Seeing Depression Through the Eyes of Grace by Julie Ganschow: This is an interactive book that helps get to the heart beneath the depressed feelings. The author examines the prideful heart, the angry heart, the self-pitying heart, the idolatrous heart, the sinfully indulgent heart, the heart that lacks assurance, the guilty heart, the faithless heart, and the fearful heart and then concludes with finding joy in Christ. Each chapter asks heart exposing questions and shows how depression comes from a heart that is not fully trusting in God. The interactive "Heart Work" questions throughout the chapters make for good discussion during the counseling session. This book is for female counselees all of ages.
When the Darkness Will Not Lift by John Piper: This book is for a counselee who is experiencing a deep sadness or depression. The first part of the book addresses the need to continue to live obediently and by faith while waiting for joy to return. Piper then turns to causes of depression and encourages the reader to examine their own life. Is there unconfessed sin? Is the depression rooted in self-absorption? Piper encourages the depressed person to keep loving others and to not waste this time of sadness but to use it for the glory of God. This is a short book and has no questions.
From an Amazon review:
Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?
A. That I am not my own, but belong - body and soul, in life and in death - to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.
What a remarkable confession to utter when walking in the valley of the shadow of depression. The very utterance of them can make the faintest heart return with life. Surely there are days when I can barely concentrate or where the anxiety is worse than usual, but I remember that G, in his infinite wisdom, "knit me together and formed all my inward parts." (Psalm 139:13-14)
Welch echoes the words of the confession in various places warming even the coldest soul. He comments that "Hope is risky" and quite rightly follows that up with an explanation why;
"Underneath depression's veil of passivity is a heart that is busy making choices. Sometimes you prefer hopelessness. You want it. You aspire to it. Isn't that a reasonable way to explain why you are so immune to encouragement? You hear the words and understand them, but you don't want them. Even though self-pity and your attempts to kill hope are not working well, you are loyal to your hope-killing strategy."
"Your own heart has much to say, but let Jesus have the final word. 'Grace' is the shorthand. In that one word, God takes us out of ourselves and turns our attention onto him, the One who showers forgiving love on us even when we don't realize all that he has forgiven. It is brimming with promises and guarantees....In your battle with the manifold features of depression, Grace to you."