After having undiagnosed depression and some level of anxiety for years (I knew I had at least a mild depression, but didn’t know the depth until later in life), and having that culminate this past February to the point of seeking counseling (and being formally diagnosed with depression and anxiety), I’ve been on the look out for prayers related to all of this in particular and came across these. I hope and pray they are beneficial to those struggling in this area.
As an aside, if you’re struggling in this area, get counseling. It was a game changer. Don’t go it alone like I did for years just “managing”.
1. Read Philippians 4:7 and Pray:
Compose our spirits to a quiet and steady dependence on your good providence, that we may take no thought for our life, nor be anxious for anything, but by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, still make known our requests to you our God. And help us to pray always and not faint; in everything to give thanks, and offer up the sacrifice of praise continually; to rejoice in hope of your glory; to possess our souls in patience; and to learn in whatsoever state we are, there to be content. —John Wesley
2. Read Joshua 23:16 and Pray:
Your mercy brought me into the world; your mercy chose my parentage, education, and habitation; it brought me up; it kept me from a thousand dangers; it arranged my body, and furnished my mind; it gave me teachers, book, and helps; yes, it gave me a Redeemer, and a promise of life, and the word of salvation! It gave me all the operations of your Spirit, which touched and turned my sinful heart. All my repenting and resolving thoughts; all the forgiveness of my manifold sins; all the sweet meditations of your love, and the experience of your good and pleasant service; . . . all my deliverances from temptation and sin; from enemies, death, and danger; all my preservations from the deceits of the world, and from its troubles; from errors against your sacred truth, and from backsliding; all my recoveries from my too frequent falls, and pardon of my daily sins; the quietness you have given my troubled conscience; and the tranquility of my life, notwithstanding my sins; all the use which it has freely pleased you to make of me, an unworthy wretch, for the good of any, for soul or body: all these are the pledges of your wondrous love; and shall I be afraid to come to such a God? Has mercy filled up all my life, and brought me now so near the end, and shall I not trust it after so much trial? It is heaven that you made for me; and heaven that Christ did purchase for me; it is heaven that you did promise if I would be yours; it is heaven which I consented to take for my portion, and for which I did covenant to forsake the world: and oh that I had more entirely done it! For I now find how little reason I have to repent of my covenant. It is heaven which your Spirit of grace, and merciful providences, have all this while been preparing me for; and shall I now be fearful and unwilling to possess it? —Richard Baxter
3. Read 2 Kings 19:19 and Pray:
You have promised to be with us in tribulation. Lord, my soul is troubled, and my body is weak, and my hope is in you, and my enemies are busy and mighty; now make good your holy promise. Now, O holy Jesus, now let your hand of grace be upon me; restrain my spiritual enemies, and give me all sorts of spiritual assistances. Lord, remember your servant in the day when you bind up your jewels. O take from me all tediousness of spirit, all impatience and unquietness; let me possess my soul in patience, and resign my soul and body into your hands, as into the hands of a faithful creator, and a blessed redeemer.—Jeremy Taylor
4. Read Acts 10:8 and Pray:
There are some who are wounded; broken hearts that seek peace—men and women, like Cornelius, that want to hear the words which God commands. Oh come, divine Physician, and bind up every broken bone. Come with your sacred nard which you have compounded of your own heart’s blood, and lay it home to the wounded conscience, and let it feel its power. Oh! Give peace to those whose conscience is like the troubled sea which cannot rest. —Charles Spurgeon
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