Joyce Meyer - Straight Talk on Depression: Overcoming Emotional Battles with the Power of Gods Word!

Want more Joyce Meyer?

Get sneak peeks, book recommendations, and news about your favorite authors.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Amplified Bible (AMP). The Amplified Bible, Old Testament, copyright 1965, 1987 by Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament, copyright 1954, 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scriptures marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Originally published as Help Me I'm Depressed.

Warner Books Edition

Copyright 1998 by Joyce Meyer

All rights reserved.

Warner Faith

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Visit our Web site at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

The Warner Faith name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

First eBook Edition: February 2003

ISBN: 978-0-446-55410-7

E3-20170710-JV-PC

M any people have bouts with depression. There are many underlying causes for depression and a variety of treatments offered to deal with it. Some are effective, but many are not. Some help temporarily, but can never permanently remove the torment of depression. The good news is that Jesus can heal depression and deliver us from it in the same way He can any other sickness or problem.

As I was preparing to speak on depression one time, I saw very clearly that God has given us His joy to fight depression. It was so clear that it seemed as though I was looking at a movie screen.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, the joy of the Lord is inside you. Many believers know this but don't have the slightest idea how to tap into it or release it. We need to experience what is ours as a result of our faith in Jesus Christ. It is God's will for us to experience joy!

Many people, including Spirit-filled Christians, not only have had bouts with depression, but major problems with it. I had problems with depression myself a long time ago. But, thank God, I learned I didn't have to allow the negative feeling of depression to rule me. I learned how to release the joy of the Lord in my life!

The message in this book is very simple, but very powerful. No matter what you have gone through in life or are going through now, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have His joy inside you, and you can learn how to release it to win over depression!

RELEASING GOD'S JOY

PHASES OF DEPRESSION

I waited patiently and expectantly for the Lord; and He Inclined to me and heard my cry.

He drew me up our of a horrible pit [a pit of tumult and of destruction], out of the miry clay (froth and slime), and set my feet upon a rock, steadying my steps and establishing my goings.

Psalm 40:1,2

I

PHASE OF DEPRESSION

D epression in Webster's 1828 Dictionary is said to be The act of pressing down a low state. A sinking of the spirits; dejection; or a state of sadness; want of courage A low state of strength.

Who Suffers From Depression?

People in all walks of life; professionalsdoctors, lawyers, teachers; blue-collar workerslaborers; house-wives, teenagers, small children, the elderly, singles, widows and widowers, and even ministers; can suffer from depression.

The Bible tells of kings and prophets who became depressed. King David, Jonah and Elijah are three good examples. (See Psalm 40:1,3; 55:4; Jonah 1 and 2; 1 kings 19:58.)

I believe the reason so many people suffer from depression is that everyone on the face of the earth has to deal with disappointment. If we don't know how to properly deal with it, disappointment can lead to depression. From what I have observed, disappointment is the first phase of depression.

Dealing with Disappointment

All of us must face and deal with disappointment at different times. No person alive has everything happen in life the way they want in the way they expect.

When things don't prosper or succeed according to our plan, the first thing we feel is disappointment. This is normal. There is nothing wrong with feeling disappointed. But we must know what to do with that feeling, or it will move into something more serious.

In the world we cannot live without disappointment, but in Jesus we can always be given re-appointment!

In Philippians 3:13 we read a statement by the apostle Paul:

but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.

Paul stated that one thing of most importance to him was to let go of what lay behind and press toward the things that were ahead! When we get disappointed, then immediately get re-appointed, that's exactly what we're doing. We're letting go of the causes for the disappointment and pressing toward what God has for us. We get a new vision, plan, idea, a fresh outlook, a new mindset, and we change our focus to that. WE DECIDE TO GO ON!

Isaiah 43:18, 19 says it like this:

Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs forth; do you not perceive and know it and will you not give heed to it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 42:9 says:

Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.

We see from these two Scriptures that God is willing to do a new thing in our lives. He always has something fresh, but we seem to want to hang on to the old. We hang on in our thoughts and in our conversation. It seems that some people want to talk about their disappointments in life rather than their dreams and visions for the future.

God's mercies (KJV) are new every day. His [tender] compassions fail not. They are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22,23). Every day is a brand new start! We can let go of yesterday's disappointments and give God a chance to do something wonderful for us today.

You may be thinking, Joyce, I've been disappointed so many times, I'm afraid to hope. That place of hope is exactly where the devil wants you to be! I know about that place because I was there many years ago when Dave and I married. I had been abused, abandoned and mistreated by so many people that I was afraid to even hope things would ever change.

But, through my study of God's Word, I came to realize that disappointment is a very unhappy place to live. I would rather hope all of my life and receive nothing, than to live perpetually in a feeling of disappointment.

Hoping doesn't cost anything, and it could pay off generously. Disappointment, however, is very expensive. It costs you your joy and your dreams of tomorrow.

We have a promise from God that those who place their hope in Him will never be disappointed or put to shame. (Romans 5:5.) I don't believe this means we will never experience disappointment. As I have already shared, no person can live in the world without being disappointed. I believe that verse means we won't have to live in disappointment. Keeping our hope in Jesus will eventually produce positive results.

Dashed Expectations

Dashed Expectations lead to disappointment. We have many expectations in different areas every day. For example you may lie down expecting to get a good night's sleep, when in the middle of the night, the phone rings with a wrong number. Then after waking up, you can't go back to sleep for some reason. You toss and turn the rest of the night and get up feeling worn out the next morning.