Can A Christian Be Depressed? (100 Days Of Discipleship — Day 67) by Apostle Emmanuel Iren: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Depression Is Real — and the Church Must Engage It

Many people who are just very sad call themselves depressed. And some people are genuinely clinically depressed without knowing it. Both realities exist and the church must be sensitive to both. When you go to a hospital, before you speak to a doctor, they check your vitals — because sometimes you look okay and you're not. Internal injury is often more dangerous than what is visible.

The same is true of the mind. Many people are struggling emotionally, and no scan or test will reveal it. That does not make it less real — and those people need healing just as much as anyone with a visible physical condition.

How to Support Someone Who Is Struggling

For those who have a loved one going through emotional difficulty, the Bible gives practical direction:

• Pray for them — "Is any sick among you? Let them call for the elders." James 5:14
• Be patient — especially in this part of the world, we too quickly expect people to "suck it up." Learn to sit with people's pain without rushing to fix it.
• Just be present — sometimes all a person needs is for someone to be there, to listen without judging, to let them say how they feel
• Don't shame them for how they feel — even Jesus wept at Lazarus's tomb, despite knowing He would raise him. Empathy and spiritual power are not in contradiction.
• Encourage them to see a doctor — this does not contravene faith in any way

You Are Not How You Feel

For those walking through a difficult season: your feeling does not define you. You are not how you feel.

You have a mind — you are not a mind. You have feelings — you are not a feeling. The prodigal son did not return to his father because he felt loved. He returned because it was the logical thing to do — and he discovered, upon arriving, that love had been there all along. You can be loved and not feel loved. 1 Corinthians 10:13: God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear.

Biblical Figures Who Struggled

Some will go so far as to say Jeremiah was depressed. Whether that clinical label fits or not, what is clear is that he had intense emotional struggles — to the degree that he is called the weeping prophet. In Jeremiah 20:14, he cursed the day he was born. He faced loneliness, rejection, and ridicule. And yet none of that changed who God said Jeremiah was.

David had his share of emotional troubles — and was still described as a man after God's own heart. When the angel appeared to Mary and called her "highly favoured," she did not feel highly favoured. But she was. Hold on to the word of God even when it is at variance with what you feel.

Writing out confessions, living by the word day by day, trusting the Lord through the long walk — this is how many come through. It is possible. The grace of God is sufficient.