Grace for the Depressed

Today's episode contains portions from the following programs:

"There Is a Fountain"

"Refreshed in God's Presence"

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Dannah Gresh: Depression is never disqualifying for the Christian.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: God can redeem any trial of life for His glory, including deep valleys of depression and mental illness. Some of the sweetest fruit can come out of the most desperate lives and circumstances.

Dannah: That’s my friend Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, and I’m Dannah Gresh. You’re listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

We’re gonna go there . . . depression! I have some hope to pour out for those who suffer, or those who love someone who does.

I’ve been both—the one in need and the one who loves someone struggling.

Charles Spurgeon has been an encouragement to me. He was one of the most prolific, faithful preachers ever to stand behind a pulpit, yet he wrestled most of his life with intense depression. He said it started after a terrible event in his life. During a sermon preached by Spurgeon at the Surrey Gardens Music Hall on October 19, 1856, a tragic incident occurred where a false alarm of "fire!" caused a stampede.

This resulted in the death of seven people and serious injury to twenty-eight more. Spurgeon was profoundly affected by this event and suffered from depression and what some speculate was post-traumatic stress disorder for the rest of his life. Charles had a gracious perspective toward his fellow sufferers. He once said,

I note that some whom I greatly love and esteem, who are, in my judgment, among the very choicest of God’s people, nevertheless, travel most of the way to heaven by night.

If you’re one of these overnight travelers, today’s episode is for you. I don’t want you to miss this: You can still be among “the very choicest of God’s people” and battle depression.

Today we’ll be joined by a doctor, Shona Murray, with some very practical insights for the battle in our mental health. And I’m going to share a Scripture verse that became a weapon against the darkness in my own life. 

But first, we’re having storytime with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. That’s right. She’s going to tell us a little about the life of William Cowper, author of one of the church’s most beloved hymns. Cowper suffered from long-term, unrelenting depression, but God still used him mightily. Here’s Nancy to tell us more.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: Cowper carried a lot of emotional baggage throughout his life. When he was six, his mother died while giving birth to her fifth child. He never got over that loss. He was prone to bouts of severe depression; he was plagued with spiritual doubts; he experienced numerous mental and emotional breakdowns.

William had two failed romances, which resulted in feelings of self-loathing. He made several suicide attempts, and at one point he was placed in an insane asylum for eighteen months. It was during that period that he read a verse of Scripture that changed his life.

He discovered what Romans 3 says, that Jesus Christ is set forth to be “a propitiation.” That means to satisfy the wrath of God through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission, or the forgiveness, of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.

Here’s what Cowper had to say about coming across that verse. He said,

Immediately, I received strength to believe, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon sealed in his blood, and all the fullness and completeness of His justification. In a moment I believed in and received the gospel.

The power of the Word! It gives light, it gives faith, it gives life! Once he saw the truth and embraced it, Cowper entered into a personal relationship with Christ. He was given the knowledge that his sins had been forgiven, although he continued to struggle emotionally throughout his life.

As I’ve been reflecting on this complex man . . . It would make more sense and would be a neater story if he got saved and the rest of his life was happy and life was sunshine. It wasn’t that way. But I love the fact that God used this frail servant—with all the baggage of his past and even baggage after he came to know the Lord—God used him to be an instrument of blessing to untold generations of strugglers.

How many people are like Cowper today, with so much mental illness and depression and doubt? Some people just seem more “wired,” or prone to that.

I look at how God used a man like this to write some words that are so powerful and have ministered so much grace. It reminds me that God can redeem any trial of life for His glory, including deep valleys of depression and mental illness. Some of the sweetest fruit can come out of the most desperate lives and circumstances.

God can redeem any trial of life for His glory. 

Well, in 1767 William Cowper moved to Olney and volunteered as an assistant at Newton’s church. Newton, who was six years older than Cowper, had kind of the role of mentor in the younger man’s life. While Cowper was there in Olney, he wrote many hymns that were included in this Olney Hymnal.

One of them is a phrase that he introduced to the English language: “God moves in a mysterious way.” You’ve heard that phrase? He wrote a hymn by that title. He wrote another one called, “O for a Closer Walk with God.” But the best-known hymn that William Cowper wrote—and I think probably the greatest—is a powerful personal testimony of God’s saving grace. It starts this way:

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

This hymn is inspired by a verse in the book of Zechariah that says,

On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness. (13:1)

Do you know that that is the greatest need of the human heart—of every person who has ever lived in all times, all eras, all parts of the world.

