What To Do With Depression, Part 6: Key Actions 6-8

Welcome back to our series about What To Do With Depression. If you haven’t already done so, please read the rest of this series for vital information about what the Bible says regarding depression, and how to heal from it.

Depression happens to most of us.

I have certainly dealt with plenty of it, personally. However, friend, I tell you today based on the Word of God plus my personal testimony that you don’t have to put up with depression permanently. It is a slow plodding to transform your mind out of depression, but you can do it–and it is worth doing.

Beloved, Jesus died so you could be filled with joy, life, peace, power, and victory.

He wants you to live and enjoy your life. Remember what He said in John 10:10:

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (- Jesus Christ, John 10:10 NKJV).

And even though it takes work, you CAN beat depression. You can enjoy your life every single day. You can transform your mind to drive the stinking lies of the devil to the curb, and you can live and walk in the power, victory, and abundant life that Jesus died to give you.

In this portion of the series, we are looking at how to heal from depression.

We already talked about Key Actions 1-5 in prior portions of the series. Today, we are finishing up with Key Actions 6-8. Let’s get started!

Key Action 6: Have the difficult conversation.

When you’re dealing with depression, there is a cause. There may be lots of causes. But if any of those causes have to do with other people, it’s time to talk with those people about the situation.

For example:

Perhaps your marriage is in trouble, and you need to confront your spouse and insist that you both get into marriage counseling.

If so, it’s time to stop pretending and avoiding the conflict, and take action that will lead to change. Your marriage can’t get better unless you call out the evil and refuse to ignore it anymore.

Or, perhaps you’re being abused at church (spiritual abuse or any other kind of abuse), and you need to confront some people.

If a person or people are mistreating you, calling you names, ostracizing you, trying to control you, et cetera, it’s time to confront it. Then, if they won’t repent, you may need to leave the church. But you won’t know until you have the conversation.

Perhaps you’re in a hostile work environment in your job.

If so, it’s time to confront your boss. Take a witness if you need to. Maybe you even need to go to the Human Resources department and file that sexual harrassment complaint if you’re being sexually harrassed. Stop acting like nothing is happening, and fix it!

Difficult conversations are easy to avoid and hard to step up to–but if you’re depressed about a situation, you won’t find healing until you confront the situation and/or people.

But friend, the Lion of Judah roars inside of you! You can do this! I know it’s hard, but do it anyway! You can do it, and your life will change if you do. But if you do nothing, nothing at all will change.

If you are confronting a brother or sister in Christ, please remember Jesus’ instructions for dealing with a sinning brother per Matthew 18.

Matthew 18:15-17 says this:

“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:15-17 NKJV).

(Read more about that process here.) In a nutshell, again, this process for confronting a sibling in Christ is:

• First, confront them alone, just between you and them, and tell them how they have sinned against you.
• Secondly, if they refused to listen the first time, take one or two witnesses and confront them again.
• If they won’t listen the second time, even to the witnesses, “tell it to the church.” The phrase “the church” in Matthew 18 there is ekklesia–in other words, the Body of Christ, gathered together to govern.
• If they won’t listen to the church, then cut off the relationship completely and do not associate with that person anymore.

Friend, confronting someone is difficult. But you won’t know if there is a path forward or not unless you do it. And often, I have seen the Lord use a difficult conversation to either heal the relationship or deliver someone from the relationship. Either way, God will heal YOU as you do what it takes to obey Him in this area.

Key Action 7: Praise yourself happy.

Praising the Lord even when you don’t feel like it WORKS. This is what it means to give God a sacrifice of praise. As it says in Hebrews 13:15:

“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13:15 NKJV).

Praising God when you get a big promotion at your job, or when someone gives you a free car, or when you get a big check in the mail is easy. It’s easy to praise when you’ve just received a big breakthrough.

But that praise is not a sacrifice. There’s nothing wrong with it and everything right with it, but it’s not a sacrifice if it’s easy.

But there’s a special anointing on it when you give God the sacrifice of praise.

A sacrifice of praise costs you something:

• The sacrifice of praise is when you count it all joy despite your tests and trials, and you praise God anyway.
• You offer a sacrifice of praise when bills are due and you have no way to pay them.
• You are sacrificing your praise to God when you praise Him through your pain, despite your pain, and even because of your pain. (He didn’t send that pain, but He will work it out for your good–so that’s why you can even praise because of your pain.)

The sacrifice of praise is when you put yourself on the altar and you say, “God, I’m going to obey You and praise You even though I don’t feel like it.”

And when you do that, if you will make your praise personal, God will inhabit your praise.

In the Bible, there are lots of different words that describe actions of worship. In Hebrew, there are at least seven different words for this. Unfortunately, they are often all translated “praise” when the translators put the Bible into English, but they actually mean very specific things.

For example:

• “Yadah” means to lift the hands to the Lord, but we just translate it as “praise.”
• “Zamar” means to pluck at a musical instrument, but we just translate it “praise.”
• “Tehillah” means to take the personal song of your life and your experience and lift it up to God as an offering from your heart. But we just translate it “praise.”

