Christians who pass through the dark tunnel of depression tend to focus on their sins and weaknesses and failures so much that they may even want to die. God can use times like this, however, to increase their awareness of His inexhaustible grace.

In 1964, Alan Redpath, former pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, sank into the depths of despondency following a near-fatal stroke. He wrote later of having terribly wicked thoughts. “O Lord,” he prayed, “take me right home!” It was then he sensed that the Lord was saying, “It is I, your Savior, who has brought this experience into your life to show you [that] this is the kind of person—with all your sinful thoughts and temptations which you thought were things of the past—that you always will be, but for My grace.”

Redpath’s experience reminds me of the prophet Elijah. He too wanted to die. He cried out, “Lord, take my life!” (1 Ki. 19:4). Although Elijah had been mightily used of God, he needed to be reminded of God’s sustaining grace. Depression, which in his case was triggered by physical and emotional exhaustion, became God’s mirror of truth to let him see anew the marvelous light of His grace. The darkest night is never without that light.