Answer: In recent years, as social competition gets more and more fierce, many people endure huge stress in study, work, and life. More and more people suffer a lot from depression. Why do we have so much stress? Why do some people are depressed and living in pain?
God’s word says, “What does Satan use to keep man penned in and controlled? (Fame and gain.) So Satan uses fame and gain to control man’s thoughts until all they can think of is fame and gain. They struggle for fame and gain, suffer hardships for fame and gain, endure humiliation for fame and gain, sacrifice everything they have for fame and gain, and they will make any judgment or decision for fame and gain. In this way, Satan binds man with invisible shackles. These shackles are borne on people, and they have not the strength nor courage to throw them off. So, unknowingly, people bear these shackles and trudge ever onward in great difficulty. For the sake of this fame and gain, mankind shuns God and betrays Him, and they become more and more wicked. In this way, therefore, one generation after another is destroyed in the fame and gain of Satan.” God exposes clearly the means Satan employs to corrupt man and abuse man. Why do people in this society, no matter the students or the workers, have so much stress that they suffer from depression? Because Satan confines our thoughts with fame and profit, letting us only live for fame and profit, and struggling for the aim of gaining fame and profit. Satan uses different means, such as education, to instill in us the mistaken ideas and views such as “Knowledge can change people’s fates,” “Men should always strive to be better than their contemporaries,” and “Be above others.” After we accept these ideas and views, we devote particular concern to whether we can be successful, and whether we can tower above others and be admired by others. If we cannot gain these things, it seems we are not capable, and are good for nothing. Therefore, students apply diligently to studies to get good grades, workers work like dogs under the stress of gaining fame and gain, even at the expense of sacrificing all the time, energy, and health. When we always encounter setbacks and can’t achieve what we wish, we get disheartened, give up on ourselves, and can’t extricate ourselves from the pain and perplexity. We start to be depressed and in low spirits. We lose the aim to strive for, can’t find meaning in anything, and our hearts are like being emptied. We constantly feel nervous, even on the verge of breaking down. When people endure great pain, Satan seizes the moment to disturb and tease them, making people feel pessimistic and world-weary and think that death is the only solution. So, many people choose to commit suicide and are completely taken captive by Satan.
Then how should we get rid of depression and stop being harmed and fooled by Satan? God’s word says, “There is a simplest way to free oneself from this state: to bid farewell to one’s former way of living, to say goodbye to one’s previous goals in life, to summarize and analyze one’s previous lifestyle, view of life, pursuits, desires, and ideals, and then to compare them with God’s will and demands for man, and see whether any of them is consistent with God’s will and demands, whether any of them delivers the right values of life, leads one to a greater understanding of the truth, and allows one to live with humanity and human likeness. When you repeatedly investigate and carefully dissect the various goals of life that people pursue and their various different ways of living, you will find that not one of them fits the Creator’s original intention when He created humanity. All of them draw people away from the Creator’s sovereignty and care; they are all pits into which humanity falls, and which lead them to hell. After you recognize this, your task is to lay aside your old view of life, stay far from various traps, let God take charge of your life and make arrangements for you, try only to submit to God’s orchestrations and guidance, to have no choice, and to become a person who worships God.” God’s words show us a path. To completely get rid of the suffering of depression and no longer to be afflicted by fame and gain, we need to see clearly that fame and profit are the means Satan uses to corrupt man and the consequence of pursuing fame and profit. Just like many people around us who strive hard for fame and gain, in order to gain all kinds of glory, they spare no effort in their study and career, no time to relax, no time for family and children, so they become ever more estranged from their family members, and feel depressed and pained. Some people struggle against fate for fame and gain. They paid all the price and were badly battered. At last, they can’t face their failure and choose to commit suicide to end this life. From this, we can see that fame and gain bind us tightly like shackles. The more we pursue it, the more we feel empty and hurt. We can only feel ever darker and eventually go to death. So there’s no value and meaning in pursuing fame and gain. Only by changing the previous pursuits and goals, and submit to God’s sovereignty, can we get rid of these pains.
God’s word says, “Regardless of differences in ability, IQ, and willpower, people are all equal before fate, which makes no distinction between the great and the small, the high and the low, the exalted and the mean. What occupation one pursues, what one does for a living, and how much wealth one amasses in life are not decided by one’s parents, one’s talents, one’s efforts or one’s ambitions, but are predetermined by the Creator.” God is the Creator; we are the creations. Whether we’re rich or poor in this life, what kind of job we can have, what is our life course, these are all in the hands of God. God has already predestined everything, which is not determined by how hard we strive. If we can be detached from fame and gain, establish the right life goal, and have true knowledge of God’s sovereignty, we can be released and free, can break free from the affliction of Satan, get rid of the influence of depression, and live happily under the care and protection of God.