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"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33 “It is doubtful whether God can use any man greatly until he has hurt him deeply.” A. W. Tozer We live in a world that has a passion for comfort. To live a life with no problems and perfect health is almost a right. This attitude has slipped into the Church. Prosperity teachers and “name it, claim it” teachings have caused many to forget that at the center of Christianity is the cross of Jesus Christ. He was called to suffer and so are we. It is through the cross that the glory of God was marvelously revealed. God does the same kind of thing in our lives. It is when we are “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” [2 Cor 6:10], that the all-satisfying beauty of Jesus shines forth most gloriously to the startled world that surrounds us. |
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If depressed missionaries refuse to use meds and instead depend upon the resources of God's Word, will they lose their calling? It is possible to evade a multitude of sorrows by cultivation of an insignificant life. Indeed, if a man’s ambition is to avoid the troubles of life, the recipe is simple; shed your ambitions in every direction, cut the wings of every soaring purpose, and seek a life with the fewest contacts and relations. If you want to get through the world with the smallest trouble, you must reduce yourself to the smallest compass. Tiny souls can dodge through life; bigger souls are blocked on every side. As soon as a man begins to enlarge his life, his resistances are multiplied. Let a man remove his petty selfish purposes and enthrone Christ and his sufferings will be increased on every side. John Henry Jowlett |
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Is God Sovereign even over Depression? “The sovereignty of God is the one impregnable rock to which the suffering human heart must cling. The circumstances surrounding our lives are no accident: they may be the work of evil, but the evil is held firmly within the mighty hand of our sovereign God….All evil is subject to Him, and evil cannot touch his children unless he permit it. God is the Lord of human history and of personal history of every member of his redeemed family.” Margaret Clarkson [Quoted in “Transforming Grace” by Jerry Bridges p.39] To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. [2 Cor 12:7-10] |
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Are medications essential in winning the battle over depression? But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 2 Cor 4:7-10 “Emotional suffering is inevitable in life. But it has a meaning- a purpose. Suffering is a signal that life matters. Specifically, it is usually a signal that something in our lives that matters a great deal needs to be addressed.” Dr. Peter Breggin, M. D. Director of the Center for the Study of Psychology and Psychiatry. |
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