Are you at the end of your rope? Tie a knot and hang on.

Listen in as Andi and Brian Hale read this devotional and hopefully shed some light on any depression or discouragement you are experiencing. We want to be the light in the darkness.

Stressed, Depressed, Hot Mess devotional on Youversion

As someone who has struggled with anxiety and depression, I’ve found the psalms medicinal and life-changing. They’re real. They’re raw. They’re rejuvenating. The beauty of Psalm 42 is how the writer speaks from his gut. He laments as he remembers. Look at verse four:

These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.Psalm 42:4

At one point, the writer (a member of the group of Temple musicians and assistants known as the Sons of Korah) would not only attend worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, he’d lead the people into the Temple. He experienced incredible joy as he worshiped with fellow believers. Now he was no longer there, and it hurt him to the depths of his spirit. He was, in a word, isolated.

When we’re dealing with a season of depression, our natural bent can be to isolate ourselves. When I hit rock bottom in the late spring of 2020, so much was happening. A big issue was that we weren’t meeting as a church. I didn’t realize how much I needed face-to-face time that you simply can’t replicate online. Because of the shelter-in-place order, I couldn’t go into the office.

I was isolated.Psalm 42 was a lifeline for me as I “poured out my soul” to God. I hadn’t forgotten God, and I knew He hadn’t forgotten me. I was in despair. I was at the end of my rope. That was the place from which I prayed.

A key lesson I learned at that time was this: God does some of His best work when you’re at the end of your rope.

God reminded me that my isolation was unhealthy; that I needed to reach out to a couple of trusted friends and ask for their help. As always, my incredible wife, who knows me better than anyone else, ensured I wasn’t isolated.

Through prayer, which was simply, “God, help me,” God showed up as I waited on Him.

It’s hard to do anything when you’re a stressed, depressed, hot mess, let alone pray. But God hears our prayers in all of our times in our lives, especially in the times of anguish when all we can pray is “help me.”

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. Psalms 42:1‭-‬11 ESV

Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. Psalms 33:20‭-‬22 ESV