Article April 5, 1993 Issue

Downhearted? We don't need to be!

Depression can have no hold on us when we turn wholeheartedly to God for our answers.

Sharon Slaton Howell

No matter how bad things may look, no situation is truly hopeless; no problem is without a solution. "But I have every right to feel downhearted," someone might say. "My personal problems are so challenging. And just look at what's happening in the world today. It's enough to depress anyone!"

Yet even when we think we're in a hopeless situation, God's help is always at hand. The Bible reassures us of this. In Zephaniah we read, "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing."

What makes individual and collective challenges seem overwhelming to us is believing that God is less than infinite, less than almighty, and thinking that man is separate from God, left to fend for himself in a haphazard, material universe. We have reason for hope, however, when we begin to realize that God is indeed the supreme, all-good power of the universe, as the Bible teaches, and that man is inseparable from, loved by, and secure in Him.

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