I want you to know that no matter how severe your depression or how thick your darkness is, there is hope. At one point in my life, I thought I’d never see the light of day, never be able to even breathe through all the thick darkness, but here I am, living in the light, full of hope and joy. I’ve discovered the promise of the gospel, which says, “Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning” (Job 11:17 NIV).
I want this for you too, friend, and my desire is to share this good news with you and see it help you in the same way it has me. I want you to be able to say with David in the Bible, “You, LORD, are my lamp; the LORD turns my darkness into light” (2 Samuel 22:29 NIV).
Let me share with you how our ministry operates so that you’ll know how to move through this course:
First, you register for a course; in this case, you have signed up for the depression course. If mentors are available, you have been assigned one, or you may have chosen an accountability partner to receive your lessons. Your mentor’s role is to receive your lesson submissions, pray about your answers, and then respond with feedback.
It is best to do just one lesson per day, wait for your mentor’s (or accountability partner’s) feedback, examine their input, pray about it, and then come back the next day and do the next lesson.
Within the lessons themselves, we include numerous other course members' comments, with first names only, so that you can escape one of the devil’s most powerful traps: that of thinking we are alone in the darkness. Peter wrote about this lie of the devil and said, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:8–9 NIV).
If you get interrupted for any reason or have to take a break from your studies, the site automatically saves your answers so you can simply return and pick up where you left off.
As we conclude this first day, I'd like to leave you with a Scripture passage to ponder. We will examine this more in upcoming lessons, but for now, I just want you to read it, and then I’ll ask you to share your thoughts about it before you go. Here it is:
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.
Psalms 107:13-15 NIV
Question 5. What are your thoughts about Psalm 107:13-15? Please share:
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Bill writes, “I can say that I too was under that cloud of darkness. I lost my family through a divorce, my job because of the divorce and my health in discovering cancer all within six weeks. Yet in that darkness, I cried out to the Lord and He heard me. There was a peace and a hope. I still lost my family, I still lost my job and I still have to treat and monitor my cancer after 17 years, but I also found a deeper and more rewarding relationship with God through what Jesus did for me at the cross. Because of the message of the Gospel, I am taking this course so I too can help others have hope.”
Rob writes, “That was me, at 42 years of age, finally admitting I could not go on, but this time looking up and crying out to God. A glimmer of hope entered this desperate heart that night, His assurance that if I stopped striving vainly for that peace and joy, he would give it. And how faithful he has been in the 22 years since.”