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The Bible tells us, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones", Proverbs 17:22. The opposite of a merry heart is a broken spirit. A merry heart is laughter and a broken spirit is depression. So, if you find something to laugh about, you are less likely to be depressed. 

When I think about depression I can’t help but consider the greatest biblical example of the subject: Job.  In Job 3:1-13, Job is obviously going through depression. We would certainly agree that if anyone had a right to be depressed he did. We see him suffering from depression due to all three parts of man. His body is suffering physically; his soul is suffering due to the emotional stress of losing his family, wife, and friends; and his spirit is even suffering because God seems so far from him. What was he to do, how would he recover? We know that he did recover but how? We see Job depressed in chapter 3 of Job, and then in the next 34 chapters we read the counsel he received from his counselors.

Just to sum up the counsel he received, I will refer to the counselor and a brief statement of the counsel given. First, Elipaz offers his counsel. He summarized that God was simply correcting Job.  Then, Bildad offers somewhat the same counsel, except he magnifies it a little. He says God is correcting you Job, and you must just give up because if God doesn’t judge you He has perverted judgment. Zophars is a real help. He tells Job that he is nothing more that a hypocrite and recommended that Job quit asking for help. Then Elihu comes on the scene. He simply tells Job that he is self-righteous and a liar.

Notice all of these counselors offer the same opinion and none had the answer. So how did Job get better, how did he get victory over the depression? Well he did receive counsel from one more counselor. In Job 38, God had had enough of the counsel Job was getting from his peers, and God himself offered the counsel that would change Job’s life. God wanted Job to know that He was God, and, as God, He created Job. He knew everything about Job. He knew him better than Job knew himself.

We tend to determine what our problem is and take our own advice as to how to deal with it. God then showed Job his ignorance. We tend to always look at our life and what we have as that which is owed to us, and yet God explains to Job that Life itself is a gift. Job had forgotten his own words in Job 1:21, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD". When Job’s trials began, he recognized that God was in control, but as the trials increased he turned his focus from God to himself. That’s when depression set in.

You see, depression, in many instances, is the worst form of selfishness. If this is true then the best way to overcome depression is to redirect our focus from ourselves and to God. Rarely do you see depression when people are focused on their personal relationship with God and helping others. There are cases when chemical imbalances bring about depression, but I believe this to be the exception not the rule. Here then is the prescription to follow:

First, realize that life is a gift from God. We did nothing to deserve to be born. Since it is a gift we shouldn’t get upset when it doesn’t work out exactly the way we planned. Life is a gift.

Secondly, determine to laugh.  Remember a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.

Thirdly, when you feel bouts of depression coming on, invest time helping others. Remember the end of Job’s story? When he listened to God’s advice he received everything he had lost, except it had doubled. 

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