Wednesday, September 24, 2008

My grace is sufficient for you











Dear Friends,

Thank you for stopping by my Word-Filled Wednesday (WFW) and Thankful Thursday (TT) post. I am combining these 2 in order to share the same picture and verse for WFW with my TT friends.





(My brother took this lovely photo at Muriwai Beach, Western Auckland, New Zealand.)






And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee:
for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 Corinthians 12:9


♥ Thank God that He has promised in His Word that His grace is sufficient for us! As we face many challenges daily, we can take comfort in the assurance that God will give us grace to go through them. Are you overwhelmed today by your circumstances or challenges or difficulties? May God's precious promise encourage and strengthen your heart as you press on in His strength!

♥ I thank God that He has granted me much grace and strength in these recent weeks of many challenges. As I recover from my relapse of my illness, I am facing much challenges of pacing myself moderately while coping with family, church, work, blogging and other commitments. Thank God that day by day I am learning that His grace is sufficient for me. Though I am weak, He is strong and His strength is made perfect in my weaknesses!

♥ I thank God that He has given me much grace to serve Him through blogging. I am in the midst of praying and making some changes to my blog. Due to the terrible stigma that is still associated with mental illness in my country, I have changed my photo to a new picture of a beach. This is to protect my privacy. As I am seeking ways to earn a living to support my mother and myself, I felt compel to make this change.

I have also created this new blog. If you notice, this is actually a new blog (http://morethanconquerors2008.blogspot.com/) with a copy of all my previous posts. I intend to post all my full posts on this blog from now onwards.

I will post short excerpts of my full posts on my original blog at http://www.lifewithbipolardisorder.blogspot.com/ for the benefit of my readers who are not able to read my full post. I realized that sometimes I post very long and my readers may not have the time to read my full post. So my excerpts will hopefully benefit these readers.

♥ I thank God for my family, church, friends and every one of you my blogging friends and visitors.

♥ I am thankful to God for the prayers and encouragements of so many of you! It is my joy and privilege to meet all of you through blogging! I am greatly blessed and encouraged by many of you. Thank you for your friendships!

May you find rest in God's love, mercies and sufficient grace in whatever you may go through today and every day :)

For more Word-Filled Wednesday participants, do
visit Amy at The 160 Acre Woods. It will be a very blessed and encouraging experience for you.

For more participants of Thankful Thursday, do visit Iris at Sting My Heart.

Thank you for stopping by. Thanks for your encouragements. Hope you have a blessed day!

Recent posts:

Video on "Depression - A Stubborn Darkness" by Edward T Welch (M4M)

The Faithfulness of Divine Love because the Lord is my Shepherd (FFF & TSMSS)

Come unto me.... and I will give you rest
(WFW & TT)

Depression and bipolar disorder are illnesses just like any other (M4M)

Amazing Grace (FFF & TSMSS)

Monday, September 22, 2008

Video on Depression

If you prefer to read a shorter version of this post, you can read excerpt from "Mission4Monday : Video on Depression".

Dear Friends,

Thanks for stopping by this Mission 4 Monday post.

I am thankful to God that I can continue to serve Him through this blog.

One of the missions of my blog is to share with others God's goodness and mercies to me in managing clinical depression and bipolar disorder, as well as to share resources that will benefit a person with a mood disorder and information for their family and loved ones.

Today, I like to share this video on "Depression - A Stubborn Darkness" by Edward T Welch posted on YouTube.

This short and moving video on depression sheds some light on depression and it's impact upon the sufferer and his loved ones.

Many mistakenly think that depression is purely of a spiritual nature and is due to a person's lack of trust in God. While others may treat those with depression and mental illness as if they are mad people. But in reality clinical depression is a very common mental illness due to chemical imbalance in our brain and relapses can be triggered off by various reasons. It is a medical condition that can be treated just like diabetes.

Too often Christians misunderstood that all depression are due to spiritual reasons or lack of faith in God. But there is a difference between spiritual depression and clinical depression. Spiritual depression may occur when we sinned against God or do not believe in Him or put our trust in Him. But clinical depression is very different and it is a real medical condition that can be treated and needs to be treated. It is different from the occasional "blues" or "depress" feeling that we get every now and then, which we get over quickly. Clinical depression is more severe and prolonged, and cannot be willed or wished away. Thank God that He has provided various medical and other means for us in this generation, so that we can be more functional.

If you are a Christian and you are suffering from prolonged clinical depression, you will likely have to cope with false guilt. I encourage you to read the messages of Dr David P Murray on "Depression and the Christian" and you will find much encouragement and help.

Clinical depression is a medical condition that can be treated. I hope you will seek help besides praying to God.

Know that you are not alone and we can find comfort in God and His Word while we await His restoration through His Words and the various means He has made available for us in this generation.

Hope this short video will bring some comfort to you if you or your loved ones are suffering from depression.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5825004682085410590



Other related posts:

1. Trust during rough times
2. Finding meaning in a life with bipolar disorder
3. Mental illness (depression, bipolar disorder, etc) is an illness like any other

For more Mission 4 Monday posts, visit Peggy.

Thanks again for stopping by! Thanks for all your prayers and encouragements!

Take care and God bless :)

If you prefer to read a shorter version of this post, you can read excerpt from "Video on Depression".