Day 5: Reasons for Spiritual Depression, Part 2

Yesterday we looked at two sources of depression. Today we will explore three additional sources before moving on to helpful and healthy remedies for depression.

A third reason for spiritual depression is accumulation—the cumulative effect of one struggle after another that piles up and weighs us down. The psalmists compared this feeling to the plight of a drowning man: “Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me” (Psalm 42:7). I experienced this literally as a young surfer at the tail end of an ocean storm. I got caught in a cycle of waves crashing one after another and I almost drowned. I also experienced this spiritually and emotionally when I left the church I founded in Albuquerque to pastor a church in California for three years. I faced an accumulation of struggles that I didn’t see coming. One trial after another left me winded and spiritually depleted.

The apostle Paul wrote about the accumulation of his own struggles in his letters to the Corinthians. He had been "constantly on the move" and in dangerous conditions from rivers, bandits, Gentiles, false brothers, and his own countrymen. Paul had "labored and toiled and…gone without sleep." He had been hungry, thirsty, cold, and naked. "Besides everything else," Paul said, "I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches” (2 Corinthians 11:26-28, NIV). Daily pressures can grow into a mountainous burden.

A fourth reason for spiritual depression is recollection or the wrong use of our past. Someone noted that “the good old days” are just a combination of a bad memory and a good imagination. If we remember past days in the wrong light, making them better than they were, an emotional and spiritual crash is imminent. The psalmists wrote of better days, when they used to “go with the multitude…to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast” (Psalm 42:4). Clearly, joining in with other worshipers singing and feasting was a lot better than feeling dried out and criticized, but the cumulative effect of recalling those things intensified feelings and worsened the depression.

The psalmists looked back on the sights and sounds of Jerusalem with nostalgia, and in this depressed state, they asked, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?” (Psalm 42:5). Depression deprives us of perspective; memories seem better than they were, and the present seems worse than it is. Our thoughts then become extreme—Things will never be good again; God will never speak to me again.

There’s a fifth cause of spiritual depression in these psalms: preoccupation. When you are preoccupied with yourself, you are in the vortex of a depressive behavior pattern. In Psalms 42 and 43, I counted fifty-one personal pronouns: I, me, and my. In these same verses, God is mentioned just twenty-two times. That is clear evidence of a preoccupation with self. And though many contributing factors lead to depression, one basic problem is self-centeredness. We forget who God is and what He has done and can do to help us.

For Further Thought

Which of the five given reasons for depression best resonates with your situation: unfulfilled expectations, criticism, accumulation, recollection, or preoccupation? Write down some things that would be important for you to be aware of, even to avoid, to help you fight your depression. Enlist a friend to pray with you as you deal with these matters.