How to overcome depression

You know, it's amazing how many of us Christians suffer from depression quite regularly. :) I myself suffered quite badly from it, and it sortof reached a climax in my JC years where I felt very very lousy about myself, and developed a very low self-esteem during that time period.

Today, my aim is not to put up a formula or a list of steps to overcome depression. I want to offer you one of the cures, a Biblical cure for that matter, one that is very experiential, and one that you won't have to strive for.

These are some verses that come to mind:

"For the joy of the LORD is your strength."

"For the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This does not contradict any of the laws of Moses."

"And they were filled with joy" -- numerous times in Acts, especially when they were going thru deep suffering.

One powerful solution to depression is joy. I don't know about you, but I grew up in Sunday School where they used to say that joy is an attitude, and that joy is not necessarily happiness, blah blah blah blahs.

They are right. But they are probably only half right.

There's an experiential element to joy, really. Yes, joy is an attitude, and yes, being happy does not equal joyful. BUT joy is always happy. Really. You can be happy without joy, but you can never be joyful without being happy. :) Joy is not about relying on outside circumstances to feed it the happiness. Our joy comes supernaturally, even miraculously, from God, even though all the outside circumstances seem to indicate otherwise. =)

Without going into a theological treatise, let me put it very simply how we can have this experiential element of joy. It is to be filled with the Spirit. Have a powerful, wonderful, supernatural encounter with the Spirit. BOOM!--and you are fantastically refreshed, beyond anything the world or comedy night can ever give you. Hehehehe.

It's that simple. Be filled with the Spirit. And if you've never experienced that, *goes into advertisement tone*..."call your friendly Christian operator now! And if you call within the next 1 min, we'll offer you a few CDs free! If you call within the next 10 seconds, we'll even throw in a complimentary 'JOY' towel!"

Nah, seriously. :) If you've never been filled with the Spirit, "call now". Ask someone who's been filled with the Spirit. God will use them to guide you there. =))