The greatest need is not physical poverty, it’s not education, it’s not mental illness, it’s not family issues. The greatest need is to know that our sins are forgiven! William Cowper, with as confused and frankly messed-up a life as he had, found that in Christ there was a source of forgiveness and mercy.

He went on to say, in the second stanza,

The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
[the fountain of the blood of Christ]
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.

Here’s a man who was plagued with spiritual doubts, who lived much of his life with this fixation, this obsession, that he would be eternally damned and never experience the mercy of God.

But with eyes of faith he wrote what he knew to be true—that even if he was as vile a sinner as the criminal on the cross nailed next to Jesus—that as that criminal found salvation through the shed blood of Christ for his sins, so Cowper and every other person who places their faith in Christ could be saved from their sins . . . could wash all their sins away.

I read this in a biographical piece on Cowper last night:

When Cowper died on April 25, 1800, it was said that his expression changed at the last from dejection to happiness. A friend commented, "It was if he saw his Savior and as if he realized the blessed fact, 'I am not shut out of heaven after all.'"

Sweet, sweet, sweet!

So tell the story now, no matter how feebly. Then rejoice, by faith, in the fact that we’ll be singing and telling and sharing it through all of eternity.

Let me just say. If you’ve never been to that fountain—that cross where Christ died—to get your sins washed away, to be cleansed from guilt and shame, God brought you here today to give you a chance to hear and to believe the good news. “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins, and sinners plunged [by faith] beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.”

Dannah: Amen. I want to emphasize, it's not a mistake that you are here today. God brought you here. That’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, telling you about the life of William Cowper. If you’ve ever doubted God’s power to use you in the dark valley, let Cowper’s life lay your doubts to rest. God is able to redeem your depression for good. Just think—the church has been singing “There Is a Fountain” for generations. I imagine countless souls have been filled with renewed assurance as they’ve remembered the cleansing power of Christ’s blood to wash away their sin. 

Well, we’ve seen that there’s a spiritual dimension to depression. It can cause us to despair and even doubt our acceptance before God. But depression isn’t only spiritual. We’re holistic beings—bodies and souls intricately intertwined. This means depression can indicate something is off physically. 

Shona Murray is a medical doctor and author of the book Refresh: Embracing a Grace-Paced Life in a World of Endless Demands. I have loved having her as a guest on our programs . . . so wise. Maybe that’s because she’s had her own journey with depression, and she found that what she thought was a spiritual issue turned out to be pretty physical after all. She sat down with Nancy to address some practical topics, starting with this one that’s honestly a bit controversial.

Nancy: You were in a deep, dark place of depression and anxiety and lots of physical, physiological symptoms. You were a medical doctor.

Shona: Yes.

Nancy: You had treated other people, but you were really, really struggling yourself. You touched on this in the first program. I want to come back to it just a little bit more because people have a lot of questions about this, and that is that a doctor/friend of yours recommended that you take some medication, an anti-depressant to help you get out of this hole.

I don’t know how you said it, but in this book, you had a really helpful section on some of the things to keep in mind as it relates to medication. Now, we’re not treating people here over this program, this podcast, or this radio program, but knowing that this is so common today and that doctors are very quick to—they have 15 minutes with you, and they’re trying to help you feel better. There’s a lot of quick medicating.

And you are a doctor, so you give some, I think, really practical and wise things to keep in mind about anti-depressants, about medication. Help us think through some of that.

Shona: The key thing about medication and depression is that you don’t rush into it, but neither should you refuse to ever go on medication. I never dreamed that I would be in a position where it was needed, but when I was in such depths, and I realized that I was on the edge, I knew there was one thing I could practically do, and that is to take this medication and view it as God’s gift, knowing full well that that was not going to be the exclusive solution to the problem. It never is.

Nancy: It wasn’t a happy pill that was going to make all your problems go away.

Shona: No. It’s not a happy pill. You’re not going to feel better tomorrow. Neither are you going to be addicted to it and have horrendous side effects and withdrawals. There’s a bit of conjecture in that, but it’s very important to remember that this is a gift of God, but it’s one of several strategies that you need to embrace if you’re going to get through depression.

What it does is it helps your mind become, if you like, more straightened out so that you are more capable then of looking at the other lifestyle factors which got you into that position in the first place, life’s circumstances, lifestyle factors. Very often it is not one thing that has led you to that degree of burnout and then, ultimately, depression. And, of course, you must not forget either that in some cases there are genetic pre-dispositions as well.

