognize that our problem is not anger or childhood abuse or even “depression,” but our lenses that view us based our misinterpretations and distortions of our past and the world’s system. This will just re-enforce a self-identity of a worthless, inadequate, disconnected, incompetent person.
Only when we let the power of the Christmas and the Cross form our lenses will we learn our new identity based on the truth of God’s Word. When our lives begin to revolve around a self-identity that is based on faith and guided by the Bible, we can begin to overcome depression.
Today, instead of seeing ourselves as worthless, we can begin to view ourselves as a child of God, a shining star, His chosen and beloved. Now the characteristics revolving around our new self-identity based on our faith in Christ can include surrender to God’s purposes…kindness…pure love…goodness…reaching for truth…courage and fortitude…and a determination to keep going based on who God is, not on who we are. Click here to share your perspective with the Stepping Stones community about our identity in God.
Prayer
Dear Father God, help me to stop focusing on the swirling symptoms of depression that surround me like debris around a black hole. Help me instead to focus on Jesus and what He has done for me. Help me to remember that I am a new creation in Him. Please help me break this narcissism of a me-centered view instead of a God-centered view of my life. I pray this and all prayers in the name of the One you sent to give me hope, Jesus Christ; and all God’s children say – AMEN!
The Truth
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17