This time of year, when it is too cold to enjoy being outside, it’s easy to feel depressed. I’ve been refreshing my memory of a book called Healing for Damaged Emotions by David A. Seamands. He quotes Samuel Logan Brengle, a great saint of the Salvation Army, whose “works on holiness have been the means of leading millions of believers into a deeper life in Christ.”
Brengle wrote his story, Portrait of a Prophet, about his experience of a deep depression, so severe that he felt God no longer existed. Seamands goes on to teach how to live above depression. Then he returns to the end of Brengle’s story: “As I thanked God for the trial, it began to turn to blessing. Light glimmered, grew very slowly, and then broke through the gloom. The depression passed away, and life was beautiful and desirable again, and full of gracious incomings once more.” (Hall, Portrait of a Prophet, p.214.) (Quoted in Healing for Damaged Emotions p. 120.)
This reminds me of another book which has had an impact on my life, It is titled “Praise the Lord, Anyway” by Merlin Carothers. The idea is that if we can praise God for whatever is happening in our lives, he can turn it into a blessing for us.
This message is one I’ve needed recently as I went through three weeks of sickness, an accident, and other depressing things. Now I’m determined to thank God for the trials, and to praise the Lord, anyway.
The following link is of one of my songs which tells some of what happens when we trust God even when we can’t see what he is doing. It is from my you tube channel which is at https://www.youtube..com/@judithvanderwege9055
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