But, if all I had done was stay on medication, I would not be as well as I am today because over time, I had to understand the importance of looking, taking a long, hard look at my life, and the three key areas—sleep, good diet, and exercise.

I probably eat reasonably well, but I always eat in a hurry. I would skip my own food at the expense of myself. As long as the kids were fed and David was fed, if I skipped or didn't manage to finish my meal, that wasn’t such a problem—well, actually, it was a problem.

Exercise, which had been such a major part of my life, had completely stopped. So all this adrenalin circulating in my body, through the stress and pressures and constant responding 24/7 through the day to child issues or work issues or through the night to similar on-call issues or kid issues, was flowing so fast and damaging my mind and damaging my emotions, and ultimately my soul, my spiritual life. It had no place to go. Exercise is almost like a vial that you open, and it leaves an opportunity for the adrenalin to flow out.

It was just such an important part of my life, and the fact that I had stopped it, put that on the shelf, like I had put so much of my own personal care on the shelf—the whole down time, the whole relaxation time.

Nancy: Because you were caring for others.

Shona: I was.

Nancy: But then you got to a place where you couldn’t care for anybody.

Shona: Exactly. I thought, Well, the missionaries went off to foreign countries with no comforts. I can live as long as I’ve got groceries stored down the road. What am I complaining about? I’ve got comforts, hot water, electricity. I don’t need these other things. But I do. I did.

Nancy: It reminds me of when you’re on an airplane, and they talk to you about the oxygen masks. They say, “If you have a child with you, put the mask over your own mouth first in the case of an emergency, and breathe, and then you can help your child get the oxygen.”

If you’re not breathing in God’s grace and the means of grace God has given to oxygenate your own body, soul, and spirit, then what do you have to give anyone else?

Shona: Exactly. I think it’s important to view these things, like exercise, food, and sleep, as God’s gifts. They’re not luxuries. They’re not things that are extravagancies. They are actually essentials. So if you ditch these, you are actually jeopardizing some vital, survival resources. And that impacts you. It impacts your family. It impacts a whole lot of areas in your life.

So, in summary, medication is maybe necessary. Don’t be too quick to take it. Don’t leave it until it is too late. The farther down in the pit you are, the longer the climb back up.

There are people who have tried to help who have heard bad things about medication, and they say, “Whatever I do, I will never take medication.” And maybe a year down the line, they’ve slipped so far, and they have to take it, and they feel, “If only a year ago I’d agreed, or at least considered it, I wouldn’t be in this situation.”

I’ve seen situations with families that have been impacted, and, yes, part of the reason is that we are afraid because we’ve heard bad things. We are afraid it’s not spiritual. But, for me, there was a pride issue. And maybe that is, at the bottom of it all, this pride. “If I take medication, I don’t have it all together anymore. I have to accept that I’m weak.”

That means, if I go to the eye doctor, like I did the other day to get my contact lens checked, the doctor asks, “What medication are you on?” And I tell them. I used to say it under my breath, hoping they haven’t picked it up properly. And I think that is one of the main reasons why people say, “I will never; I won’t.” Yes, they have spiritual concerns, but I think the root of it can very often be pride, and, certainly, for me, it was.

And it was not until I was desperate that I snatched at that like a life jacket. I was drowning.

Nancy: Yes. And what I appreciated, as I read your story, is that you didn’t use that as a substitute for other strategies that would help rebuild your body, soul, and spirit.

Shona: Exactly.

Nancy: It was almost like it gave you a window of opportunity of recovery and restoration to where you could have the capacity to deal with some of those other strategies.

Shona: Yes. And there’s one other area I would like to emphasize, too, and it’s the spiritual area.

My colleague doctor said to me, because I remember saying to her . . . I’d just walked in, and I said, “Look, I’m going through a major depression I believe.” I didn’t believe it, but I knew objectively that was what I was supposed to see because I was still thinking this was spiritual. 

So I said that, and one of the things I mentioned was, “I find it so hard to pray, and I can’t get through to God.”

And she said to me, “Shona, this is the time when you need others to pray for you.”

I would encourage you, if you’re going through burnout, extreme stress, on the edge, that, whatever else you do, gather others around you, sisters in Christ, or close people you can trust, and get honest with them. Tell them, and then allow them to minister to you because so many of us, we’re so used to ministering to others, but others ministering to me—that’s a very hard pill to swallow.

