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Steps to Solutions to Depression 

If your heart has become "pressed down" like a heart-shaped foam pillow...and if that pressure remains, know that God offers to replace your heavy heart....

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." (Ezekiel 36:26)

While traveling by car, you may have encountered violent storms. You are faced with the choice: keep going or pull over to a safe spot and wait it out. The storm clouds of depression are not dissimilar. You face the choices of seeking help or riding it out alone, seeing God's perspective or becoming drenched in bitterness. No matter how long the sky has been overcast or how long your soul has been downcast, you can rest in the words of the psalmist who said...

"I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." (Psalm 27:13)

While we can't choose what we inherit genetically, we can choose what we dwell on cognitively. In the medical world, brain scans of those suffering with depression show marked improvement when words of hope, affirmation, and purpose are continually reinforced. In this respect, life is a series of choices. You can choose today to put the Word of God into action.[39]

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

• Choose to write down a list of all the positives in your life and continually focus on them.

—"Rejoice always,"

v. 16

• Choose to talk to God about everything.

—"pray continually,"

v. 17

• Choose to thank God for what you are learning right now.

—"give thanks in all circumstances...."

v. 18

• Choose to change when God's Spirit convicts you to change.

—"Do not quench the Spirit."

v. 19

• Choose to take God's Word seriously.

—"Do not treat prophecies with contempt"

v. 20

• Choose to ask, "Is this right in God's sight?"

—"but test them all;"

v. 21

• Choose to do right, even when you are tempted to do wrong.

—"hold on to what is good,"

v. 21

• Choose to turn immediately from temptation.

—"reject every kind of evil."

v. 22

• Choose to see how God has "set you apart" (sanctified you) to be who He intended you to be.

—"May God himself the God of peace, sanctify you through and through."

v. 23

• Choose to commit your whole being to doing what God created you to do.

—"May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless...."

v. 23

• Choose to rely on God's power to do what you are called to do.

—"The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."