“If You’re Depressed, You’re Not Saved”—and Other Lies I Believed

My daddy was the first person to say it plainly to me. “Karen, if you are depressed, you’re not saved.”

Boom. My inner self exploded all over my emotions—my hurts, my scars, and my hopes. He had said out loud what I had secretly feared for years. That one statement, spoken by someone who loved me, cost me years of anxiety and doubt.

But the question is: Was what he said true?

We believe lies such as, “Real Christians have joy all the time,” or, “If I prayed harder, I’d be fine.” I think those beliefs sometimes come from teachings that bend toward the idea that once you belong to God, everything is going to be okay. There is truth in that statement—but not necessarily the truth that women living with depression and anxiety sometimes take away from it.

Being okay doesn’t mean everything will be fine. It doesn’t even mean things are going to work out in our favor. It means that even when we go through hard times, those hard times do not have the final word. God does.

Not during. In the end.

During was what I thought I was missing out on. During was the thing that had its boot on my neck each and every day for years. I could believe that everything might be all right someday. It was surviving the present that seemed impossible.

I can give you proof that being depressed doesn’t mean you don’t have faith.

Look at Elijah. After calling down fire from heaven, he sat under a broom tree and asked God to let him die (1 Kings 19). He was exhausted, afraid, and overwhelmed. God did not condemn him or accuse him of having no faith. God allowed him to rest, gave him food and water, and met him where he was.

Need another example?

Look at King David in the Psalms. He was called a man after God’s own heart, yet he wrote openly about sorrow and despair. In Psalm 13, he cried, “How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever?” In Psalm 42, he asked his own soul, “Why are you in despair, my soul?”

David was down almost as much as he was up in the Psalms. God still called him His own.

It took me a long time to come to grips with my daddy’s words. A lot of fight went into getting better. It took a lot of telling myself the truth, even when the truth felt like a lie. The evil one may use depression and anxiety to whisper lies to us. He may tell us that we are alone, abandoned, faithless, or beyond God’s reach. We are in a battle, and sometimes it is a battle of faith. But the fact that we are fighting does not mean we have no faith. Sometimes continuing to fight is the greatest act of faith we can offer.

Our battle may simply look different from everyone else’s. If I could encourage you with one word, it would be this:

Fight.

Fight the darkness. Put one foot in front of the other. Tell someone you are hurting. Accept the help that is offered. Rest when you need to rest. And if you cannot take another step, give that moment to God.

He hears us when we say, “I can’t do this anymore.” He does not turn away from us in our pain. He does not love us any less because we are struggling.

He still loves us—even when we are sitting under a broom tree.

Crushed Olive Ministries