The Secret to Dealing with Fear and Anxiety

Ed Welch, author of Running Scared and When I Am Afraid, offers some thoughts on fear and anxiety from 1 Peter in his post "The Secret to Dealing with Fear and Anxiety."

Here is his conclusion:

“Humble yourselves” is the only exhortation in the passage. This is what Peter wants us to hear (and obey). If we jump in at the middle—it makes no sense. We can’t cast our cares on him until we have recognized that he is God and we are his servants who have also been elevated to become his children. A paraphrase could read like this (and I highly recommend putting Scripture into your own words.)

Humble yourself before the Lord. This shouldn’t be too difficult. After all, he is God and King, Lord of all. He is the Creator. You belong to him. The creature is the possession of the Creator. Humble yourself before your King. And here is one way to express this new-found posture of humility: cast your cares on him. Did you catch that? When you come humbly before the King he reveals his unlimited love. Who would have thought? He actually wants you to cast your burden on him. You were never intended to carry those burdens alone. He is the mighty God who never leaves. You can trust him. And this casting is no mere act of your will. It comes as you know that he is God and you are not. Oh, and you can be sure that he will lift you up from your kneeling position and give you more than you ever expected.

A little wordy, in contrast to Peter’s more succinct version, but rambling and embellishment give us more time to meditate on the logic of the passage.

The secret is to

…pause before you head into your favorite passage on fear,

…consider the greatness of God,

…add some of your own confession and repentance as a way to drive the message of humility home, and then

…remember some of those sweet words of God to fearful people.

Read the rest.

Spurgeon: "From your affliction this glory shall spring, and the deeper your sorrow the louder you'll sing."

"When your faith endures many conflicts, and your spirit sinks low, do not condemn yourself. There is a reason for your season of heaviness. Great soldiers are not made without war. Skillful sailors are not trained on the shore. It appears that if you are to become a great believer, you will be greatly tested. If you are to be a great help to others, you must pass through their trials. If you are to be instructed in the things of the kingdom, you must learn from experience. The uncut diamond has little brilliance, and the unthreshed corn feeds no one, and the untried believer is of little use or beauty. There are GREAT BENEFITS to come from your trials and depression. The one who is much plowed and often harrowed will thank God if the result is a larger harvest to the praise and glory of God by Jesus Christ. If your face is now covered with sorrow, the time will come when you will bless God for that sorrow. The day will come when you will see great gain from your losses, your crosses, your troubles and your affliction. From your affliction this glory shall spring, and the deeper your sorrow the louder you’ll sing."

– Charles Spurgeon, “Beside Still Waters”

Ed Welch on "Depression's Odd Filter"

Ed Welch, author of Depression: A Stubborn Darkness , has an excellent post on how depressed people often hear and think, "Depression's Odd Filter." Here's the start:

Someone says to you, “I love you.”

You hear . . . nothing. Actually you hear something. You hear a little voice in your brain that says, “I’m worthless. You’re only saying you love me because you think you have to.”

Somehow, from the mouths of other people to your ear, all words of blessing and encouragement get tumbled upside down and backward and confirm your suspicions about yourself. You are an abject failure. Unloved. Unlovable. And everyone knows it.

There are hundreds of variations.

“You look nice today.”

Push it through the filter of depression and you get, “Not true. I know I am ugly.”

Or, “You seem to be feeling a little better today.”

This means, “Oh, you don’t want to talk to me anymore.”

This is your brain on depression. And we could add, it is your brain on shame.

If this internal circuitry reversed every word, a loved one could say, “You are really such a jerk,” and you would hear, “I love you.” But it doesn’t work that way. Depression (or shame) corrupts every blessing and leaves the curses in their untouched, pristine form.

You might want to take a few minutes and identify this dastardly filter.

What kind words have other people said to you? What did you actually hear after your depressive, inner-translator did a number on it?

That was a warm-up. Now on to something more lethal.

Read the rest here.

Luther: How to Fight Guilt, Depression & Anxiety

“But battle against that feeling, and say, ‘Even though I feel myself completely crushed and swallowed by sin and see God as a hostile and wrathful judge, yet in fact this is not true; it is only my feeling that thinks so. The Word of God, which I ought to follow in these anxieties rather than my own consciousness, teaches much differently, namely, that ‘God is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit’ (Ps. 34:18), and that ‘He does not despise a broken and contrite heart’ (Ps. 51:17).”

~ Martin Luther, Lectures on Galatians: Chapters 1-4 (as quoted in Schreiner, Galatians)

Lloyd-Jones: Talk to Your Self

"Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul?' he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says,: 'Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.'"

~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure

Spurgeon to Preachers: Take a Walk!

"He who forgets the humming of the bees among the heather, the cooing of the wood-pigeons in the forest, the song of birds in the woods, the rippling of rills among the rushes, and the sighing of the wind among the pines, needs not wonder if his heart forgets to sing and his soul grows heavy. A day's breathing of fresh air upon the hills, or a few hours, ramble in the beech woods’ umbrageous calm, would sweep the cobwebs out of the brain of scores of our toiling ministers who are now but half alive. A mouthful of sea air, or a stiff walk in the wind's face, would not give grace to the soul, but it would yield oxygen to the body, which is next best."

~ Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students

You Must Be Willing to Take Yourself to Task

At the end of his helpful chapter, "Warfare," in Depression, Ed Welch poses two helpful questions for a depressed person to ask themselves in the context of spiritual warfare:

It Is Not Sin to Sorrow

"No sin is necessarily connected with sorrow of heart,

for Jesus Christ our Lord once said,

'My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.'

There was no sin in Him, 

and consequently none in His deep depression."

~ Charles Spurgeon, Sword & Trowel

as quoted in Ed Welch, Depression: A Stubborn Darkness

Hope for the Depressed

Ed Welch, offer of the very helpful Depression: A Stubborn Darkness, has penned an excellent article on depression, "Hope for the Depressed." 

I'd commend it to both those beginning to face their own depression and those ministering to the depressed.

Lloyd-Jones: In Soul Care, There is Nothing More Futile Than...

“Though we are all Christians together, we are all different, and the problems and the difficulties, the perplexities and the trials that we are likely to meet are in a large measure determined by the difference of temperament and of type. We are all in the same fight, of course, as we share the same common salvation, and have the same common central need.  But the manifestations of the trouble vary from case to case and from person to person.  There is nothing more futile, when dealing with [a] condition, than to act on the assumption that all Christians are identical in every respect. They are not, and they are not even meant to be.”

~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure