The Redemptive Aspects of Depression (part 4)

One of the common ways I sin when I'm in pain is self-protection. My wife and I have been in one of the most trying times of our life and when I go to self protect mode it doesn't allow her to mourn or suffer well in this season we are currently in.  I often make my pain about me and how I hurt and I end up sinning against my wife by not protecting her.  You see, protecting myself means I am trying to stop the pain, or dull it the best I can, but protecting her means I am centered on how she is doing, or how she is feeling in the midst of her pain. So, these recent blogs are first a reminder to me. “It’s not about me”!

Paul spoke in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 about receiving a revelation of God giving visions of paradise and to keep from becoming boastful he was given a messenger of Satan to torment him, to bring him pain so that he would not become prideful.  Verse 7 says “to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.”  Paul says in verse 8, three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.  Verse 9 God says, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”.  Then Paul concludes, I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.  

What Paul is saying is what we all tend to say, I would be better off if the pain left me.  God’s reply to Paul and to us will always be God saying I am more powerful in your weakness.  Again, we tend to believe our powerlessness from the pain keeps us in more pain and that is why we tend to run from the pain.  In this case, in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul wanted to gain power by painlessness but found the power of God in the midst of his powerlessness. We are afraid of powerlessness because we believe a lie that says as long as I can have the power, I don’t get hurt.  We like to be in control, it keeps us from continuing to get hurt.  Again this is why we need to move towards our pain because the closer we get to our pain the more powerless we feel and the more powerless we feel the more powerful God is in our lives.  This is where we find our hope but one of the main opponents that keep us from going towards our pain is like Paul, going to self-preservation.  We have to see that Paul went from calling it a thorn to a delight.  I do not know if the thorn remained with him but what we do know is that he found satisfaction with God in the midst of his pain, so it was no longer called a thorn.  That is where we need to lead our people, to this same paradigm of hope in God, thirsting for God.  When we are weak is where we find the strength of God. 

So how does this comfort in the midst of pain work?  How can we find satisfaction in the midst of our deepest depression or darkness?  I am not saying we have to be pain mongers and go look for suffering or things to be depressed about.  I am saying we have a perfected identity in a fallen body, fallen world.  Scripture is littered with promises of hardships and difficulties, but God promises of His love and comfort in the midst of that, it is at the very center of the cross.  We have to know who we are as justified by Christ in order to understand how to traffic in our pain rightly.  As I have stated many times in these blogs, the reason why we run from our pain is that we don’t view our pain rightly and how we see our pain rightly is again through the centrality of the cross.  We know that the cross is central to our faith.  As I mentioned earlier, Satan and demons play a big part of not seeing the pain rightly so most of the lies that people hear in the middle of their pain is “where is your God?” and that is at the point of self-preservation. 

I mentioned the bruised heel in a recent blog and I think we should take a second look.  In Genesis 3:15, the first mention of the atonement where God proclaims of the seed of the woman, “he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”  This is a contrast of the Cross of Christ and the suffering of Satan, ordained by God.  In other words, Jesus crushed the head of Satan, as he bruised His heel, meaning Satan’s head bruised the heel of Jesus.  The bruised heel of Jesus happened at the Cross in contrast to the utter defeat of Satan at the Cross (1 John 3:8).  What an awesome truth!  The reward of a bruised heel is a crushed head, and I believe our reward is the comfort of God.  2 Corinthians 1:3-7 shows us that because we share in the sufferings in Christ, we also share in the comfort of God in the midst of our affliction, trials, and pain.  It gives us an imagery of resting in the victory of God. 

My point is, we cannot receive more destruction than what happened to Jesus on the Cross, and the Bible clearly states that that was a bruised heel.  We are not going to suffer more than what Christ suffered.  Although people can hurt our bodies, they cannot touch our soul.  A 16th century puritan William Grunell puts it like this: ‘Upon thy belly shalt thou go' (Genesis 3:14).  This prostrate condition of Satan assures believers that the devil can never lift his head - his wily schemes - higher than the saints' heels.  He may make you limp, but cannot take your life. And the bruise, which he gives, will be rewarded with the breaking of his own head.

Scripture shows us that we are going to suffer bruises but in the pain from the bruise are trust and belief that was given to us through the atoning work of Jesus Christ empowering us to worship the living God at the same time that we are in distress.  May you glorify God through your suffering!