Don’t Let Evil Depress or Discourage You

Turn now to another category — depression and discouragement.  This is one of the most remarkable manifestations of the activity of the devil.  He does it with non-Christians as well as with Christians.  He depresses the mind.  He does it generally by making us concentrate overmuch on ourselves.  He keeps us looking at ourselves and examining ourselves, always looking at the past, at something we did in the past which we should not have done.  He will keep us looking back until we are utterly depressed.  We doubt whether we are forgiven, we doubt whether we are children of God, we feel unworthy, we feel unclean, we feel out lives are a failure.  That we become miserable and unhappy, causes the devil to rejoin, for he is able to say, “There is a typical Christian! that is your Christianity!”  Cannot you see that this is an aspect of the wiles of the devil?  How wrong it all is!  And how we ought to detect it!  You have no right to remain in such a depression, because you are assured by God’s own word that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  He is a God who heals the backslider; He is a God who receives back the prodigal son.  “The past shall be forgotten, a present joy be given.”  You have no right to look back; you have no right to be perpetually looking within; you have no right to be depressed.  If you are depressed, you are merely succumbing to the influence of the evil.  Depression, discouragement, a sense of failure, a sense of utter and complete hopelessness, are generally the result of the devil’s activities.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “The Christian Warfare: An Exposition of Ephesians 6:10-13,” pg.90-91