In Another Land

I've waited on purpose to get to Bible Reading in the matter of living with depression, with good reason: That's normally the first "advice" you get from church people, as if Bible reading (and prayer, for that matter) will cure depression. To be brutally honest, Bible reading won't cure clinical depression. (But you've discovered that, right?) Neither was it ever intended as a cure for a medical condition.

Having said that, Bible reading - as part of your daily spiritual life - is crucial to living with depression. Millions of people struggling with depression have found great solace and spiritual encouragement in the Bible, especially in the psalms of David. In this age of technological marvels the Bible is still God's preferred method of reaching our hearts, principally (in my opinion) because it's written down black on white. You don't have to battle with some sort of "revelation", trying to figure out if it's really from God. You don't have to ask some intermediate's to discern God's will. You don't have to try and disentangle a preacher or author's own ideas from Scriptural truth. Just read it, and let God's Holy Spirit work with it in your life.

The greatest problem with Bible reading, if you're suffering from depression, is usually on two fronts.

Firstly, you very often don't feel like it, right? Let me tell you a little secret: "Non-depressed" people mostly don't feel like it either! It calls for discipline: View it as of the same importance as taking your medication, and after an initial period it will become part of your routine - and that's not a bad routine! A drowning man hanging on to a tree trunk in the midst of raging waters doesn't have to know why the tree would keep him afloat, but he needs to hold on! You need the Word, so hang on to it, even if it's just a few verses at a time.

Secondly, more importantly, it feels like everything else to a depressed person: Meaningless. Not doing anything. Many people say that they read the Bible, but nothing "sticks", it has no effect on you - just like water running through a mesh sieve with BIG holes!

Well, let me give you two ways of looking at this.

The first comes from an old missionary, who once said that the Word is just like that water running through the sieve: It does not fill up the sieve, but it is still cleaning it! Likewise, you may not even remember what you've read, but the Word "running" through your mind DOES have an effect, even if you don't notice it. Just keep on reading, and eventually you'll begin to discover changes that might surprise you.

The second illustration comes from the Rev Rex Mathie, a former principal of the Baptist Theological College in Johannesburg. In a class students once asked him how he would bring the gospel to someone who doesn't believe in the Bible.

"Well," he said, "I'll start with Romans 3 verse 23 and then Romans 6 verse 23..."

"But he doesn't believe in the Bible!" the students interrupted him.

"Oh. Well, in that case, I'll start with Romans 3 verse 23..."

"No!" the students said. "It won't work. The guy doesn't believe in the Bible!"

Dr Mathie smiled at them and said: "Gentlemen, I'm just placing little land mines in his mind, and sooner or later the Holy Spirit is going to step on them."

I think you get the picture! When you really need it, the Word that you've read and "not remembered" (consciously) will be there for God to bring to remembrance, and He'll use it to carry you through.

So start reading the Bible. Put the Bible somewhere close at hand where it's sort of "in your way". Start with the New Testament, the book of Matthew, chapter 1. Just read, don't try some fancy study or meditation. Just read as far as you can, put in a marker, come back later/tomorrow, read further. When you're through Matthew, get into Mark. Then Luke... When you're through the New Testament, tackle the Old Testament. Then go through the New Testament again. Just read.

As you read, you'll find (surprise!) some words sticking in your mind. Think about it. Apply to your life as and when possible. But even if everything just runs through, keep on reading. God has made a promise, and He's bound by His character to fulfill it:

As the rain and the snow comes down from heaven,
and do not return to it without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yield seed fro the sower and bread for the eater,
so it my word that goes out from my mouth:
it will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
[Isaiah 55: 10 & 11]

We can get all theological and argue about what His purpose might be, but what can't be argued about is that His word will NOT return to Him without achieving something!

So start reading!