Fighting Walking Depression

There are many who struggle with "walking depression." These thoughts and feelings are not controlling enough to incapacitate us yet they are powerful enough to rob us of the "joys" of life. Although the reasons for depression, at any level, may be many, the solution might be simple. Here are nine thoughts or ideas you might want to try and see if they would make a difference in your everyday life. 

1.Get to Know God.

We were made by God and for God. To not spend time with Him means you are acting outside of what you were created to do, and therefore you will never find satisfaction. In fact, you will struggle worse and worse as you attempt to find satisfaction in this life, and in people, apart from God.

Trying to find satisfaction in this world, its relationships and its pleasures is like a dog hoping to catch its tail. It is impossible, tiring, and ultimately leads to worthlessness.

If people choose to not spend time with God, or acknowledge Him as God, they cannot feel good about life.

In fact, they will continue to try and find significance in other things. They will try to find significance in money, friends, popularity, control, sex, etc. If those fail, and they will, they will need to boost the feeling of significance by the use of drugs, alcohol, or some other way to temporarily alter their feelings.

Eventually, depressed people channel their energies into wanting to be in control, and they will do almost anything in order to feel as if they are in charge. In some odd way, they are mimicking God, who is ultimately in control, and all this behavior is an attempt to achieve something that cannot be achieved.

In that, depression grows worse, and those who do not “get it” turn to medications and focus on circumstances rather than on God, even though the Scriptures are clear that we need to rejoice in Him, not our circumstances.

Those who attempt to rejoice in circumstances will forever be victims of a sinful world overrun with evil circumstances. It will not end well for them.

Those who are not in God’s family can never experience true peace, satisfaction, and joy, for they are trying to live in a way that is against their created purposes.

Love, by its definition, demands choice, real choice. If God is to love us, we need to be able to deny Him, or it is no longer love.

Our sin has separated us from Him, and our sin was and is our choice. When we recognize our sin, admit it, and look to God for a solution, He offers one. Because our sin has separated us from Him, and we are like a hopeless and helpless orphan, we have no way to fix this on our own.

God, who loves, also chooses, and He has chosen to adopt us into His family, to fix the problem that we have created, and to allow us to be, once again, in His presence and family. This position He offers us is something that He, like a parent who is adopting a child, bears total responsibility for.

We, as helpless separated children, have the opportunity to be part of a great family, and have the stability, resources, and comfort of Almighty God, both now and throughout eternity.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

(John 3:16-18 ESVST)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

(Ephesians 2:8-9 ESVST)

…he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

(Titus 3:5 ESVST)

To avoid being reconciled to God is to avoid any hope of gaining hope in this life and forever. For now, the choice is yours.

2. Love People.

The second focus for one who is battling out of the pit of depression is to quit focusing on self and self-success and promotion, and focus on making others successful. Friendship should not be for us, but for others. We were made to focus on making others the best they can be, not on using others to make us feel good, or to make us the best we can be.

Paul, the Apostle of Jesus, often spoke of being a servant. Sometimes the servant was one who chose to be a servant. Sometimes he used the word “under-rower” to indicate the idea of service to others. No matter how he termed it, we were created to serve, not be served, and we will find significance and security in serving others because we love them.

Depression strangles us when we look to others to serve us, or our needs, or our desires. Whenever we turn around the plans of God, we are listening to Satan. Satan is master of using us and our sin to destroy us. He need not work hard if we do not know and love God, and if we love ourselves over others.

3. Embrace Reality

So often we live in a fantasy world that has been created by the absorption of hours and hours of media. Advertising is always based on presenting something to us in a way that makes us feel like we are or have missed out on something. Facebook, like the annual Christmas letters, make us feel like the rest of the world is doing something fun and significant while our ho hum lives continue to be, well, ho hum.

Hours of absorption will create a new reality that is based on fantasy, and this world, that does not exist, will disappoint.

In reality, all men and women are sinful and live struggling lives. Everyone needs to clean up messes every day and deal with their self-centered desires, as well as the display of

self-centered lives of everyone they meet.

In a weird way, we are living in a world that is totally self-absorbed while trying to portray the idea that we are totally selfless. This is a hard act to pull off, and we would be best to admit it, or confess it, and repent, and begin the process of getting better.

Some may claim that they do not allow media to influence them, yet it is most certain that television, movies, Pinterest, Facebook, or something has helped mold and fuel their envious and covetous or judgmental spirit.

More hours spent in this world will translate into more anxious and depressed thoughts. More dependency on people and things that change will fuel our insecurity and keep us from enjoying the One and the things that do not change.

God has made it clear that we need to think on Him and His Word…constantly…as well as pray constantly. There are many activities that we might consider benign that may be caustic, for they cause us to think in ways that fuel the fear of losing out.

The sad thing is that we are fearful of missing out on what we should be missing out on, and not fearful of missing out on what we were made to partake of but are missing.

4. Plan Your Day

Most people let life plan their day, rather than them planning their time. When this happens, we begin to embrace the “victim” mentality and live as if we are victims rather than conquerors.

