Spiritual_Healing

Spiritual Healing:

God helps helps us when call on Him because He gives us the choice to have a relationship with Him. To get started, ask God for help. Sooner than you may think, depression and sadness will be warning signs to stop and drive slowly over the bumps in life, BUT they will not drag you into a lonely, helpless pit of despair.

The devil has many tactics – a huge bag of tricks. He uses depression, fear, worry, anger, anxiety, stress, addiction, manipulation, past abuse, trauma, accident, injury, insecurity, and more in order to keep you down.

Medication and supplements can be very beneficial. A lot of people need these since their brains don't function properly in order to regulate serotonin. It's okay. God doesn't intend for us to live on His earth in misery. He does want us to enjoy living each day. If you would take medicine for a cold or the flu, then why wouldn't you take medication for depression?

In addition to medication or supplements for depression, teaching yourself how to cope, think and make different choices can have a dramatic impact on your emotional health. Be gentle with yourself.

If something isn't good and/or feels hurtful - don't hold onto it or accept it and don't keep it. Those negative feelings are an arrow from the enemy. Return and walk in God's goodness by faith. God really does love you and wants to take care of you.

Satin loves it when you are incapacitated by misery or when you respond out of hopelessness. Satin is the enemy. His purpose is clear. God's purpose is life. When you are full of God's love, you have a well of life inside of you instead of death.

Being persistent even on days when you may feel like your progress has stopped will keep you healing and keep you mentally and emotionally healthy. The road out of depression can have some plateaus and small valleys BUT DO NOT believe the valleys are taking you back down into the dark, scary pit of depression! The valleys are opportunities to make different choices this time around. Instead of believing you are hopeless again, now you know the truth and you have tools to help yourself:

Jesus said, "God blesses you who are

hungry now, for you will be satisfied.

God blesses you who weep now, for in

due time you will laugh."

- Luke 6:21

Choose to believe God. Choose to take action today. Life can have peaks and valleys, but now you know that the valleys are opportunities to make different choices.

Start your relationship with God through prayer. People can let us down. God won't. Even when His answer to prayer is a "no" or "not yet" - believe Him for a greater miracle. Jesus won't let you down either.

A Personal Story of Hope:

When I was depressed, I felt paper-thin. The wind could blow and make me cry or swell with hope but mostly all I felt was extreme hopelessness.

I was depressed for a long time and needed help retraining myself to think in ways that were useful to me instead of destructive. That's where prayer, reading books and my Bible as well as surrounding myself with music praising God came in. I also needed a supplement which helped balance the serotonin uptake in my brain which had been inadequate for years. The supplement did NOT make me happy but with greater emotional stability, I had the strength to make positive choices.

Through prayer, God's Holy Spirit guided me toward books, and people that helped me heal from self-destructive thoughts and patterns of behavior which included hating myself for not being what I thought was "normal".

I am proof that doing nothing except hanging on each day does NOT work! I am also proof that believing God for direction and healing really does work! I didn't get better overnight. God led me through a process of healing. It was an uphill climb, but He was with me each day.

When I started feeling better, I got scared because sometimes I would feel like I was on the edge of falling into that familiar depression hole again. What I found out was that those feelings couldn't make me hate myself anymore and couldn't make me believe I was hopeless.

Now I know that feelings of depression are stop signs that remind me to take care of myself - like a flashing light at a railroad crossing signaling danger if people don't pay attention.

Thank you, God for a new life!

Beth, age 39

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?

Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how

to take a real rest.

Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it.

Learn the unforced rhythms

of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me

and you'll learn to

live freely and lightly."

- Matthew 11:38-30

"Jesus said, 'The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.'"

- John 10:10

"For the Lord said, 'I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.'"

- Psalm 32:8

"I'm telling you these things while I'm still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I'm leaving you well and whole. That's my parting gift to you. Peace. I don't leave you the way you're used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don't be upset. Don't be distraught."

- John 14:26-27

"Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

-Philippians 4:6-7

"He reached down from heaven and rescued me; He drew me out of deep waters."

-Psalm 18:16

Personal Story:

"During the years I experienced depression, I questioned the value of life, why I was even here, and what the point of it all was. Since peace and happiness were emotions I had lost, nothing seemed worthwhile to me. Although my depressed feelings were real, they were not the truth about me, if that makes sense. The truth was and is that I am worth loving and that it is okay for me to be happy. I don't have to feel guilty if I am happy. I make small steps and keep consistently getting better. When I have little setbacks, I give myself permission to not be perfect and forgive myself for not loving myself. Through medication and years of counseling, I feel stronger and am so much better than I was. Thank you God for not giving up on me even though I had given up hope so many times!" - Brenda