Phillip Keller, in his classic book on Psalm 23, writes:
“How many of us are truly convinced that no matter what occurs in our lives we are being followed by goodness and mercy?
….When my little world is falling apart and the dream castles of my ambitions and hopes crumble into ruins, can I honestly declare, ‘Surely – yes – surely – goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life’?”
Oof. That’s a tough question to answer, especially for depressed Christians, who are particularly prone to seeing sadness, melancholy and despair following us all the days of our lives.
But no matter our answer to that question, God’s is always the same: “Yes, my goodness and love are following you all the days of your life.”
If you’re struggling to hear that answer, it might very well be that your depression, anxiety, ocd, (or any of the other innumerable medical disorders that can affect our brains) is lying to you about God — just as it does about so many things in life.
It’s very difficult to believe in a good, loving God when we’re severely depressed or anxious, no?
But as Zack Eswine writes in his wonderful book, Spurgeon’s Sorrows: “Our sense of God’s absence does not mean that he is so…. our feelings of him do not save us. He does.”
And often, the thing informing our sense of God’s absence is our medical disorder.
So…
Find a psychiatrist here.
Find a therapist here.
