"O MY SOUL,"AND WHY ARE YOU IN TURMOIL WITHIN ME? "HOPE IN GOD; "
"FOR I SHALL AGAIN PRAISE HIM,"MY SALVATION AND MY GOD."Psalm 142:11
I think women tend to struggle with mood swings more than men, at least that's been my experience having raised two daughters and a son, and of course, being a woman myself who is married to a man.
And I don't know about you, but my moods and feelings have taken me on many a wild ride over the course of my almost 60 years. Between adolescence, the child bearing years, and pre and post menopausal states, I'm really so ready to be done with it all! But feelings and moodiness are all a part of life, even for guys, and we as Christians must work at not allowing them to take control of us.
Without a doubt, the causes of depressed or anxious feelings are endless ranging anywhere from sin to Satanic attack, and from biological causes to bad circumstances. Regardless of the cause, the fact remains that dealing with miserable feelings at times is a problem which effects everyone, and some to a much greater degree than others. And let's not forget that our feelings also go both ways. Feelings of joy and happiness are also bound to occur as a result of our new life in Christ!
In his book "Spiritual Depression" Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes: "INDEED, I SUPPOSE THAT ONE OF THE GREATEST PROBLEMS IN OUR LIFE IN THIS WORLD, NOT ONLY FOR CHRISTIANS, BUT FOR ALL PEOPLE, IS THE RIGHT HANDLING OF OUR FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS."...You cannot generate feelings within yourself. You can, perhaps, make yourself weep and bring tears to your own eyes, but that does not of necessity mean real feelings...Looked at psychologically it is one of the most remarkable things about man that in this respect he is not master of himself. He cannot generate or produce feelings, he cannot bring them into being, and to attempt to do so directly is always to exacerbate the trouble.
...there is nothing that is quite so variable about us as our feelings. We are very variable creatures and our feelings are, of everything that belongs to us, the most variable of all. That is because they are dependent upon so many factors; there are so many things that influence the feelings, not only temperament, but physical conditions also...Physical conditions affect us profoundly. And again let us be careful to observe that the fact that you have become a Christian does not mean that you immediately lose all these constitutional tendencies.
..."OUR FEELINGS ARE ALWAYS SEEKING TO CONTROL US, AND UNLESS WE REALIZE THIS, THEY WILL UNDOUBTEDLY DO SO". That is what we mean when we talk about moods and moodiness. The mood seems to descend upon us. We do not want it, but there it is. Now the danger is to allow it to control and grip us. We wake up in a bad mood in the morning, and the tendency is to go on like that through the day to remain like that until something happens to put us right. There is a great instance of that in the Old Testament in the case of Saul, King of Israel. Our danger is to submit ourselves to our feelings and allow them to dictate to us, to govern and to master us and to control the whole of our lives...I would [also] draw attention to the danger of thinking that we are not Christians at all "BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT HAD SOME PARTICULAR TYPE OF FEELING OR EXPERIENCE". This from a spiritual standpoint is one of the commonest manifestation of this condition. I am thinking of people who hear others while talking and giving their testimony, testifying to some wonderful feeling, and they say to themselves: " 'I have never had that'." And they begin to wonder whether they are Christians at all...feelings must be engaged in true Christianity, but the mere fact that we have not had certain particular feelings does not of necessity mean that we are not Christian. Feelings are essential, but if we postulate certain particular feelings as being essential we may very well become victims of the devil and spend the whole of our life in unhappiness and "'bound in shallows and in miseries'", though the whole time we are truly Christian".
" FOR INFORMATION ON DEALING WITH MORE SERIOUS FORMS OF DEPRESSION A GOOD ARTICLE BY DAVID MURRAY PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT AND PRACTICAL THEOLOGY AT PURITAN REFORMED THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY CAN BE FOUND "HERE.
Spiritual Depression, Its Causes and Cures; D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones; Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Co. Grand Rapids, MI; pages 111-113
"Be sure to visit today's Doctrines In The Kitchen. Elizabeth Debarraos at Finding The Motherlode shares with us a beautiful exhortation reflecting God's generosity and hospitality. BREAD OF ANGELS"
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