Nancy: Yes.

Shona: But you must. It’s part of humility and accepting, “God has put me here for a purpose,” and my humbling myself is part of that.

Dannah: What a helpful conversation with Dr. Shona Murray. We’re holistic beings. We need spiritual help when we’re depressed, but we also need things like rest, a healthy diet, exercise—and even medication at times. I love Shona’s balanced perspective on that. As Christians, we don’t need to fear medication. We can receive it humbly as a mercy from God. 

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I’ve needed medication. I struggled fiercely through post-partum depression. My husband graciously stepped up so I could just rest for a whole week. I didn’t do much more than sleep and eat and nurse and cuddle with my babies. And, my doctor gave me a short term prescription to balance my neurochemicals out. 

And then there’s this: I spent most of my awake resting time with Jesus and in the Word. I don't want to overlook our Bibles as a tool in our arsenal to battle depression. Christianity is uniquely poised to set us free from anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges. Sometimes medical and mental health care are required, but we must not divorce them from the power of God’s truth. We must not employ the tools of the world without the strategies of Scripture.

The Bible changes everything!

Did you know young adults who read the Bible regularly report far less anxiety and feel more hopeful about life? It’s true. A 2024 study found that young adults who read Scripture four times a week or more are flourishing compared to their peers who do not.

Let me share a verse I clung to during another season of depression—yes, it’s happened more than once for me. Years after my babies were born, my marriage hit a crisis. Bob and I worked through it faithfully—and I write about it in my book Happily Even After.

Well, when we hit this wall, I spiraled into a deep darkness—sleeplessness, joint pain, no appetite, no motivation, even claustrophobia. It was a fierce mental and physical battle.

In addition to some of the practical help you’ve heard in today’s program—and lots of marriage counseling—I turned to the Word. I got a spiral-bound set of index cards and began collecting promises and truths to transform my mind. Here’s the first verse I wrote down:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones. (Prov. 3:5–8)

Trust. Lean. These two words may be more connected than they seem. To lean implies neediness, right? One scholar says the Hebrew word for trust means “to lie helpless, facedown.” Why would we do that—press our face to the ground? Could it be that it's not just a posture of neediness? Trust is a form of worship.

You worship God by trusting Him “with all your heart.” That means not placing part of your trust in God and the rest in your husband, your counselor, or your circumstances. GOD alone gets our trust. 

What is the outcome when you trust Him that way? It's “healing to your flesh. It's refreshment to your bones.” When we trust the Lord with all our hearts, our bodies enjoy wellness, healing, and refreshment.

This is personal for me. My body was once ravaged by the effects of trauma, but I’ve experienced healing in my flesh and strength in my bones. 

Are you longing for that kind of healing? Put your trust in the Lord. Anchor your sense of safety and security to the only One who will never fail you. 

As I built my trust in God, I found this to be true. He healed my body. My brain chemicals rebalanced. My back pain eased. My joints calmed down. I began to sleep peacefully again. And the claustrophobia? Gone. I even got my appetite back . . . and how!

Friend, maybe today you're sitting in a dark place. You might be wondering, Is the light ever going to return? I’ve been there. And if that’s you, let me whisper some truth to your heart: depression doesn’t disqualify you. It doesn’t define you, and it certainly doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Sometimes it’s not a sin problem—it’s a suffering problem. And Jesus, one thing I know about Him: He meets us in our suffering.

You are not alone. You are not unloved. You are not broken beyond repair. So hold on. The healing may not come all at once, but it will come. Whether in this life or the next, we will walk in the light again. You will walk in the light again! Until then, keep trusting Jesus—even if it’s just one whispered prayer at a time.

As Charles Spurgeon once said, “I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock of Ages.”

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If today’s episode resonates with you, I’d like to point you to a helpful resource: A Small Book for the Hurting Heart by Pastor Paul Tautges is a collection of brief readings meant to come alongside you in times of sorrow. When Nancy endorsed this resource, she said, “These meditations will lift up weary hearts and tear-stained faces and help them find compassion and hope in the face of Christ.” When you make a donation of any amount to support Revive Our Hearts, we’ll send you a copy to express our gratitude. To give, visit ReviveOurHearts.com, and be sure to request A Small Book for the Hurting Heart when you do.

Next weekend, we’re shifting gears to focus on another kind of suffering—shame from sin. If that’s something you’re navigating, I hope you’ll join us as we pursue hope together. 

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.