As I have told you before I have been very blessed to discover the devotional book "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. The next installment in his series about taking initiatives is below:
From "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers
February 17
"Taking the Initiative Against Depression"
"Arise and eat" (I Kings 19:5)
"The angel in this passage did not give Elijah a vision or explain the Scriptures to him, or do anything remarkable. He simply told Elijah to do a very ordinary thing, that is, to get up and eat. If we were never depressed, we would not be alive - only material things don't suffer depression. If human beings were not capable of depression, we would have no capacity for happiness and exaltation. There are things in life that are designed to depress us; for example, things that are associated with death. Whenever you examine yourself, always take into account your capacity for depression.
When the Spirit of God comes to us, He does not give us glorious visions, but He tells us to do the most ordinary things imaginable. Depression tends to turn us away from the everyday things of God's creation. But whenever God steps in, His inspiration is to do the most natural, simple things - things we would never have imagined God was in, but as we do them we find Him there. The inspiration that comes to us in this way is an initiative against depression. But we must take the first step and do it in the inspiration of God. If, however, we do something simply to overcome our depression, we will only deepen it. But when the Spirit of God leads us instinctively to do something, the moment we do it the depression is gone. As soon as we arise and obey, we enter a higher plane of life."
This reminds me of how much we are affected by the change in seasons in nature. We all love spring with its warmth and life and color. Would we enjoy it as much if we didn't experience the cold and starkness of winter? My husband recently had a surgery and during his healing and recovery, he experienced a short bout with depression. We know now that this is a common reaction after that type of surgery. There was nothing I could do to physically help him but I prayed my heart out! Now that he is past it I cherish every laugh and smile and joke and his upbeat attitude to an even higher level than before! I am so glad to hear him sing again I try to not even complain when it is some goofy song that I hate! I am just glad he is singing!! God is good!
Thank you Oswald for your insightful comments! The next installment in this series is "Taking the Initiative Against Despair". I will be sharing it soon.
Beth
