Topic
Depression
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- Depression: Looking Up from the Stubborn Darkness · Resource
Book for people with depression and those beside them, with a chapter on medical treatments. - Strategies for Fighting Depression Well · Resource
Five strategies from ACBC; notes that medical help may be needed. - Truth in Love (ACBC) · Podcast
Episode 50: talking to a depressed friend.
Editorial suggestions from reformededucation.org. They describe and do not endorse.
All 10 resources in Depression
Educational Resources9
Depression: Looking Up from the Stubborn Darkness
257-page book offering the comfort and hope of Christ rather than quick fixes, for people with depression and those alongside them. It includes a chapter on medical treatments and one for families and friends.
Strategies for Fighting Depression Well
ACBC article (1 October 2019) with five strategies: persevere, focus on eternity, honor physical limits, seek community support and remember your place in God’s army.
Battling Anxiety and Depression
ACBC article (20 July 2021) from personal experience: remembering God’s past faithfulness for depression, and reorienting thoughts through prayer and gratitude for anxiety.
Blame It on the Brain? Distinguishing Chemical Imbalances, Brain Disorders, and Disobedience
192-page book (second edition, 2024) on how brain disorders differ from spiritual problems, with a four-step approach: understand the disease, distinguish the physical from the spiritual, address the heart and strengthen bodily weaknesses.
Mental Health Grace Alliance
Christian mental-health recovery ministry (since 2011) offering peer- and lay-led support groups and free training for group leaders, in English, Spanish and Chinese; it reports serving over 30,000 participants in 58+ countries.
The Bruised Reed
An exposition of Isaiah 42:3 and Matthew 12:20, ‘a bruised reed he will not break’, on Christ’s tenderness toward the spiritually weak and discouraged, in 16 short chapters. Puritan Paperbacks edition, 160 pages; first published 1630.
Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure
Twenty-one sermons from Westminster Chapel in London on the causes of the unhappiness many Christians experience and the cure, by a preacher who had trained as a physician. First published by Eerdmans in 1965, about 300 pages.
The Heart of Christ
A 136-page Puritan Paperbacks edition of Goodwin’s most popular book, on Hebrews 4:15 and Christ’s tender affection in heaven toward his people, both in their afflictions and in their sins.
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
184 pages. Bunyan’s account of how he came to understand and rest in the love of God in Christ, written for his spiritual children; includes his imprisonment narrative and a continuation of his life.