The Cause and Cure of Spiritual Depression -2

"And I said, this is my infirmity." Psalm 77:10

The Causes

Before we get to the causes, we need to realize that, sometimes, spiritual depression is not caused by a single source. Some, we must compassionately admit, have trials upon trials, and it is the accumulation of them, bit by bit, that weighs them down. Then suddenly, they break, seemingly "out of nowhere." Well, it's not out of nowhere. Think of Job. So let's immediately banish two thoughts from our mind: first, that all depression results from personal sin, and second, that we can fix ourselves. It's just not true. We went to the emergency room once because our sixteen-year-old son cut himself opening a package. I went over to the sink to diagnose the depth of the cut. I quickly realized that I could not fix this cut myself, so we went to the ER. My point is that if your arm can be broken, so can your brain, and we need special help from those who can give it. There are valid reasons to seek professional help from well-informed men and women.

But here, pastors, elders, and seasoned Christians become a necessity for the spiritually depressed. We need each other. We have a tenancy in our culture to ignore such needs, hiding them out of sight and trying to find our own coping mechanisms. We think one who suffers these things to be somehow weak-minded. We feel embarrassed. This is a subtle manifestation of pride. And pride always stands in the way of God. Always. Therefore, spiritual wounds can only be healed by spiritual ointments. In order to diagnose the problem, we need to know the causes. What are some of them? There are more than these 5, but they are the major ones as I see it from a pastor's perspective.

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