Gloom, Despair, And Agony, On Me Series

Gloom, Despair, And Agony, On Me

By: C. Mason Davis

A doctor comes in and asks his patient, "where does it hurt?" The Man says, "everywhere, absolutely everywhere, I'm at my wits end, whenever I touch any part of my body it hurts a lot!" The doctor asks the man to point out the places the pain radiates from. So, the man pokes his knee, screaming as he does, and does the same thing on multiple points on his body, with each poke screaming in pain, Finally, the doctor gives him an examination, writes down a few notes and said "sir, you are almost completely fine" The man looks at the doctor in disbelief, poking his chest and arm and holding back agonized screams "how can you say this is fine? I'm in pain all over! I want a second opinion!" The doctor sighs and explains "I said you are almost fine, the problem isn't your body, it's just that you keep poking yourself with a broken finger!" You see, sometimes we remain in agony because we are so busy in our pain that we don’t stop to see what the root cause of that agony is, and meaning we continue to agonize.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

Psalm 40:1-3, “I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.”

How do you deal with gloom? How do you deal with despair? And how do you deal with agony? Once again, God in His sovereignty led me to speak this message today. He knows exactly what we need to hear today, and each day. The truth is everybody here today is probably suffering in some way. All of us here today already know that our Faith in God through Jesus is the best way to overcome any negativity in our lives. If you keep feeding your faith, your doubts will starve to death. We can deal with our pent-up tensions through laughter if you’ll allow it.

How many of you remember the “Hee-Haw” Show in the 70’s-80’s? Do you remember the quartet of men who sang about gloom, despair, and agony on me?

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

Deep, dark depression, excessive misery

If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

I still laugh when I hear this painful expression of despair and I am so grateful that laughter can cohabitate with deep gloom. Some of us have those kinds of days. So, what do you do when you have one of those days?

Ask yourself, “What is gloom?” It’s harder to climb your way out of certain moods such as gloom until you fully understand what it is. Then finding a solution to this mood can be much more easily found. Gloom is a partial or total darkness, a dark or shadowy place, a lowness of spirits, a lowness of faith, or dejection. It’s like an atmosphere of despondency that looms over your life. It’s like the shadows and darkness in an abandoned house. When you sit around all day in your room and cry because a high school crush broke up with you or you’ve just lost your job. Gloom is also defined as a state of being depressed and in a constant bad mood. The main characteristic of gloom is a sad and gloomy feeling. James 4:9-10 states: “Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” So, you have less fun in normal daily activities. You are not in the mood to go to work, studying, exercising, or meeting friends, and nothing can cheer you up. A person who is unhappy and without hope is said to be gloomy. It’s when everything to you is dark or dim, or deeply shaded. Sunny days even seem like gloomy skies. Everyone and everything seem to add to your gloom. Nothing you set out to do seems anything other than a dismal and gloomy prospect. The sadness you feel leaves you feeling dejected, or melancholy. Do you currently live in a state of gloom? 2 Samuel 22:29 says, “For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.” Have you ever been in a state of gloom?

Depression comes in many forms in this day and age of which gloom is a certain outcome. Depression is defined as: a gloomy state of mind, especially when habitual or prolonged; sober thoughtfulness or pensiveness. When life seems to become dark and depressing, other words can be used to describe it as: black, bleak, blue, cheerless, dark, desolate, dismal, dreary, glum, joyless, or somber. When you experience feelings that you’ve become broodingly and sullenly unhappy: dour, glum, moody, morose, sour, sulky, sullen, and surly are apt to describe those feelings. Other’s may say about you that you seem to be “in low spirits,” tending to cause sadness by spreading your feelings and moods unto others and marked by showing little hopefulness. Is depression a sin in Christianity? Yes, "Depression Is a Sin" to Christians. What causes depression according to the Bible? Mostly the loss of spiritual vitality and joy. The Bible's term for this is “justification by faith.” Romans 5:1 states: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” If you have never placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, guilt from unresolved sin is one of the hidden causes of your depression. In terms of Christianity, experiencing a spiritual depression might involve losing touch with your faith. Is depression caused by lack of faith? Higher rates of depression in those lacking faith may be due to the absence of social support from a faith-based community or lack of commitment to a belief system that makes sense of traumatic events and difficult life stressors. “I don’t need anyone” is a statement often made by those who at some point needed someone but no one showed up. But with having and keeping the faith, they should realize that they’re never alone.