Greetings friend, welcome back to the course. It’s great to see you here today. Please take a moment and pray to the Lord, if you haven’t already, as we begin our lesson today.
I'd like to start this lesson today with a short song. Please watch the following video, and you'll see why as we continue the lesson.
We have been studying three amazing things that God’s power has accomplished for us, from Colossians 1:12-14. Let’s remind ourselves of what they are:
and might thank the Father, who has enabled us to share in the saints' inheritance in the light. (13) God has rescued us from the power of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of the Son whom he loves, (14) through whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:12-14 ISV
God has given us an inheritance (Colossians 1:12).
God has delivered us from the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13).
God has redeemed us: forgiven our sins (Colossians 1:14).
In previous lessons, we examined the multifaceted inheritance God has given us, and now we want to see that God has delivered us from the power of darkness.
Today we are going to do something a little different. We are going to look at many Scriptures that talk about darkness and light, and then we will read a short article from someone who wrote on this aspect of depression.
By way of introduction to today, it is important to note that people all down through history have battled depression. It is not something new that man has discovered recently, it has been with mankind since the beginning of time. Cain, Moses, Elijah, David, and Job all experienced depression, as did Winston Churchill (who called depression his “black dog”), Ernest Hemingway (who called it “the artist’s reward"artist's), Abraham Lincoln, Charles Spurgeon, and so many others. In other words, this is a very common problem that has been with humanity since sin entered into the world.
Reasons for depression abound: a lost job, a difficult pregnancy and delivery, divorce, habitual sin, the death of a loved one, a move, health issues, demonic oppression, fear, overwhelming negative thoughts, and the list is endless.
Question 1. What has been the reason for your own depression? Can you pinpoint something that started it in your own life, or has it been a general sense of doom and darkness throughout your life?
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Carnell writes, "Habitual sin, fear, demonic oppression."
Tori writes, "It has been many things. At 14, was growing up feeling abandoned by my Father, and unloved by my mother and rest of my family members. Feeling very alone and trouble. In my later teens it was my overwhelming insecurities and eating disorder. And now recently it has been the remnants of my eating disorder that began to creep up as a side effect from being heartbroken twice this year by the same ex boyfriend. My recent break up has been really hard, fear and anxiety have gotten me as well as the habitual sin of overeating."
Speaking from a personal perspective just now, I'm really sorry for your experience. I know how much it hurts and if I could I'd just take it all away from you. I know the Lord has a reason for it and yet please know that my heart breaks as I read your story, and many others as they share the experience of depression. I know your mentor feels exactly the same way. Sometimes they tell me how they cry their way through these lessons as you share your experiences, and they get to know you."I wish you could feel Jesus loving you through all of us here." Maybe you do.
One of the common terms the Bible uses for depression, as we have been seeing, is "darkness." Of course, there are other terms as well, such as "spirit of despair", "spirit of heaviness" (Isaiah 61:3), overwhelming discouragement which in the Bible is "downcast and disturbed soul" (Psalm 42:11), hopelessness or being "crushed in spirit" (Psalm 34:18-19), being "without strength" (Romans 5:6), etc. but the term "darkness" well describes what man has labeled "depression."
Question 2. Which of the above descriptions resonates with you the most personally?
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