Depression = Heart Trouble?

It’s official, or at least highly suggested. Depression can break your heart – in more ways than one!

Franois Lesperance of the University of Montreal will report his findings today at theAmerican Psychosomatic Society meeting in Chicago. His research has found that depression makes people more vulnerable to heart trouble. It is also being reported that depression can lead adults already having heart trouble to fare worse than other patients. Part of the problem is that depressed adults lack the energy for exercise and often do not eat healthy while feeling they have little hope.

It is known that some do legitimately suffer depression due to some chemical imbalance in the brain. But a larger and growing number seem to be drawn into some dark emotional existence due to external factors both in or maybe out of their immediate control. But regardless of the source or severity of the discouragement, the Bible is far from silent on the issue. And interestingly, Scripture does not draw any distinction between the source or reason for various forms of depression – but only provides God’s view of how to deal with it.

The medical study from the University of Montreal showed how the state of the emotional heart could negatively effect the condition of its physical counterpart. The Bible likewise mentions in Proverbs 3 how a spiritually healthy heart can affect the well-being of the physical organ. Verse 7-8 teaches, “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones.” But most importantly the Creator God, who made both versions of man’s heart, is most interested in the condition of the spiritual form. And He has revealed the possibilities of dealing with, and defeating, the stress and strain that often initiates a cycle of deep or debilitating discouragement.

When writing of the blessings and benefits available to every true child of God, Paul listed in Galatians 5 several things he termed there as ‘fruit of the Spirit’. Interestingly, the first 4 traits have direct bearing on, and speak to the emotional state of, the spiritual human heart. They include love, joy, peace, and longsuffering or patience. These 4 categories point to the Biblical promise for any Christian to possess a healthy, balanced, and spiritually focused mind.

LOVE (2 Timothy 1:6-7) “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

JOY (John 15:11) "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”

PEACE (John 14:27-28) “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

LONGSUFFERING (Romans 15:4) ”For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

Life is sometimes hard – extremely hard. We all live in a fallen world where sin, pain, and suffering can often seem just overwhelming. But while the Christian is not at all immune to some of life’s typical troubles, he will have choices and options that those without Christ can never even grasp. Paul expresses the source of this truth in 1 Corinthians 2:14-15 stating, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.”

The Holy Spirit of God has given the believer in Christ supernatural abilities. This has, in turn, made possible the reality seen in passages like Philipians 4:6 – even when discouragement, depression and the weight of the world presses in from all sides. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

And of course there is the best way to prevent slipping into anxiety or depression, and for getting out of both, is by fully following the 2 specific mandates revealed in Romans 12. Verse one requires making positive efforts to faithfully serve the Lord instead of focusing of all things negative. Then verse two speaks of saturating the mind with the cleansing and healing balm of Biblical truth instead of absorbing the godless ways of the world.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)

Both areas in the above passage can strengthen, repair, and protect a Christina’s inner heart while having potential for good effects on his physical one.

Bill Breckenridge

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