Tag: Religion
“Fear of the Future and Spiritual Depression”
There are times in life when a person, though mentally fit, experiences a nameless unhappiness in the soul. It is the same condition reflected in the Psalmist’s lament, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” 1 This affliction touches many, including Christians, and it is a state that leads to spiritual depression.
One of the causes of spiritual depression is fear of the future. This was a peculiar problem of one young man in the New Testament named Timothy. He was dependent on the Apostle Paul, and fears arose with the impending perils that his mentor was facing. Alongside was a fear of failure in the seemingly daunting tasks that lay ahead of him while Paul was in prison.
Paul addressed Timothy’s fear with a two-step approach: a reprimand and a reminder. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7
Paul reprimands Timothy for being gripped by the spirit of fear: a spirit which does not come from God. If we suffer from this manifestation of spiritual depression, it is due to our inability as Christians to realize what God has given us and is giving us — the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is being negligent to stir up ourselves, to think, to take ourselves in hand.
What then, has God given us? First in the list is the spirit of power. Victorious, miraculous power in living the Christian life, in battling with temptation and sin, “a power to go on whatever the conditions, whatever the circumstances, power to hold on and to hold out”. 2
Next, Paul mentions the spirit of love. One of the root causes of the problem is that fearful people are too involved in self. The way to rid of self is to be so absorbed in someone or something else, leaving no room for thinking about oneself. The spirit of love.
Lastly, God has given us the spirit of a sound mind. In spite of our natural weaknesses, God has given us, for us to appropriate, the spirit of self-control, discipline and judgment.
As Christians, we do not live on and by ourselves. Through God’s marvelous work of salvation, He has implanted within us a principle of a divine spiritual life through Jesus Christ. We need to “stir up the gift”, reminding ourselves of who we are in Christ. And casting fear aside, let us move steadily forward in life, giving glory to the One Who gave His all for us.
Reference:
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure, Great Britain: Pickering and Inglis, Ltd, 1977, pp. 92-105
Footnotes:
1 Psalm 45:3, ESV
2 D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure, Great Britain: Pickering and Inglis, Ltd, 1977, p. 102
Photography Credit: Dawn Breaks by Eugene Kurenkov
Protected: “To Be Of God”
Protected: “I Heard Your Laughter in the Light”
“The Riches of the Poor”
The Riches of the Poor
In the midst of their calamity, they managed to smile. There was an unexplainable calm and peace upon their faces as they fell patiently in line, awaiting their turn to receive water, rice and canned goods. There was no noise, no panic, nor distress.
They had little to start with, and the little they had, they lost. They lived in palm-roofed huts that were blown away, and now they huddle under tents of tarpaulin held up by wooden planks. When the rains revisit at night, the fathers and mothers sit in the rain, while their little ones sleep under the sparse canopies. Help has been slow to arrive. Meek as sheep, they do not grumble. They wait.
A woman who stepped on a nail while braving the typhoon, walked many miles under scorching heat to where relief goods were distributed. Her foot throbbed with pain as she approached my daughter and me, and she held out her parasol to shield us from the sun. Other women joined us and offered their parasols as well. They told us they had little to eat, and when the relief supplies run out, they will share what remains with each other. Their sun-parched, emaciated faces somehow reflected an inner joy.
At that moment, I recognized the palpable wealth of the poor: they who possess little do not own the onerous burden of the “cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in” 1. I felt the light-hearted freedom in their hearts, the natural sensitivity to gravitate towards gratitude, as the flowers of the field blossom, facing the sun.
As the nail that pierced the woman with the parasol, so has her countenance, along with the many other tranquil faces around her, wounded and scarred my heart forever, that noonday under the sun.
“Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which He has promised to those who love Him?” James 2:5 ESV
D. G. Vachal © 2013
1 Mark 4:19
*** Photography courtesy of Amy Lynn Vachal
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