Depression and Anxiety

“Look, I’ve given you two choices today: you can have life with all the good things it brings, or death and all the bad things it brings.”  Deuteronomy 30:15

            I have battled depression and anxiety for over thirty years.  I have taken anti-depressants and gone to counseling.  I have battled to live and prayed that I would die.  I have struggled at times with thoughts of ending it all. 

            Thursday night, the children at our church were learning about the Crucifixion.  We were using the Jesus Storybook Bible and the story tells how God poured all our sickness and sadness into Jesus.  On the cross, Jesus bore my depression and He defeated it.  As I walked home from church, I prayed.  I told God I was tired of faking it until I made it.  In the short distance to my house, God let me know that I did not have to face the scary depression and anxiety alone. 

            Friday morning I was reading The Daily Guideposts and the devotional was written by Rhoda Blecker.  The verse above offers two choices--life with the good or death with the bad.  As I read the verse, I decided to choose life. 

            Father God, when things of life-depression and discouragement seem so overwhelming, remind me that I have two choices-Life or death and that I need to choose life.  Amen.