{"id":136,"date":"2023-04-06T19:01:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-06T19:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/?p=136"},"modified":"2023-04-06T19:01:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T19:01:56","slug":"depression-sin-and-easter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/2023\/04\/06\/depression-sin-and-easter\/","title":{"rendered":"Depression, Sin and Easter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u200bI have found a positive to having depression:\u00a0\u200bDepression\u200b\u00a0allows you to understand a little\u00a0\u200babout\u00a0how God views sin. When you are depressed, you can’t brush aside the negatives. You can’t turn a blind eye to the pain and suffering in the world and focus on the cute, fun things.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photo<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sin in the world <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Depression lets you see the extent of the sin in the world more clearly. You can’t brush off stories of war and poverty and move on with your day. The anger, hatred and lack of trust all around \u200bare\u200b easy to see and \u200bquickly lead to \u200bdespair. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sin in yourself <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Depression also reveals the sin in yourself more clearly. The “I’m mostly a good person” argument falls away as you understand the depths of your imperfection and how cons\u200bis\u200bt\u200be\u200bntly \u200byou \u200bfail to meet your own standards, let alone the standards of others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helplessness <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The ‘badness’ inside you won’t simply wash off. You can’t fix your sin, and you definitely can’t fix the sin of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u200bRemember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners\u00a0to the covenants of the promise,\u00a0without hope\u00a0and without God<\/mark>\u00a0<\/strong>in the world<\/p>\nEphesians 2:12\u200b (emphasis added)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOT hopelessness\u00a0<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When I first walked into church, I was a 17-year-old who was just miraculously healed from depression and I was desperate to learn more about the God who rescued me. I was \u200bshocked when the \u200b”badness” in the world and\u200b in\u200b ourselves was acknowledged\u200b.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More astoundingly, the church I walked into showed me there was an answer to the problem. The answer, which I realised through the words of one of the songs, is \u200b\u200b<\/strong>Jesus<\/strong>\u200b<\/strong>. Here are those words:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u200bI’m special because God has loved me,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For He gave the best thing that He had to save me;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His own Son Jesus, crucified to take the blame<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all the bad things I have done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank You Jesus, thank You Lord,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For loving me so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know I don’t deserve anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Help me feel Your love \u200b\u200bright now,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To know deep in my heart<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That I’m Your special friend.<\/p>\nI’m special by Graham Kendrick<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The song highlighted my ‘bad things’, and that ‘I don’t deserve anything’. After two years of depression, I was quick to accept these things. And in awe of Jesus who loved me enough to save me<\/mark><\/strong> from my fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So this Easter, remember your sin\u200b. But then\u00a0remember Jesus, who is the willing, loving answer<\/mark><\/strong> to that sin\u200b and stand with your head high, knowing you are God’s beautiful child.\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u200bI have found a positive to having depression:\u00a0\u200bDepression\u200b\u00a0allows you to understand a little\u00a0\u200babout\u00a0how God views sin…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,17],"tags":[29,4,45,11,46],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-living","category-suffering","tag-assurance","tag-depression","tag-easter","tag-encouragement","tag-sin"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Blog-cover-pics-10.png",1645,1379,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Blog-cover-pics-10.png",1645,1379,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Blog-cover-pics-10.png",1645,1379,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Blog-cover-pics-10-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Blog-cover-pics-10-300x251.png",300,251,true],"large":["https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Blog-cover-pics-10-1024x858.png",1024,858,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Blog-cover-pics-10-1536x1288.png",1536,1288,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Blog-cover-pics-10.png",1645,1379,false]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Jennie","author_link":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/author\/jennie-jmtgmail-com\/"},"rttpg_comment":2,"rttpg_category":"Daily Living<\/a> Suffering<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"\u200bI have found a positive to having depression:\u00a0\u200bDepression\u200b\u00a0allows you to understand a little\u00a0\u200babout\u00a0how God views sin...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138,"href":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions\/138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pagesofhope.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}