In The Grip Of Darkness

Have you ever lived in the grip of darkness? Where the darkness cloaks hope and suppresses faith. Depression is like a darkness that settles in blacking out any expectation for the sun to ever shine in the soul again. Depression is alike a dudgeon that entraps a person behind prison bars for days, weeks, months and even years.

I spent time in that dungeon. I have walked more days and nights in that darkness than I care to remember. It is a lonely place. Depression is not like a physical wound. It is not like a hurt arm or leg where the wound is visible. Depression is invisible to others. It is often silent. Mental health is something most people just can't understand.

I preached a message on this one day and shared part of my testimony. A man approached me afterward sharing his own struggle with depression. We prayed together asking God for deliverance. Sadly, I learned months later than man ended his own life.

Super spiritual people will say just pray more, read your Bible more, just believe more. They suppose if a person does that the grip of darkness should be broken. For super spiritual people it is a matter o of lack of faith.  I can testify it's not always that easy. When I went through the darkest night of my life, that lasted about a year and a half at its worst, I read my Bible through three times in those eighteen months. I prayed hours on end until I had nothing else to pray and stood on every promise of God I came across, but none of it worked right away. I went through the long dark night of the soul.

There were times I felt I would never be delivered. Worse is I had to preach every Sunday and Wednesday while in the grip of that darkness. One man told me years later God used those messages during that time to get him through the darkest season of his life. I preached to myself  during that time and God used it to minister to others.

Now I can't tell you exactly how it happened, but one day the darkness lifted. Through those persistent prayers and Bible readings one day God brought deliverance. I can't point back to one particular moment when it happened, but God broke the grip of darkness. God opened the keys of the dungeon and I walked through into the light of hope and faith. I've been free since then and pray I never go back.

I write this for every soul plagued with the darkness of depression. I write this to give a little hope. I point you to one of the scriptures God used in my life. I pray it is medicine for your soul tonight if you need it. He has the power to break the grip of darkness.

Psalm 42:5 (NKJV)
5  Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.