Psalms 40:11-13 NIV — Do not withhold your mercy from me, Lord; may your love and faithfulness always protect me. For troubles without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Be pleased to save me, Lord; come quickly, Lord, to help me.

In my experience, when I am walking through a valley or have fallen into a pit, I have also unintentionally backed away from God. As I look back over a recent time of darkness, I realize I was going through the motions of spending time with God, but I allowed distractions to redirect my focus. For example, I continued to get up early, gathered my devotion books and journal, and read a short devotion. However, I then would pick up my phone to look at an email devotion and instead of reading the devotion I would start deleting unwanted emails and eventually I would get sucked into scrolling through social media. 

As the days of that pattern continued, I was getting further and further away from my time with God. I continued to get up early, but eventually the habit of sitting with God turned into a habit of wasting time. As the pressures of life grew, my stress also grew and I was not coping well. Thus began a slow decline until I found myself in a dark pit. To others I may have appeared the same, but inside, I felt downtrodden. My first step to digging out of the hole was when I cried out to God and got back into His word. God began to open my eyes to the change I had made allowing distractions to change my morning focus and He began to refocus my mindset. I got back on track with my morning routine and habit of time with God and the Master equipped me with the shovel to start the process of digging out of my dark pit. 

My experience of digging out of darkness: 

Step 1: Cry out to God and read the Bible

Let’s pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for not giving up on me when I move away from You. Thank You for always showing me Your presence when I call out to You. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

If you feel that you are struggling with depression, you don’t have to struggle alone. You can call The National Mental Health Hotline at 866-903-3787 to speak to a professional about depression and get help with mental health resources.