But the Bible lists only one kind of praise that God actually inhabits.

Psalm 22:3 in the King James Version says this:

“But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3 KJV).

And in the New King James, it reads this way:

“But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3 NKJV).

The Hebrew word for “praise” here in Psalm 22:3 is tehillah, and it means the personal song of your life lifted up to the Father. That is the only kind of praise the Bible specifically says God INHABITS. All forms of praise are good, but if you engage in tehillah, God manifests Himself to you.

It’s the tehillah praise that brings the glory of God down upon your head.

Look back to a time when you heard a song that fit just right with what you’re going through. You lifted your hands to the Father and made it personal. Tears started to flow down your cheeks, and you could feel yourself releasing it all to the Lord as He comforted you, healed you, and filled you up with joy.

THAT was tehillah praise, and you don’t have to have music to do it. You can start lifting up the song of your heart and your life to the Father right now, even through your pain. And if you will, God will inhabit that praise and minister to you.

That’s why praise is so crucial if you are battling depression.

If you’re struggling and don’t know what to do with depression, start praising God with your tehillah praise. Lift up the song of your heart and life to the Lord, and you will see Him manifest His glory to you right in that moment. His presence and glory will bring you comfort, healing, and fullness of joy again.

It really does work: If you are depressed, you can praise yourself happy right now. Even if the depression comes back in two hours, or tomorrow, or next week, praise yourself happy again. Keep working on all the other Key Actions too, simultaneously.

Remember, this is a journey–a slow plodding–and every action you take will help transform your life and mind.

Praising yourself happy is only one tool in your arsenal, but it is a very important tool.

Key Action 8: Testify about what the Lord has done for you.

Your testimony is powerful, and you can use it to help yourself overcome depression.

Read Revelation 12:10-11:

“Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death'” (Revelation 12:10-11 NKJV, emphasis mine).

Friend, if you’re experiencing depression right now, you are hearing lies from the enemy.

I’m not criticizing you for it, but I’m telling you that all the negative things being whispered in your ear right now are not from God.

No matter what thoughts you’ve embraced, if those thoughts don’t line up with God’s Word, they are from the accuser of the brethren–the devil himself. The entire process of transforming your mind so you can life an abundant, joy-filled life is ALL about kicking the devil’s thoughts, lies, and belief systems to the curb so you can be filled only with the thoughts and joy of God.

And in the Scripture passage above (Revelation 12:10-11), we read that the saints overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. So friend, you have a testimony. Use it!

How do you release the word of your testimony?

You start talking about what God has done for you! Tell everyone how faithful God has been to you. And if you’re stuck in a house all by yourself–by your own choice or otherwise–start testifying to the angels about what God has done! Tell your testimony to the walls, the blankets and sheets, the floor! Tell your testimony to God Himself. Speak that testimony out!

Your testimony could go something like this:

“Walls, you listen here. I’m telling you that I used to be a sinner, but God saved me. I used to be homeless, but God put a roof over my head. I used to be cold, but God gave me this blanket. I used to be alone, but now that same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in me.” And you can go on and on!

Friend, you are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

As it says in Hebrews 12:1-2:

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2 NKJV).

So even if you can’t see anyone around you, testify to them. Tell the air about the goodness of God. If you will share that word of your testimony, dwelling in Jesus who shed His blood for you, you can overcome the accuser of the brethren!

JESUS paid the price for your healing, salvation, and deliverance.

In Christ, you are called to be the head and not the tail; above only, and not beneath. You are not called to be under attack, under the weather, or under the circumstances. You are MORE than a conqueror through Christ who loves you!

As we read in Romans 8:31-39:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

‘For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39 NKJV).

So how do you walk in power, rather than depression? How do you see Jesus’ victory manifest in your life?

All you have to do is submit to God and resist the devil–and the devil will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. That’s from James 4:7-10:

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (James 4:7-10).

When we are depressed, we are double-minded. We say we believe God, but we actually are embracing the lies and tricks of the devil more. But we can fix that. We can submit in every way to God and His Word, doing the work it takes to “be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

And in that renewing of our mind, abiding in His love and in His manifest presence, you will find complete immunity from the works of darkness–which includes immunity from depression.

Friend, again: I’m not writing this from an ivory tower.

I have struggled with depresion BIG-TIME in my life. Oh, how I’ve struggled. I’ve had horrible things happen to me and I’ve had plenty of reasons to be depressed.

But I am writing this from the Strong Tower whose name is Jesus Christ.

In His presence is fullness of joy. At His right hand are pleasures forevermore. The words that He speaks are Spirit, and they are life. And being transformed by the renewing of your mind–step by step, day by day, inch by inch, breath by precious breath–WORKS.

It works for me, and it will work for you too. God’s Word is true, and He loves you. Jesus came that you may have LIFE, and have it more abundantly.

Won’t you decide to do the work it takes to transform your mind and walk in the victory that belongs to you by Jesus Christ today?

Friend, has this series about What To Do With Depression helped you? If so, please leave a comment below–and share this resource with a friend!