‘BREAKING FREE FROM DEPRESSION’
SESSION 1: WHEN GOD’S PEOPLE BECOME WEARY
The writers of Psalms 69, 88, and 102 openly described deep emotional suffering.
The psalmists did not hide their anguish. Psalm 69:1-2 cries out: *"Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing."*
Psalm 88, often called the darkest psalm, ends without resolution: (v. 18) *"Loved one and friend You have put far from me, and my acquaintances into darkness"* Yet these words are preserved in Scripture as prayers of faith.
This teaches us that faith does not make us immune to emotional struggles.
1. YOU CAN LOVE GOD AND STILL EXPERIENCE EMOTIONAL PAIN
Being a Christian does not mean that every day will feel good.
You can pray and still cry. You can believe God and still become tired. You can serve others and still need someone to encourage you. You can have faith and still go through a dark valley.
Do not condemn yourself simply because you are struggling.
2. SOMETIMES THE BURDEN BECOMES TOO HEAVY
Moses said: “I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.”
Numbers 11:14–15 shows us a great leader who reached the point of emotional exhaustion. Moses was not a sinner because he was overwhelmed. “14 "I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me. 15 "If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now-if I have found favor in Your sight-and do not let me see my wretchedness!"”
He was carrying a burden that had become too heavy.
There are burdens you were never meant to carry alone.
3. STOP HIDING BEHIND “I AM VICTORIOUS”
Sometimes Christians are afraid to admit that they are struggling.
God does not need us to pretend. We can come before Him honestly.
Real faith does not deny pain; real faith brings pain to God.
4. GOD WANTS TO HEAL UNADDRESSED WOUNDS
Isaiah 1:6 describes the condition: *"From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, nor soothed with ointment."*
Many carry deep-seated emotional wounds that have never been addressed because the church has not created space for honest lament.
Some wounds are invisible, but they are still wounds.
Dr Lawi Mshana, +255712924234, Tanzania
