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Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Considerations ~ The Togetherness that Cures Depression

          The cure to depression is in the body of Christ. This does not mean you will find it in an institutional church, a particular denomination, or a specific location. It means that, wherever two or three people gather together in Jesus’ name, Jesus will be there in the midst of these people.[1] His presence in the midst of his people, he as the head relating through the people as his body, is all the cure for depression anyone will ever need.
          Are there details and personal stories to work out? Absolutely! But it begins by going where the cure is. It isn’t just “Jesus”! It is Jesus relating to us through his body. His people are “a holy temple in the Lord,” who are “being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”[2] Wherever God is doing his building program, the Spirit of the Lord is there. And, as Paul wrote, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”[3]
          Within the body of Christ, where the Spirit of the Lord is working for freedom, we have this beautiful description of God’s work among us that guarantees healing for the depressed. Paul describes it like this, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”[4]
          People who are “beholding the glory of the Lord” together (because the depressed have difficulty doing this on their own), and feeling the gracious work of transformation that changes us “into the same image” as our Savior, “from one degree of glory to another,” cannot stay depressed.
          When God’s word says that, “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit,”[5] we can confidently meet as the body of Christ to experience him doing just that. He comes near, and he saves. When we are willing to be the brokenhearted, and be the crushed in spirit, we will come to experience the nearness and savingness of God in the church as we have never known it before.
          Seek to be part of the true church in Jesus’ name, and you will see people cured of depression. It may not be the way your church presently does things, but it will be the way God’s word says he does things.

© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)




[1] Matthew 18:20
[2] Ephesians 2:21-22
[3] II Corinthians 3:17
[4] II Corinthians 3:18
[5] Psalm 34:18

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