Webster defines depression as "a state of feeling sad: DEJECTION," and goes on to add "a psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, and feelings of dejection."

Most of us have had depression at one time or another. We have felt dejected, low in spirit, sad, even if we haven’t known sadness in psychotic or even neurotic proportions. When I had completed teaching a course on overcoming depression, a thirty-five year old man came up to tell me that he had never once experienced depression. Six months later his twenty-nine year old wife fell victim to a fatal disease and passed away within a month. He had his first depression in megadoses.

As with anything else, there is a spectrum of depression that runs all the way from simple "blues" to severe incapacitation as Webster recognizes when he gives us a choice of definitions. Whether it inflicts us with a brief period of mild dissatisfaction or renders us totally incapable of functioning effectively in the real world, depression always robs us of gladness. Depression is the thief of joy!

What can we do about the problem of our depression, or, if we are not experiencing it, the problem of someone to whom we wish to minister? Much, every way! First, we can learn to avoid nearly all of the depression that is man's common lot. Second, we can learn to extricate ourselves from this malady whenever we find ourselves becoming entrapped by it.

God, who has made believers complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10), that is, complete in our position, has certainly not left us without a complete provision for living and ministering as fallen Adam’s redeemed progeny in Satan’s evil world. Everywhere in the Epistles of God and Paul we find that we are divinely and fully equipped for living and ministering. We only need to know about our "weapons" (Romans 6:13 ["instruments" - weapons, Greek]) to begin to utilize them. The Epistle to the Philippians is God’s prescription for curing depression. Here, in this little four chapter letter written by God and Paul to the assembled saints (saved sinners) at Philippi, we learn the embarrassingly simple and unbelievably powerful secret of how to have victory over one of man’s greatest enemies. Choose to think differently! And choose to think differently NOW!

While the entire Epistle concerns itself with right thinking producing right results, the fourth chapter, verses 4 to 9, encapsulates the very heart of this divine formula for success. Verse 4 says, "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." Commands always imply choices. Under Law God commands the sinner to do what he cannot do, that he might learn that he is a sinner (Romans 3:19-20). Under Grace, God commands the believer to do what God has empowered him to do, that he might learn to depend on the indwelling Spirit for his success in life and ministry. Divine imperatives are to be obeyed immediately! And since this imperative is in the Greek present tense, indicating continuous action, we understand it to say, "Begin now to keep on rejoicing!" The command is repeated for emphasis because it is so important for every believer to heed. But we are not only commanded to rejoice (be having joy, or gladness that is independent of our circumstances), we are shown what is to comprise the sphere of our joy: CHRIST, in His Person and work.

Become occupied with Christ; make Him the very heart of your thought life not only if you find yourself in some stage of depression (self-pity arising from our self-centeredness), but when you are in the best possible frame of mind. Of course this requires discipline, but acquiring any discipline that vastly improves the quality of life and ministry is always fun and profit. Learn to enjoy your progress, to be excited about developing a new thought life, to find satisfaction in replacing old self-centered thinking habits with new Christ-centered ones.

Above all, never give up! For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.