While Joseph was in prison, the Lord was with him. The Lord reached out to him with his unchanging love and gave him protection.
Genesis 39:20–21
If you feel depression coming on, you can stop it before it digs in and takes over, and all it takes is a decision: decide not to think about it. Impossible, you say? No, no, no. It can be done. As soon as you feel depressing thoughts coming on, think about something else. When you pray, don’t agonize over your misery; just say to God, “Your will be done,” and then get on with something else. Sometimes prayer can just be an excuse to wallow in your pain and agony, and that’s not right. Don’t pretend to be praying when what you’re really doing is worrying. Let your prayer remind you who God is, not what your problems are. What seems bigger, the thing closest to you or the thing off in the distance? The closer the bigger, so bring God closer by adoring and praising him, and put your worries in the distance by refusing to stare at them, even in prayer. Know that God knows your situation, and then ask him to show himself to you so that you can find truth instead of the lie of depression.
The depressed mind is not trusting God to be who he says he is or to do what he says he’ll do. You can kick the most common depressions of life, but you have to know and trust the one who is truth. God’s Word confirms that faith should override feelings. Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is being certain of “things we cannot see”—in other words, not being controlled by what we feel. It might feel like all is lost, but the truth is that nothing—not angels or rulers, not devils or evil men, not trials or suffering—can take us away from him (see Rom. 8:38–39). Nothing will be our destruction, but it can all be used for good if you, like Joseph, are just willing to trust that God wouldn’t let it happen if he wasn’t going to make something amazing out of it. There certainly can be chemical causes for your depression, but the beginning of all efforts to lift your thought life up out of darkness should be to place your mind on God.