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WisconsinChristianNews.com
Volume 25, Issue 8
Depresse d People O f the Bible
Receiving Rebuke Graciously
By Jeff Zaremsky January 2025
because of what she had just read, Juanita cautiously accepted her husband’s invitation to go for a ride. She kept her head down, watching the hands on her watch. She prayed silently for God to keep her sane for just five minutes. After five minutes, she prayed again for sanity for five more minutes. She contin- ued this way every five minutes throughout that day. A friend mentioned how a Bible promise had helped her: “He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increases strength.” (Isaiah 40:29). Juanita felt like God was speaking directly to her. Hope took over. With a change in attitude, and with prayer every few minutes, slowly her strength re- turned. The ability to sleep returned as well. By God’s grace, instead of confinement at the end of the two-month period, she had re- sumed all her earlier home and congrega- tional responsibilities. A friend shared a Bible text with me that helped her through a discouraging time: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” (Isa- iah 26:3). This person read this verse over and over again, but each time personalized it, emphasizing and amplifying a different word. The first time she read it as: “YOU, THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE, will keep me in perfect peace as my mind is stayed on You, because I trust in You.” Then: “You WILL MOST DEF- INITELY keep me in perfect peace as my mind is stayed on You, because I trust in You.” Fol- lowed by: “You will KEEP me CONTINUALLY AND FOREVER in perfect peace as my mind is stayed on You, because I trust in You.” One more example: “You will keep ME, EVEN ME, Jeff Zaremsky, in perfect peace as my mind is stayed on You, because I trust in You.” You get the idea. If you really believe what you are reading when you are reading God’s Word, it will be hard to remain discouraged. If you are having trouble really believing, ask God to give you faith to believe, just as one person in the Bible prayed, “Lord, I be- lieve; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). God gives to everyone a measure of faith. If you need more, just ask Him for it. It is very powerful to read God’s Word, per- sonalizing it, and giving it immediate applica- tion to what you are going through. If you are feeling low or going through a time when you are troubled, fearful, anxious, or worried, I encourage you to claim Bible verses right now and read them over and over again, person- alizing them and emphasizing a different word each time you read them. If you are suffering from a guilty conscious because of a sin in your life, I encourage you to fully confess it to God, accept His forgive- ness because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, and accept the power of the Holy Spirit to give you continual victory over that sin. If you are prone to resist other people’s suggestions and corrections, I encourage you repent of that and ask God to give you a humble and teach- able spirit. Learn more about David, and other depressed people of the Bible, in the book “Depressed People of the Bible,” available where most books are sold. Author’s Disclaimer: The information I will be sharing is not intended for diagnosis or treat- ment of depression. It is a biblical reflection on people throughout the Scriptures who dealt with depression and how God carried them through it to healing and purpose.
Another great experience we see in David’s life that kept him from falling into depression was his willingness to receive rebuke, accept responsibility for mistakes, confess his faults, repent, and receive forgiveness. David had really blown it. He had commit- ted adultery with Uriah’s wife. Then to cover up her pregnancy, he brought Uriah home from the war and then sent him back to the front lines to be killed. After Uriah’s death, David married Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. God’s prophet, Nathan, came to David and told David a parable to bring conviction to him.
Nathan told David that a rich man with lots of animals took the only lamb of a poor man and served it to his guest. David, being a shepherd at heart, was enraged and said that
man should be punished. Nathan told David that he was “the man” whose sin against Uriah was seen by God. David could have had Nathan killed; instead, he took the rebuke and repented of his sin. This was the difference between the success of David and failure of Saul. Like unforgiveness, a guilty con- science will eat away at us and make us susceptible to depression. It was after that experience that David wrote Psalm 51. If you have a guilty conscience because of some sin you have par- ticipated in, I invite you to pray David’s prayer from Psalm 51 and receive God’s forgiveness and cleansing, it is very powerful. Juanita Kretchmar’s nervous system was in shambles. For sev- eral years she suffered from de- pression. A doctor stated that within two months she would need to be institutionalized because he felt she was headed for a complete nervous breakdown. He said her condition was irreversible. She felt hopeless and feared losing her sanity. Even though she was a godly woman who had grown up in a godly home and was married to a godly man and was raising her children to be godly people, the doctor’s statement reverberated in
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her mind so much that she withdrew from attending reli- gious services and would not leave her home. No one knew her troubled thoughts. Sometime before this low time in her life hit her, Juanita had stopped having a personal de- votional time, with daily reading and prayer. Days passed and restful sleep would not come. She read how a person prayed every five minutes and she became re- stored. It had been days since Juanita had left the house, being fearful of being in a public place when the doctor’s verdict might sud- denly come true. But
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