Asking for prayer from a trusted friend is crucial for those who are suffering from depression. It’s common to feel as though we cannot pray for ourselves beyond the desperate groans of a few little words: Lord, please. Lord, why? Lord, help. Lord, I can’t. Lord, make it stop. Not that more words are required to convey our requests for help—the Spirit intercedes for us regardless (Romans 8:26)—but granting the privilege to someone else lets them shoulder the burden with us (Galatians 6:2).

“Nights of watching and days of weeping have been mine,” Charles Spurgeon wrote, “ but I hope the cloud is passing.” These were the words of a Pastor “prostrate with depression,” written in a letter to his congregation in 1871.

Many of us know what it’s like to hope for the cloud of depression to pass. We can resonate with Pastor Spurgeon in this regard, acknowledging that perhaps the most challenging demand of despondency lies in the spiritual task of waiting. We cry to the Lord for relief, and then are made to watch and wait for it. We echo the complaint of the Psalmist: “How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?” (Psalm 13:2)

It’s true, the experience of depression is exhausting—both physically and spiritually. We find ourselves desperately feeling around for a light switch that we may finally land our fingers on a toggle. But alas, there are no quick remedies for instantly illuminating our gloom—no switch to flip, no immediate assuage of our pain.

Is it any wonder then, that our appetite for the things of God becomes meager? Like a patient recovering from soul surgery, we only tolerate ice chips for the rehydration of our spirit. We require the tiniest morsels of daily bread because our bodies cannot take in a full spiritual feast. “My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, ‘Where is your God?’” (Psalm 42:3)

Yet, while depression is a season where our capabilities may be diminished, there are small sustaining graces to partake in which can carry us along while we wait.

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