{"id":36201,"date":"2022-11-03T12:19:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-03T12:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/defeating-darkness-of-depression\/"},"modified":"2022-11-03T12:19:00","modified_gmt":"2022-11-03T12:19:00","slug":"defeating-darkness-of-depression","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/defeating-darkness-of-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"Defeating the Darkness of Depression"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an issue of CT magazine author Lily Burana writes how her depression brought her to the brink of suicide until God rescued her.<\/p>\n\n

Lily had always been a gloomy person, even as a small child she suffered bouts of depression. She had been raised in a Christian home, but even so the darkness within kept deepening. She married and started working as a writer between dark spells that froze her into writer’s block for weeks at a time. But then a dangerously deep depressive spell gripped her.<\/p>\n\n

\n

I teetered on the brink of suicide. Even with the outward show of a full and happy life—husband, family, health, career—I felt desperate, alone, scarred, stained, and worthless. At my lowest low, I asked God for a sign. And God delivered, in the form of a bald eagle soaring across my sightline mere minutes after I’d requested that exact omen.<\/p>\n

\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Lily cautiously returned to church and loved hearing about how God not only redeems us but emboldens us: Think of Hebrews 13:6 “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’”<\/p>\n\n

\n

I would love to tell you that God reached down and whisked away my depression. But faith has only made living with it more manageable. It helps that I take my meds with something approaching religious fervor. But I can’t lay full credit for my wellbeing at the feet of Big Pharma, for nothing has helped me recover more than receiving God’s grace.<\/p>\n

Depression is most often an invisible illness—people don’t know you have it unless you tell them. Through faith in Christ, I feel less alone, less ashamed, and less likely to conceal my suffering. Because I know it is heard and believed by God. I’m beholding things with a peace and depth I’ve never experienced before. And through Christ I am redeemed, the slate wiped clean.<\/p>\n

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