Soul Trouble: look up when you are depressed

“The lesson of wisdom is, be not dismayed by soul-trouble. Count it no strange thing, but a part of ordinary ministerial experience. Should the power of depression be more than ordinary, think not that all is over with your usefulness. Cast not away your confidence, for it hath great recompense of reward. Even if the enemy’s foot be on your neck, expect to rise amid overthrow him. Cast the burden of the present, along with the sin of the past and the fear of the future, upon the Lord, who forsaketh not his saints. Live by the day—ay, by the hour. Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement. Trust in God alone, and lean not on the reeds of human help. Be not surprised when friends fail you: it is a failing world. The disciples of Jesus forsook him; be not amazed if your adherents wander away to other teachers: as they were not your all when with you, all is not gone from you with their departure. Serve God with all your might while the candle is burning, and then when it goes out for a season, you will have the less to regret. Be content to be nothing, for that is what you are. When your own emptiness is painfully forced upon your consciousness, chide yourself that you ever dreamed of being full, except in the Lord. Set small store by present rewards; be grateful for earnests by the way, but look for the recompensing joy hereafter. Continue, with double earnestness to serve your Lord when no visible result is before you. Any simpleton can follow the narrow path in the light: faith’s rare wisdom enables us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy, since she places her hand in that of her Great Guide.“ 

- C H Spurgeon

Lam 3:14  I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their mocking song all the day. 
Lam 3:15  He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with wormwood. 
Lam 3:16  He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust. 
Lam 3:17  My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. 
Lam 3:18  So I say, "My strength has perished, And so has my hope from the LORD." 
Lam 3:19  Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. 
Lam 3:20  Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down within me. 
Lam 3:21  This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 
Lam 3:22  The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. 
Lam 3:23  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 
Lam 3:24  "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him." 
Lam 3:25  The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. 

Lam 3:26  It is good that he waits silently For the salvation of the LORD. 

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