How to Pray When You’re Feeling Depressed
During seasons of depression or anxiety, most of us find it hard to concentrate, we feel God is far away, and we despair of God hearing us or helping us.
Articles by David Murray
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9 Ways to Guard Your Personal Relationship with God
Like all healthy and satisfying relationships, our relationship with God needs time and energy.
An Open Letter to the Depressed Christian at Christmas
In the midst of a tough season, learn ways to carefully navigate the holidays while also contributing to your long-term healing.
How to Help Your Kids Get Excited about Reading the Bible
We should and can encourage our children to see Bible reading as a delight rather than a drudge. And the most powerful way of doing that is by conveying our own delight in God’s Word.
Stress sickens the soul. Yes, stress causes bodily disease (some estimate that 90 percent of doctor visits are stress-related), but it also causes soul disease. Stress and spirituality are mortal enemies.
6 Tips for Reading the Bible with Your Kids
Here are six practical suggestions for digging into God's Word with your kids.
Can a Christian Have Mental Illness?
Some Christians believe that Christians cannot have mental illness. If a professing Christian is depressed, anxious, or bipolar, they think it’s because they are not a real Christian, or it's because of unrepented sin.
How to Pray for a Loved One Struggling with Mental Illness
When God gives us the right spirit in prayer—the spirit of hope, patience, and love—that will usually result in the right petitions.
5 Questions about Mental Illness
Mental illness is an old problem; as old as the fall. Although God made everything very good, when sin entered, humanity—together with the rest of the creation—came under the divine curse.
Help! I’m Feeling Anxious about . . . Everything
Let’s be honest, we’re all worried, aren’t we? The good news is that God knew this day was coming and has provided counsel for us to stop worry at its source.
4 Cultural Factors That Contribute to Our Epidemic of Burnout
Diligence and discernment are necessary to combat these 4 cultural factors that contribute to burnout.
Fight the Good Fight but Surrender the Bad Ones
Paul shows the Philippians catastrophic consequences of unnecessary war to make them long for necessary peace. Let’s fight the good fight of faith but surrender bad fights of faith.
Help! I’m Struggling to Strike a Work/Life Balance
Work is not primarily a place to please our boss, help our customers, make money, or build a career. Work/life balance begins with a biblical view of work.
“How much will you lose if you follow Jesus?” That’s the devil’s favorite question; he has successfully used it more than any other to lead billions to hell.
3 Things to Avoid When Ministering to Those Suffering from Mental Illness
We make many mistakes in what we say to sufferers. Partly because of ignorance, discomfort, or fear, we end up saying nothing, or nothing helpful, or everything wrong.
3 Kinds of Prayers That God Answers
We know we should pray. We start praying. But soon we give up. Or we pray with no expectation of an answer. Or we pray for the wrong things. Prayer becomes a problem rather than a solution.
3 Practical Ways to Battle Depression
There are some basic steps we shouldn’t miss before we try and treat anxiety and depression with medication and counseling.
The Real Reason We Don’t Evangelize
How can we motivate greater evangelism? Many of us hold false beliefs that are at the root of a lot of our evangelistic apathy and inactivity.
What Is Burnout and Why Is It So Dangerous?
Burnout is physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual exhaustion and breakdown. It is usually caused by living at too fast a pace, for too long, doing too much.
Help! My Kids Seem Uninterested in Family Worship
Do your kids try to avoid family worship? Do they find excuses not to be there? Do they obviously dread it and groan when you reach for the Bible?
Understanding Teen Anxiety and Depression
One of the best things we can do for our teens is to explain to them that many teens suffer in the same way.
An Antidote to Spiritual Amnesia
We forget we were saved by God. We forget the suffering required to save us. We forget to worship God for saving us. What’s the antidote for such serious spiritual amnesia?
8 Bible Reading Habits to Establish as a Young Person
How can we establish healthy Bible-reading habits so that we are connected to God, have a God-centered worldview, grow in confident faith, and enjoy spiritual peace and confidence?
Dear Pastor . . . No, You Are Not a Failure
Our present failures make us long for future heaven, to hasten the day when the pain of failure and the torture of disappointment will be gone forever.
How Husbands Can Protect Their Wives from Burnout
Sometimes, the men are having their day off, but the wives are still doing what they do every other day of the week.
3 Things Overwhelmed Students Need
“Teens” and “rest” don’t usually go together, do they? The teen years are busy years, restless years, hectic years.
Men, Are You Showing Signs of Burnout?
Recent statistics have shown that 77% of Americans have symptoms—physical symptoms—associated with stress. Then there are emotional symptoms . . .
