Have you observed that, in goods, demand creates supply, but that in services, supply generates demand? In healthcare, we have to be on our guard because nowhere else is the pressure to slap a label on you so fierce. In this post, we focus on mental disorders. The health system tells you that your healthy, very active child has ADHD, so they can start giving him their medicines. You have to stand up for your child against the system. In the same way, as an adult, you have to keep your focus against depression.
The other day, my primary care doctor, to whom I am no stranger, started asking me weird questions. Was I ever overwhelmed by life? Did I ever feel like taking my own life? Was there any day I felt I could not cope with life? I asked her why she was asking such questions when she already knew my sunny disposition. She had to ask because they were part of a template she had to administer to all her patients. I knew then that the excess mental health professionals had succeeded.
Their oversupply was creating a demand that all of us should become mentally deranged and need their help. I knew then that I had to focus against depression. As she went on probing for mental disorders, I blurted out. “I am a Christian.” Although she could not stop doing what the system required of her, her tone changed. Later, as I thought about that session, I was grateful that my relationship with God, obtained when I trusted Jesus, protected my mind against mental illnesses. I could focus against depression and all other such illnesses.
What About Other Disease Conditions?
When God has made us overcomers in one area of life, the temptation to become arrogant and preachy about it is great. But none of us can approach God based on arrogance. After all, HE IS GOD. Even as some of us can keep our focus against depression, God is likely to remind us about the blind eye or the aches in the neck. Some great men of God preach healing, minister healing, and yet have to deal with cancers or amputation of their legs or arms. 
As the Apostle Paul asked of His arrogant countrymen, “Where is the boasting?” The answer is obvious; it is completely excluded. It is by God’s grace that we are not consumed. That God has helped me focus against depression gives me no right to label depressed people as being unbelievers. They are probably able to boast about some part of my anatomy that I am still praying about.
Again, we return to the Apostle Paul because no matter what you think of the quality of my Christianity, there is no doubt about Paul’s belief in the Lord Jesus. He even said that he counted all his qualifications and certificates as trash compared to the excellence of knowing God. That is faith! And yet, he had to deal with the thorn in his flesh all the days of his life. God assured Paul that His grace was sufficient for him.
God’s Grace Is Sufficient To Focus Against Depression
It is the same with all of us. We cannot do without God’s grace, whether we focus against depression, blindness, or cancer. Remember to extend grace to all the people you meet, especially if they are going through one form or another of trouble. Otherwise, you will be like Job’s friends. They believed he suffered as he did because he was guilty of some sin.
Well, that convicted you, did it not? That is because that is the way we often think. Mercifully, abundant grace is available to all of us. It is the promise of God that is most exciting to me, for if God were to mark iniquity, who shall stand? No one. So, as you focus against depression or whatever other situation in which you have the victory, remember grace.
Of course, we continue to pray about the areas in which we are still experiencing defeat. Paul prayed three times (often, until God spoke) about the thorn in his flesh. He did so because Jesus already paid for it and all other diseases with His death on the cross. Jesus paid it all. And that is why I will keep praying about all the disease problems that remain in my body, even as I exult in my focus against depression. Rejoice in what God has done for you and continue to claim your healing and believe God will allow it to manifest soon. And do not forget to extend grace to others.
Maranatha!
