Have you ever been driven to a point of hopelessness in your life that zaps all of your will to live? Have you ever been told you are no good, second-class or inferior? This is depression. In the Christian walk, we can personify depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders as Satan.
Satan exists to "kick you while you are down," no matter what got you to that point of utter despair. When you have depression, your sadness isn't just sadness. You lose any motivation to live, to move, to fight. That is our bodies and Satan working against us.
But we are not alone.
There is a biblical man in the Bible that I am going to talk about in this article. This man has faced depression of some sort throughout his life.
The man I am going to talk about is Job. Job's story in the Bible began as a wealthy man who lived in Uz with his large family and large flocks of cattle. Job was "blameless and upright" in the eyes of God. Job always avoided evil when it came his way. Satan visited God in heaven, where God was boasting about how well Job was. Satan told God that Job was only good because God has blessed him abundantly, and if God punished Job, Job would turn his back and curse God. To test the loyalty of Job, God allows Satan to torment Job, with the exception of Satan killing Job.
Long story short, through the deaths of his children, his livestock, and his servants, through being afflicted with skin sores all over his body, and his friends and wife all being unsupportive of Job's agony at all, Job never turns from God nor curses him. His friends had accused him of sinning and doing evil to offend God. Naturally, Job grown irritated with his "friends" accusing him of things he did not do, even going so far as to call them "worthless physicians." Eventually, God hears Job and gives mercy to Job's friends and family, even though they were unsupportive of Job. God then restores in double what Job had lost in Satan's torment.
I can relate to Job.
This past week and ever since this past summer, my fraternity brothers have accused me of doing things I did not do. Naturally, I was irritated at them. But through all of this strife between me and my fraternity brothers, I have chosen to honor God, even if that meant I had to leave the fraternity. This past Wednesday, I made the decision to leave Beta Upsilon Chi. Even though I loved my fraternity brothers, this incident showed me their true colors, their true intentions. Even though they hurt me, I still love them. They are my brothers in arms even though we fought.
This experience with Beta Upsilon Chi has taught me to worship God, love God and honor God, even though things are not going well. God hears the groaning from the agony in our souls. And He will deliver us from the pain.
