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Are you looking at the Cave or the Cross?

Do you struggle with depression? Do you go through periods where past memories and past mistakes seem to overwhelm your thoughts? Do they give you an over whelming sense of hopelessness; making you feel there is no hope of overcoming. You try to think positive and fight it but it seems like an impossible task? When you go through those times, do you wonder why God has left you, why He is not helping you? I must admit, I have fought with depression for many years. Not to long ago, I was going through one of those times of just feeling like there was no hope of ever breaking free of the dark cloud that seems to loom over me. I prayed for days, Lord, help me with this. Lord you said you have set me free but I can't see the freedom. Lord, am I beyond your ability to help? I went to sleep crying this prayer of defeat and hopelessness. That night, I had a dream about Mary standing at the cave, looking in at the empty tomb.

John 20:11But Mary remained standing outside the tomb sobbing. As she wept, she stooped down [and looked] into the tomb. 12And she saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13And they said to her, Woman, why are you sobbing? She told them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him. 14On saying this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing [there], but she did not know (recognize) that it was Jesus.15Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you crying [so]? For Whom are you looking? Supposing that it was the gardener, she replied, Sir, if you carried Him away from here, tell me where you have put Him and I will take Him away. 16Jesus said to her, Mary! Turning around she said to Him in Hebrew, Rabboni!--which means Teacher or Master.

In this dream, I remember hearing the Lord say to me, "Linda, quit looking in the empty tomb. If Mary would have continued to look in the empty tomb, she would have never found Me, alive and well in the land of the living. She had to look away from the tomb and wipe the tears from her eyes in order to see Jesus, standing right there by her side". The Bible tells us in Romans 6:3-5 (Amplified Bible) 3Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life. 5For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God].

Through this experience, the Lord reminded me, that when I chose to accept Him as my Savior, when I chose to be baptized, I chose to bury the old dead stuff in my past. Now, in order to live that new life, all I need to do is to look at the cross. Run to the cross, and lay those things at the foot of the cross and allow them to be dead and buried. I can not keep running back to the cave, looking at the things that have been buried there and still live a life that is free. Like Mary, I have to turn my head and wipe my eyes, then I can see Jesus standing there saying, why are you crying so.

I pray today, if you suffer with depression; if you suffer with feelings of guilt and shame, you too will go to the cross. Give them to Jesus there; let His blood wash over all of those old things and then rise in the newness of Christ, never looking back into that dark, cold, lonely cave again. I thank God that we can all be overcomers through Jesus!

Contributed by:

Linda Worner
Creative Outreach
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