In a book entitled Margi by Richard Swenson, we are reminded that we only have 100% of anything. For example, we have 100% of our money, however much that is, or 100% energy, time, and emotional energy. If we spend all of it, we have no room for margin or emergencies, and those who fail to plan are never ready for the inevitable emergency.

Our culture seems to have mastered the “wait and see” attitude when it comes to planning because they do not want to miss out on anything. In doing so, they put themselves in a position where they are always waiting for someone else to make a decision. Not only does this lead to a frustrating life, it allows Satan to call the shots, and constantly leaves us woefully unprepared for whatever lies ahead.

The end result in this is an acceptance of unpreparedness in all areas, and the embracing of mediocrity.

For example, we decide at the last minute to have friends to the house. However, we have been so busy that our house is a mess, there is no food to serve, and our emotional energy is too low to invest in anything. So, we take the easy way out and just blame the mess on the fact that we value people more than cleanliness (In doing so, we are missing the point that if we valued people, we would keep things neat so that they feel welcomed, wanted, and safe.) Then, we pop in a movie and absorb some more fantasy. The movie allows us to chill and watch someone else pretend life, rather than talk about our seemingly non-existent life.

If we would have planned, we could have had the house clean, food ready for our guests, and perhaps played a game, had a discussion, or done something that would have actually enhanced relationships.

Making a “To Do” list first thing in the morning, or before one goes to bed, is a good idea that helps get one moving in the right direction.

Keeping a calendar is important, and looking at it and having it dictate your life is critical. If you want to spend time with your spouse, going for a walk, or just having a cup of coffee, put it on the calendar. When someone else or something else comes up, you can look and see that your time is scheduled and you keep your schedule.

Your fear of missing out will try to take over, but if you give into that, you have given control of your life and priorities to someone else.

Planning should also be applied to one’s finances. Often, we cannot be satisfied with our income because we have not used what we have well. The answer to a better life is not a better income. It is a better attitude towards your current income, and the planning of using it in a way that honors God, helps others, and meets your basic needs.

5. Look to Make Someone Else Successful at Something Today.

Those who focus on using the time, talent, resources, and energy they have to make others successful are the most fulfilled people in the world. Each of us have been given a specific amount of time, different talents, and opportunities. We will be held accountable to God for how we used these in showing the world who God is, and helping others do the same.

We will not be commended for caring for self, and or using our resources, time, and talent on self.

We should all have others and how we can make their lives all they could be clearly in our focus, as well as organizations (who are people) that we could care for, pray for, and work towards helping, or making them successful.

In fact, we should plan, put on our calendar, or To Do list things we must do for others. Then it becomes a priority instead of just an emotional outpouring of kindness we did to satisfy, once again, our own emotional desire to give.

6. Join a Group that is Serving or Giving in Some Capacity.

God made us to work together to accomplish what could not be accomplished alone. No matter who you are, you are incomplete without others. We were made to be body parts, not the entire body. We need to be a part of a larger group.

Everyone should be involved in a local Bible teaching, community-outreach church. This church body will afford many opportunities to be a part of a group that is using various “body parts” to serve God and the people of our nation.

We were not made to be alone and we do not function well alone. We were made to submit, and need to have ample occasion to learn to and practice such things.

7. Be Creative.

In the beginning God created. God is a creator. We were made in His image, and therefore, we were made with the idea, capacity, and desire to create. So often we allow this aspect of our lives to go dormant, and then feel as if something is missing, and it is.

One does no need to be an artist to create, for there are all sorts of talents and abilities with which we have been entrusted. One can create at work, at play, in the garage, music, art, etc.

Creating starts with a simple question. How can this be done differently, better, or more efficiently? It may come in making order out of chaos, creatively writing, or making/selling a product.

Those who constantly ignore this desire to create ignore one of the most satisfying aspects of life, and usually have little to which they can look forward.

8. Record The Day—Journal.

Keeping a journal is something that indicates you believe that something is going to happen each day that is worth noting. If you start your day thinking that this day is a day the Lord has made and I am being sustained in this life to participate in it, then you might as well write down what you see happening so that in years to come, you can look back and see the progress of “life.”

In fact, a journal will often help one keep perspective, and allow you to sit and see more clearly the hand of God in your life and in the life of your church, ministry, place of employment, etc.

9. Work for God, Not Money.

If you do not work, you should not eat. However, if you work for money, your food will never satisfy you. God designed us to work. Your body needs real work, and if you do not get it, you need to go and work out at a gym, bike, or ski. If you do not work it, it will quit on you.

We were made to work, but not made to work for money.

If money were not an object, if people could work and do what they find most fulfilling, what would they do? Some would cook, others clean, other organize, yet others run Fortune 500 companies. Some would go to foreign countries and serve the poor, while others would be a stay-at-home mom while dad is a maintenance man.

Those who have been a slave to money look forward to being free from having to work one day. Those who have found pleasure in what they do look forward to working until they can no longer work, for it has not felt like work to them.

It is important that we find how God made us and go and work in that field. As we do so, we will be “paid” for our labor. If we get paid too little, we ought not complain, and if we get paid too much, we ought to be generous.