With all that is going on the world right now it is no wonder that many are facing bouts of depression. As if the situations and circumstances that we were facing before all this stuff started weren’t enough, we have now been made to isolate ourselves from those that we care about and from doing the things that bring joy to our hearts. We have to worry about going to the grocery store and coming in contact with someone that is sick. We have to keep our kids away from their friends. We can’t take our yearly vacation without fear. We have to stretch every dollar for fear of losing our job or money running out. All the sudden the world seems darker than ever and we wonder when the light will shine again.

Depression is real and it is a hard thing to deal with. Some have times of depression and others face depression on a daily basis. It not only affects our mind, it also affects us physically and spiritually. When we are depressed our body is heavier, we don’t feel good, we lack motivation, we lack desire in doing things that are good for us, we have negative thoughts, we can be angry, we don’t want to communicate with others, we lack sleep or sleep too much, and the list goes on. When we are fighting depression we have loss of hope because we are so weighted down and feel as if we just can’t climb out of it. We may even visualize a dark cloud surrounding us. We do not want to be this way but we can’t get ahold of it.

We cry out to God asking for help but because we do not get the feelings that we are looking for we think that He is not there for us. We just want to feel better. We think that if we feel better then we can get out of the depression. But we have it backwards. We have to climb out of the depression and then we will feel better. When we ask God to help us He does that often by telling us something that we can do that will help us. But the problem is that we do not feel like doing anything so we keep sitting there. We have to go against what we feel at the time and decide to do what He has told us to do and then our feelings will change.

We let our feelings control us too much. And our feelings is a way that the enemy tries to keep us down and defeat us. When we give into those downward feelings we are playing right into the devils hand. We are letting him keep us from our best when we give into the negative emotions. We can not make ourselves not have feelings but we can not let them control us. We can not feel like doing something but do it anyway. We can not be happy at the moment but do something positive or something that we enjoy and then our feelings change to being happy. We can be happy and something happen and we get sad but we can decide to not let the sadness rule us and be happy again.

Now I am not saying that getting a hold of our feelings will take care of every kind of depression but I am saying that not letting our feelings control us will help with our depression. There are things that we can do that will help us to fight against those downward emotions that are seeping down in us. We can decide that we are not going to let the devil keep us down and decide to do what we know we can do that will bring light and joy to us even while we feel down. Our feelings change throughout the day and what we do does play into the change. If we sit there and think about all that is going wrong, all the things that we are facing at the moment, we are going to be sad. But if we choose to think of something good, talk to Jesus, and do something that brings joy to our heart then our feelings will change for the better. And even if our feelings don’t change at the time, we can still choose to do what we know will help us and eventually our feelings will change.

Do what you know to do to keep the light shining within you and do not let your feelings dictate your day. Don’t let the devil keep you down by playing into the negative feelings that you may be having in the moment. Decide today with God’s help that you are going to control your feelings instead of them controlling you.