Depression Is A Stronghold

 

I was in a Christian FB live group recently. During the time of open prayer, and prayer requests, a gentleman said that he needed help with depression, that had gotten worse lately.

 

It wasn’t my FB live so I didn’t speak up. He got advice that was straight out of New Age Psychology. I recognized it right away. All the buzzwords were said. However, nothing was said to help him overcome the depression that was oppressing him.

 

Depression is a stronghold that comes into our life and unless we make a real effort to get rid of it, not only will it stay, it will become worse.

 

I used to be so depressed I couldn’t get out of my bed. I would get up to cook, etc. but other then that I would stay in bed. Depression had set up a stronghold in my life and there didn’t seem to be anyway I would feel happy again.

 

The Lord delivered me from depression and because of that I do know it is possible to live free of it. The key to overcoming depression is to be a warrior that guards over you own mind. The minute a depressing thought comes we have to take that thought and dismiss it.

 

The definition of a stronghold is the following,

“A place of security or survival.”

 

You see Satan has a place of security in your head and he is surviving there day by day because he is being fed depressing thoughts that you are dwelling on. You may have been depressed for so long that you cannot even remember why you are depressed.

 

It could change for you today, RIGHT NOW. If you don’t want Satan to have a stronghold in your mind anymore you have to tell him to LEAVE. Evict him and don’t let him move back in.

 

So it goes like this; you tell yourself you cannot get out of bed today. You say, “I don’t want to get up, I am too depressed. What’s the point? Nothing ever gets better in my life!”

 

BUT IT CAN CHANGE BY TELLING YOURSELF A NEW STORY!

 

So in order to overcome that you may have to force yourself to get up, take a shower and get dressed. I know you don’t want to do that, that stronghold in your mind doesn’t want you to get better. It has you where it wants you. DO IT ANYWAY! Force yourself to get up and just by accomplishing that task you will start to feel better.

 

Now you just live your day. The depressing thoughts come and you take control and tell the thoughts to LEAVE! You refuse the thoughts and you change channels in your mind. You force yourself to read a book, watch a comedy, or play a game. You take a walk with your dog. If you don’t have a dog, get one. It will get your mind off of YOU when you have to take care of something else besides YOU!

 

But you are thinking, “Oh, but you don’t know what has happened in my life, if this happened to you, you too would be depressed.”

 

I do understand. Trust me, my life reads like a Russian novel. I have endured one thing after the other, one loss after the other, chronic illness and many other things too.

 

A lot of people have had terrible things happen to them but they make a decision that it will not define their life. You have to find the strength within yourself to do the same thing. You have to quit seeing yourself as a victim and see yourself, instead, as a survivor.

 

You have developed a daily habit of depression. I won’t tell you that it will be easy, but I will tell you that YOU CAN DO IT! You might fall back into your old habit of depression but you won’t stay there because now you want to get better.

 

You need to write down a goal. Something you want to accomplish each day. When you accomplish that task you will start to have an adrenaline rush to the brain. You just feel better, you like feeling better and you will not want to go back into your bed and depression.

I found that alcohol was a trigger for me. I gave up drinking. I found that certain old songs would upset me. I do not listen to them anymore. You may have different triggers. Start a journal and notice what happens right before a depressive episode.

Depression is anger turned inward. Don’t let anyone have that much control over your life. When you give it to God and no longer feel the anger you gain back a lot of your loss control over the situation. Don’t let anyone live rent free in your head.

 

When you first start to change your life some people will not believe it. They may say something negative to you. Ignore them. Some people enjoy seeing others down because it makes them feel not so badly about themselves. As a matter of fact tell your problems to Jesus. Quit tell your stuff on FB or to anyone who will listen. Every single time you repeat things your mind makes note of it. Instead tell yourself, “I feel great today.”

 

In the bible we read this in Romans 12:2;

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

 

God wants to transform your mind. He wants you to think like He thinks. He wants you to fight the depression and He will help you do it!

 

Dwelling on our situations makes us unhappy. We compare our life to other people’s lives and we feel like their life is so much better then ours.

 

We have to have some positive scriptures in our arsenal of weapons. When we feel ourselves getting depressed we get those out and we read them. We then decide to stop our depression thoughts and put our minds on something else. WE HAVE TO DO THAT. Nobody else can do that for us. There is no magic pill, no magic words or any knight in shining armor coming to our rescue. We have to handle it between God and ourselves.

 

I know it’s easy to feel sorry for yourself. We live in a downfallen, disappointing world. If we start to dwell on these thoughts we will just get depressed daily.

 

We have to let it go and decide to be happy. One step at a time, one day at a time. We can do it! We can quit dwelling on the ways people have hurt us and simply say, “I am not going to think about that today!” Then drop it and shift your thoughts.

 

When I look back at my life, before God renewed my mind, I cannot believe I was that unhappy! I feel good now, I feel alive and much younger then my actual age.

 

If you must grieve a situation give yourself one day a week to do that. Take out all your pictures, mementos and what have you and look at them and cry! But at the end of that day you have to put it all up for next week. Then do it every two weeks, then once a month. Before you know it you will be less and less sad.

 

Here’s to you and your new happy life! Happiness is not dependent on what we have or do not have. The JOY of the Lord is OUR STRENGTH.

 

In His Unconditional Love,

Cathie