Even Prophets Experience Depression - Jeremiah 17-21

Jeremiah 20:14-18 (ESV Strong's)
14 Cursed be the day
on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me,
let it not be blessed!
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
“A son is born to you,”
making him very glad.
16 Let that man be like the cities
that the LORD overthrew without pity;
let him hear a cry in the morning
and an alarm at noon,
17 because he did not kill me in the womb;
so my mother would have been my grave,
and her womb forever great.
18 Why did I come out from the womb
to see toil and sorrow,
and spend my days in shame?

Even Prophets Experience Depression

The book of Jeremiah is written of a long time span.  It is about a 50 year ministry for the man Jeremiah.   Jeremiah has many struggles in his ministry.  Jeremiah 11:18–12:6; 15:10–21; 17:9–10, 14–18; 18:18–23; 20:7–12; and, the above passage, 20:14–18, all demonstrate Jeremiah’s struggle with his work, his faith and his mental tensions.   Believers like to all this a “crisis of faith.”   The world simply calls it “mental illness.”    In the above passage we see the depth of Jeremiah’s pain.   Rather than face the burden’s of his ministry with God, he states it would have better for him to not even been born ... rather aborted at birth.   He even wishes that the man who announced his birth in the community would be cursed.  That is deep depression.    The irony of these thoughts are that Jeremiah stated right at the beginning of the book that he was called by God for this very purpose:

Jeremiah 1:5 (ESV Strong's)
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Being a believer and called by God does not exempt our bodies and minds from experiencing the same pain and suffering the world experiences.  We can believe we are called by God and still have mental challenges.  Jeremiah will complete his ministry.  God will continue to fortify and surround him with protection.    But, the experience of mental illness was very much part of his life, as it was for Elijah, David, and many others.   Believers are not exempt from the mental attacks by Satan, the mental failures of the sin that reigns in our bodies, or the mental fatigue the caused by the stress and attacks of this world.   Our faith looks through this mental strain to the glory of the Savior we will, someday, experience.