Discouragement & Depression: Its Causes and Solutions
Reflections upon Haggai
Paul J. Bucknell
Depression | Two Cycles| Cycle #1 Guilt | #1 Obedience | Cycle #2 | Wisdom | Compassion | Promises
Can God's people fall into despair and depression? Sure can. Are there solutions for depression?
Now let's learn from the many insights that we can gain on how God deals with discouraged and depressed people.
Observing the Cycles of Despair
As we go through the Book of Haggai, we will see God treating the Israelite people differently in different situations. This is no special surprise, but it does give us some organization to the many observations below.
Overall, we find two different circumstances and their responses to God. Importantly, we find different patterns on how God deals with these discouraged Israelites. The way they respond to God has a lot to do with their dispositions. We even see a strong cyclic pattern.
These cycles demonstrate how our responses to God so strongly influence our inner lives. The strong message that has been circulating in the Western world for these last decades has convinced many that spiritual things are immaterial to our daily lives.
People are taught to go through these cycles without realizing the connection they have with their relationship with God. Indeed, the number of clinical cases of depression are a testimony of a world without God's gracious help. May we seek God's intervening hand in our daily lives.
These two cycles show how significant God a place God plays in our lives, whether we like it or not. With each cycle there is a low and a high. We start looking at each cycle at its low. It is at one's most desperate times God intervenes and brings extra grace to break the otherwise monotonous low.
His grace can and does lead to a high where the path of unresolved disobedience is broken and a tremendous infusion of excitement, motivation and power arrive enabling them to do what was put off for months if not years.
The two cycles and outline
Cycle #1: Caring for the Discouraged (Haggai 1:1-15)
A) The Low Cycle: Living with Guilt (Haggai 1:1-11)
B) The High Cycle: Living in Obedience (Haggai 1:12-15)
Cycle #2 Caring for the Depressed (Haggai 2:1-23)
1) God's wisdom
2) God's compassion
3) God's promises
Cycle #1: Caring for the Discouraged (Haggai 1:1-15)
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