Dr. Barnes wrote that it was a humble scene. He muttered the words, "This is my Body broken for you. This is my blood poured out for you." They fumbled their way through and he guided her shaking hand to the bread and the cup. Then she spilled the juice on his slacks. He thought to himself, "Just one more thing that isn't going right!" He patted her on the back, said a prayer and was leaving when he heard her so clearly: "Thank you, God, for being so good to me. Thank you that I am not forgotten. Thank you for always loving me." Her words were his healing that day.
Her insights are that of this Psalmist. In the darkest moments of life, when we are at the very end of our lives, shaking and maybe even confused, God is there. When we are speechless and deaf to the world, when we may even be spilling our salvation all over ourselves, Christ is just beyond the veil. In Christ, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, in the love of a Father who will never let you go, God is good and God is there.
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Dear friends, I leave you with no twelve-step-guide to avoiding spiritual depression, no three point message to getting rid of spiritual depression because the Bible doesn't do that. But there is a one-step. It is the step that God took when He left heaven and came to earth. And God's Word just reflects what we all sometimes experiences, and then guides us to the Gospel of He is there. But if He is not to you, as the Psalmist says, "the God of my life," then this morning would be the right time, to call Him Lord.
For all who seek to follow Him, sometimes even through the fog of life, we cling to the promises and we may even sing in the night:
What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Precious Savior, still our Refuge — Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer; In His arms He'll take and shield thee, Thou wilt find a solace there.
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Michael Milton is senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, TN.
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1. Frederich Buechner, Telling Secrets: A Memoir (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1992).
2. See Craig Barnes, When God Interrupts: Finding New Life Through Unwanted Change (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1996).
3. John Piper, "Charles Spurgeon: Preaching Through Adversity" may be found at http://www.founders.org/FJ23/article1.htm. The article is adapted from a paper delivered at the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors, January 31, 1995.
4. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure (Grand Rapids, MI: B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1965).
5. Margaret Clarkson, "O Father, You are Sovereign" (Hope Publishing Company, 1982).
6. Craig Barnes, When God Interrupts.