Seize the Moment – Day 1142
Pray through Your Depression!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Wednesday, May 3.
Have you ever felt a separation from God, like you were far from Him even though you knew He was as close as your next breath? Psalm 42:1-2 illuminates the desperate need of every human soul, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?” The psalmist felt a separation from God caused by his circumstances and the emotions that naturally arose from it. Such an experience has been named the dark night of the soul; it is also called spiritual depression. It can be a dangerous and dark place to find yourself, as the following verses describe:
- 3a, “My tears have been my food day and night.”
- 4b, “For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God.”
- 5a & 11a, “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me?”
- 6a, “O my God, my soul is in despair within me.”
The psalmist is depressed; he’s always crying and feeling like the glory days are in the past, never to get any better. Many people experience spiritual depression, which is why psalms such as Psalm 42 are so helpful – the psalms normalize our struggle, validating our human experience, all the while offering us the solution. Our hope is in the presence of God, longing for Him as a deer pants for streams of water. God is the light that pierces the darkness, the sunrise after a dark night, and the promise of spring after a long winter.
Seize the moment and pray Psalm 42, meditating upon the hope we have in Jesus Christ – “Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God” (11b).
God bless you!
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YOUTUBE:
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Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.