Created for More: Defying the Downward Pull of Depression

One of the most exquisite mysteries that the Bible presents is the transformation of a life. From Genesis to Revelation, God works through the least likely circumstances to fashion beauty out of ashes (Isaiah 61:3). From eternity past to our present, God reveals Himself through nature’s miraculous transformation, as one season undulates into another.

Newness emerges as caterpillars metamorphose into butterflies. He does the same with us, settling a covenant promise with Himself, to make new out of the old, ushering the temporal into everlasting (2 Corinthians 5:17; Revelation 21:5).

In our unusual circumstances, God displays the previews of coming attractions, permitting us to peer into the windows of His masterful plan. Like cinematic features, God’s trailers unwind the film reel of His Heart, unveiling the gifts, aptitudes, and interests that grip our hearts with a passion for our divine purpose.

God’s whispers show up in visions that we cannot escape in sleeping moments. They float into dreams that arrest waking thoughts. God is both clever and creative in crafting a bigger blueprint than what we’ve imagined for our own lives.

Dreaming: process and price

Sometimes, our hearts’ longings collide with serial disappointment. As a result, we may sink into depression, lose hope, and talk ourselves out of pursuing the more we were created to be, do, and have.

When we lose the steam that powers us toward the impossible, we must pause and refuel with the God who planted the mystery of eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Through circumstance, God seeks to heal and anchor us so that we can experience all He has planned and desired for us. There is more, but it comes with a process and a price.

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” – 1 Corinthians 2:9, ESV

The process

While it isn’t yet clear what God is doing in our lives, His work is far from arbitrary. He established the fulfillment of our dreams and details before He began. He gifts us accordingly, packing what we need for life’s journey. Those gifts are unwrapped in trials. As much as it appears that testing seasons would drain us, they draw out latent strengths and abilities that we didn’t know we had.

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. – 1 John 3:2, NASB2020

While God often presents a snapshot of His highest and best intention to us, He often wraps its reality in mystery. Through these visions and dreams, we sense that there is more to our lives than what we’ve observed and experienced to date. As wildly wonderful as it sounds, it does not exempt us from trouble (John 16:33). Tribulation trains us to trust God. Fiery trials release the maturing within us and waiting in our future.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. – James 1:2-3, NIV

The price

Often, the way we see God influences how we approach Him in difficult moments. If we perceive Him as a hard Father, unyielding and unkind, then we may revert to Adam and Eve’s pattern. In response to the shame that sin’s debt imposed, they hid, fearing God’s anger.

They weren’t completely persuaded of His love, having bought into the notion that the Father was withholding kindness. This fear bred distrust, leveraging the costs of suspicion, blame, and discord that only Jesus’ blood could eventually remit.

For those of us suffering from depression, we often feel fragmented, and disconnected from ourselves, God, and others. Jesus came to reconcile us with the Father, mending the breach we couldn’t repair. Here, the Spirit of the Lord graces us for a process of transformation, even through our diagnosis. We continually exchange our short-sightedness for fresh vision, activated to see life with Him through the eyes of a new creation.

The origin of dreams

If it were left up to us, we might settle at a juncture only intended for rest along our path. We might be persuaded to think narrower, dream smaller, or reach lower. We might not be compelled to push through the challenges of depression, to get up daily, and to face unimaginable difficulties with God.

If destiny had originated with us, we might not have been motivated to detangle our thoughts from the vice grip of inertia. Apathy might have captivated us in its clutches, draining our hope and siphoning our stamina.

However, some dreams will not let us go, though we have tried to disengage from the relentless nature of hope. Even depression cannot contend against God as the original dreamer who releases His dreams in us. He won’t let them rest, somewhat like the fire that surged in Jeremiah’s bones (Jeremiah 20:9).

In our own strength, we cannot turn a dream into reality without God’s holy presence burning within. Though we experience the depth and darkness of depression, the hope of Christ tugs at our consciousness, promising to revive the dead or dormant with its light and warmth.

Courage for dreaming

God-dreams are imaginative, brilliant, and nuanced by intense color and contrast. God sends them, like evidence of His unfailing love to pursue us relentlessly. While it may sound poetic, the tension between the dreams that God has planted in us and our experience with depression can make our lives look like the aftermath of an apocalypse.

It seems impossible to reconcile the goodness that God has revealed with the disruption that upends the foundation of our lives. Though the process of restoration seems disjointed, God fosters partnership with us to launch destiny, defying depression’s ability to restrain us from God’s dreams and destiny.

Worthy of dreaming

He isn’t afraid to give us the greater dream and desire, but are we willing to ask and receive? It may not be as much a question of courage as it is of sensing and knowing our worth. In our bouts with darkness and sustained or seasonally affected depression, Satan wants to convince us that God’s promises won’t hold true for us.

He works against us to anchor our consciousness around a past we cannot change. He also influences our fleeting emotions, persuading us that our present circumstances are a permanent condition.

Destined for dreaming

We were created for more. We can experience it as we actively reach out to God, our safe people, and professional counselors to walk alongside us in a healing journey that spurs growth and change. God created us with uncapped potential, but the illusion of limitation is magnified by trauma that causes us to stew in anger, sink into depression’s quicksand, and withdraw from God.

Satan attempts to derail God’s children by provoking doubts about the Father’s goodness and tempting us to abandon the One who authored our destiny and dreams. He distracts us with mental torment, so that we exhaust ourselves physically and emotionally, too tired to attune ourselves to the One who guides our path and purpose.

Next steps

The enemy doesn’t want you to see the greatness of God or the greatness you were created to display. However, your battles with depression cannot extinguish the God-dreams that you were created to fulfill in this life. The struggle may seem daunting, but God has created you to come fully alive with Him, even amid depression.

Use every available resource that He provides, not only in Himself, to source your healing, peace, and joy, but also to locate mental health support through this site. Schedule today to initiate your next step in discovering and soaring into all you were created to be, to do, and to have.