How to Help Your Kids Establish Bible Reading Habits
Ask yourself, What do I want most for my kids? If we're Christian parents, we want our kids to know Jesus, we want them to be saved. Sometimes just writing that down really helps to reorder our lives.
Is “Mental Illness” a Helpful Label?
Labels can be helpful in beginning to describe or define what we are talking about, but labels can also cause difficulties.
What Is Anxiety vs. Depression?
It's important to realize that anxiety and depression are different while being careful to realize that they do sometimes overlap.
There are three important factors that will help pastors combat burnout: hardness, honesty, and humility.
11 Practical Ways to Reduce Digital Consumption
If we can get digital technology under control, we will do so much better—physically, intellectually, relationally, vocationally, educationally, financially, emotionally, and spiritually.
4 Pieces of Advice for Stressed Out Christians
Take the necessary steps to communicate about and treat your burnout. These 4 steps will help you begin to heal.
4 Things to Remember When Meeting with Jesus
Pray, have a plan, be patient, and be positive. You will meet him in his word.
9 Principles for Navigating Anxiety and Depression with Your Teen
What are the general principles to bear in mind as you begin to work with your teen through anxiety and depression?
Does Reflecting on Our Past Hurt Show a Lack of Trust in God?
Trying to write our future story can change our present story. But what about our past story? Can we get any help in the present from reading what’s already been written in our past chapters?
Practical Ways to Sustain Family Worship
3 Simple Helps I've noticed when I talk about family worship that people say, I've tried it. It doesn't work. Or, I've tried, but I can't keep it going. They are discouraged from even trying …
Lots of people want to teach us how to postpone death through healthy living, but very few teach on how to face up to death when healthy living is fading.
The Pros and Cons of Being Rich
“Wealth is wonderful and makes us wonderful.” That’s the message the media bombards us with every day. No wonder so many of us want to be rich.
A Plea for Holistic Christianity
The best way to prevent burnout is to strive for holistic Christianity: spiritual, mental, relational, and physical health.
Why You Should Go to Bed Early Tonight
Sleep is a gift from God. It’s one of his most wonderful gifts to us—when we receive it as he intended us to receive it.
Is Your Check Engine Light On?
Are you experiencing any warning signs of burnout? This articles tells you what signs to look for.
2 Categories of Questions to Ask When Reading the Bible
The worst thing you can do when you read the Bible is to read it passively or thoughtlessly.
The weed of doubt never grows alone. When we plant the seed of doubt in God’s word or God’s power, the weeds of fear, disobedience, and pessimism also take root and grow.
Help! I’m Supposed to Be the Perfect Child, Student, and Christian
We live in a culture of impossible expectations. Teens are under incredible pressure to succeed on a number of fronts. All these impossible expectations lead to an inevitable sense of failure and shame.
An Implicit Biblical Command for Families
Don’t let perfection become the enemy of progress. Keep a regular time of family worship and encourage your kids to explore the Bible together with you.
Why Is Teen Anxiety on the Rise?
What factors contribute to the rise of anxiety in teenagers today?
How Stress Undermines Our Relationships
Burnout takes a toll on men's personal relationships and support system, leaving them vulnerable to sin.
Depression Isn’t a Modern Problem
Depression has been around since the fall, and the Bible gives examples of even the greatest people who suffered from depression.
3 Simple Ways to Get Started with Family Worship
Build your hopes and your faith on the truth that God can take his word, with prayer and worship, and bless it to your children’s salvation.
Why You Should Enroll in Wisdom University
The primary reason people drop out of Wisdom University is peer pressure—the influence of others in the same social group or age group.
How to Stay in Ministry Over the Long Haul
It's important for those in ministry to establish checks and balances in their lives to prevent burnout.
We’re All Writing the Stories of Our Lives, but We’re All Failed Authors
We’re all writing the stories of our lives, and we’ve all failed to write and publish the book we wanted. Some of us failed at the beginning, some of us fear failed endings, all of us have failed chapters.
Should We Seek to Burn Out for Jesus?
It is wise to pace yourself, even in ministry. Establish healthy limits for yourself and trust God to make your work fruitful.
Help! My Teen Is Struggling with Anxiety
Go to God and ask him to lead you into more understanding of the various factors involved in your child’s suffering: physical, emotional, spiritual, mental, and social.
Common Barriers to Family Worship
There are barriers to creating a regular habit of family worship, but God has provided many helps to get over them.
In the age of TikTok, how does a naked, bloodied, and bruised body hanging on a wooden cross outside Jerusalem have any connection with my life?
A Parent’s Role in Teen Anxiety
If your teen experiences anxiety or depression, it’s very common for you to feel that you’ve failed or you’ve done something wrong. So what do we do with these feelings and thoughts?