Don't Give Up

Mental health issues are a big part of my life. Lately I’ve been feeling the effects of my cycling patterns with my bipolar disorder, the changing of the seasons, having less daylight, and various life events. I’m depressed.

I’ve searched and prayed for permanent answers so I don’t have to deal with these aspects of myself. I’ve tried to believe that God expects us to be happy all the time. (Notice, I said “happy.” That is distinctly different from the joy I have in knowing Christ and looking forward to the fruition of His eternal promises.) I am coming to a point of acceptance that happiness is just an emotion like any other, and it will come and go from time to time. Just like I should not expect anger, loneliness, or despair to totally disappear from my life as a human being, I cannot expect that happiness will be a constant. God did not create us as robots. He gave us emotions for a reason – I’d say, for information – that we are better able to know Him and serve Him. I can’t say I have it all figured out yet, and probably will not as long as I walk on the earth. I can learn to deal with them in appropriate ways, and I get tremendous help from the Scriptures.

That said, I read Luke 18:1-8 for my Quiet Time one morning this week. This passage is the parable of the judge that was worn down by the repeated appearance and requests of a widow woman. Luke’s narration in the first verse, which introduces the parable, challenged me. I had just written down on my “emotions chart” for my therapist that the primary emotion for the last week has been “discouraged.” Then I read the passage and verse one summarized one of my problems right now. In the Amplified Bible it says,

"Now Jesus was telling the disciples a parable to make the point that at all times they ought to pray and not give up and lose heart,” 

Other versions say “never quit” (MSG) and “faint” (KJV). So I looked up “faint” in Abingdon’s Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (this resource is keyed to the King James Version of the Bible and gives the exact Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) word with a brief definition).  The Greek word is “ékkakéo.” Strong’s indicates this means “to be bad or weak, to fail (in heart):-faint, be weary.” Looking for more synonyms, I used W.E. Vine’s An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words: “To lack courage, lose heart, be fainthearted.” I think those words imply that we can do something about the situation to avoid staying discouraged. Note in verse one it says we need to pray at all times, frequently, consistently, and always, depending on the translation. Further, I think it means we are to expect God to answer because He wants to answer. The parable tells of a widow who wore down a civil judge (who did not fear God), and although he didn’t really want to give in to the woman’s request, he did. We don’t even have to try and wear God down. He wants us to ask Him and He wants to answer us, but He wants us to ask Him. He’s just waiting for us to ask (see John 16:24).

So, next on my agenda is to try and figure out what the discouragement is about and pray, and pray again as I encounter discouragement during my days. Figuring out what the discouragement is about will be difficult so my prayer might just be “Help me in my discouragement.” By laying my troubles at Jesus’ feet through prayer, His peace will come over me, even if five minutes later I have to pray again (Philippians 4:6-7).