4 easy ways to get into and out of depression

Last night we talked about Elijah and his bout with depression.

So here are 4 ways that you can easily get into depression. Trust me!

1. Totally wear yourself out. - Seriously, do everything! Join that club, make that team, practice every single day. Then on top of that make sure you get good enough grades to impress the "ok" colleges. But if you want to impress the "great" colleges, do all that stuff plus go out and join another club so they can see that you are a well rounded person that only sleeps 1.5 hours every other day.

2. Shut out everyone - When things do get tough, simply stiff arm people out of the way. Wall yourself in with your own emotions, and deal with things on your own. Because lets be honest even if you told your best friend what was wrong they really wouldn't understand what you are going through. So deal with this one on your own.

3. Focus on the Negative - When things go wrong make sure you only look at the negative in every situation. That is the only way you are ever going to figure things out is if you look at the negative stuff and totally leave out the positive things that you can learn from this problem. Just keep going over and over and over it in your head its the only way things will get worked out.

4. Totally forget God - Forget everything God has ever blessed you with in your life. If God wants you to be happy then He obviously wouldn't have placed this situation in your life! So forget all about everything He has ever done!

Now obviously I don't want any of you to actually go through with those steps, but the issue is a lot of us end up doing those exact steps and wonder why we aren't happy, or are relationship with Jesus feels distant.

Here are 4 ways to avoid/remove depression from your life.

1. Eat and Rest - When the Angel of the Lord came to Elijah, the angel told him to get up eat this meal, and then rest. We have to understand that rest is a vital part of our relationship with Jesus. We can't use all our energy pouring ourselves out onto all sorts of projects, games, practices, and clubs and then expect to press repeat every single week. You have rest your body and your mind!

2. Replace our lies with Gods truths. - We go into Self pity mode all the time, where our mind just exaggerates everything that could and will go wrong. We get into a downward spiral after something we just think about too long. We have to take our lies with believe in our head, and replace them with Gods truths. We have to remember what God has done in and through our lives, and we need to understand that Jesus Christ loves us so much that He can remove shame, doubt, and any other emotions that can hinder.

3. God speaks in a still small voice. - God spoke to Elijah through bringing fire down from the sky and burning up the alter, God spoke to Elijah through no rain for 3 years, God spoke to Elijah when he was eating from birds. God spoke to Elijah through some pretty BIG events, but God wanted to speak to Elijah in a new way, through a gentle whisper. God wants to speak to us today but sometimes its going to come through a channel we might not be ready for.

4. God has given us divine opportunities. - God told Elijah to go back and do what prophets do. God has given us certain people, and certain opportunities that we need to take advantage of and talk with people about what God has done in our lives.


This what the students learned about last night! I am excited about small group outings next week! Have a great day today.

P.A.