A Crutch

"I don't want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to look at my life and know that I couldn't be doing this by my own power."
~Forgotten God, Francis Chan, David C Cook Pub, 2007, pg 142

I remember, years ago, a conversation came up with a resident while I was wandering about providing care. We began to discuss if God really did anything for anyone. I told him about how God had given me the strength to battle my depression, anxiety and anorexia. The man argued against my story, demanding an explanation in the form of medication (which I admitted to taking). I was so frustrated that the man did not believe me when I said the medication alone was not enough---but left the conversation due to ethics.
Having lived through the horrors of that time, panic attacks bad enough to keep me from breathing, I know what assistance antidepresant medications provide. They DO help. But only as a crutch helps one to walk with a broken leg. The leg needs to heal...the crutch does not heal the broken leg, the bones of the leg heal the broken leg. It is ridiculous to think the crutch causes healing of the leg (excepting of course that movement does encourage healing of bone)
For me at that time in life, I prayed for help every time I went anywhere. Agoraphobia (fear of public places/people) was extraordinary. I prayed the entire way I drove to college. I prayed in classrooms, outside of classrooms, bathrooms. I prayed everywhere, begging for strength and peace.
I got it.
God answered me...and the times I "failed"were the times I did not ask God for help. The medications are indeed helpful, but they are a crutch. To heal the broken leg, the bones must heal.
For us, as we face the world about us, our medication is this: The Scripture. I memorized Psalm 19.7-14, and suggest that you look it up and read it. (the internet here is failing fast this afternoon and I fear my connection will not allow me to add a link for you). The Psalm says as much concerning the Word---that the word is reviving to the soul.
This "medication" is better than any other; the true healer of "broken legs" comes from the strength and peace of the Lord. It is through Him and Him alone that we can expect to walk peacefully through this life, facing calmly whatever may come. If, through His power, we do this, it becomes glaringly apparent that there is "something" different about us. Have you been asked by strangers if you believe? Have you found other believers randomly...seeing that "something" different in their manner that shouts out to you a fellow disciple? I find such moments as these thrilling---that there is something different about myself and other followers.
Oh, as I say, the number of times I asked for assistance and the number of times He answered so swiftly! Time eased the cause of my fear, but the greatest reduction of fear came from Him.