In an issue of CT magazine author Lily Burana writes how her depression brought her to the brink of suicide until God rescued her.

Lily had always been a gloomy person, even as a small child she suffered bouts of depression. She had been raised in a Christian home, but even so the darkness within kept deepening. She married and started working as a writer between dark spells that froze her into writer’s block for weeks at a time. But then a dangerously deep depressive spell gripped her.

I teetered on the brink of suicide. Even with the outward show of a full and happy life—husband, family, health, career—I felt desperate, alone, scarred, stained, and worthless. At my lowest low, I asked God for a sign. And God delivered, in the form of a bald eagle soaring across my sightline mere minutes after I’d requested that exact omen.

Lily cautiously returned to church and loved hearing about how God not only redeems us but emboldens us: Think of Hebrews 13:6 “So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’”

I would love to tell you that God reached down and whisked away my depression. But faith has only made living with it more manageable. It helps that I take my meds with something approaching religious fervor. But I can’t lay full credit for my wellbeing at the feet of Big Pharma, for nothing has helped me recover more than receiving God’s grace.

Depression is most often an invisible illness—people don’t know you have it unless you tell them. Through faith in Christ, I feel less alone, less ashamed, and less likely to conceal my suffering. Because I know it is heard and believed by God. I’m beholding things with a peace and depth I’ve never experienced before. And through Christ I am redeemed, the slate wiped clean.