When No One is There for You

Philippians 4:8 (ESV)

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Depression, I believe is always lurking around the corner for most people.

We hide behind our own personal pleasures to distract us from what lies ahead. I have heard a friend of mine once say “I could never be in depression because I am too happy.” If “being happy” is the only thing keeping you from depression, then what do you think will happen when you reach a part of your life where happiness is depleted?

I feel like many people think that to stay out of depression we need something in our lives to fix it, like a loved one or focusing on things that make us happy. I know this all too well.

I think it’s easy to get a twisted perspective about happiness, especially in this American culture we live in. We are accepted into our culture if we are self-focused and prideful. We feel like we are invincible and then reality hits us in the face.

The truth is, life will be hard at times and there is a big possibility that when life hits you and you don’t have your happiness meter filled up, that no one will be there to pick you up.

So what do we do? We realize that we have been looking to worldly things to pick us up and not looking to God. He has never left us or forsaken us. Even though these dark times hurt they are so beneficial. They force us to have total reliance on God and no one else. People are so scared of hardships in their life. They avoid them at all costs, but the truth is they will come and it will be hard, so how will we deal with it?

It comes down to a choice.

These dark times in our life will inevitably come and when they do we can choose to deal with them the right way or let them rule over us.

The biggest truth that I could give you is that we do not need happiness to live a God glorifying life. We can always choose to have joy in the fact that we do not have to rely on our own happiness to live, but that we can find satisfaction in Christ. If we look at life with this kind of perspective we change our lifestyle. We see things differently. We should become selfless to our desires and focus on God’s desires. This way of thinking has been so instrumentally to my walk with God I hope that this can be an encouragement to anyone who is dealing with depression or a dark spot in their life. Depressing times will come, they will be hard, but we still have a choice. The choice to rely on God for our joy gets easier and easier the closer you get to Him.

Dear Lord, we want to make the choice to rely on You. Help us to grab on to the joy that only You can give. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.