God’s Antidepressants: A Carline Circle Devotional

God’s Antidepressants: A Carline Circle Devotional

What if peace doesn’t come because the situation changes—but because we do? Pull up, Mama. We’re talking surrender, casting our cares, leaving tomorrow in tomorrow, and discovering the kind of peace that makes absolutely no sense...but feels like a weighted blanket from God. And yes, we may need to pray for the woman in the car behind us too. 😂

Pull up. Let go. Let God.

Transcript

Welcome To The Car Line Circle

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to It's a Single Mom Thing, the show for single moms by single moms. This is Sherry, your host, and I am happy you are here today. Remember, it's a single mom thing, and not the single thing that stops you.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

So this is the first Car Line Circle devotion on God's antidepressants with It's a Single Mom Thing and your girl Sherry. So hey there, mama. I want you to come sit with me for a minute. Sit while I ride shotgun. Cause today we are having ourselves a little Car Line Circle. You've got about 15 minutes, honey, before those doors open, backpacks start flying, somebody gets in the car starving like they haven't eaten since last Tuesday. And you are probably expected to answer the most pressing question of the day. Mom, what's for dinner? And even though my kid is grown now, oh I remember the car line. I remember sitting there with nowhere to go and plenty of time to think. And worry and overthink and mentally solve problems that haven't even happened yet. But by the time my kid got in the car, I could have lived through the next three fiscal years. So sister, while you're sitting there today, let's have a talk. No perfect moms though in this car circle, okay? So no pretending we've got this all together. Just us and God, of course. Because I want to talk about something I have been calling God's antidepressants.

God’s Antidepressants And A Disclaimer

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Yep, yep, I said it. You heard it here first. But hey, listen, before anybody gets nervous about that title, listen, I am not talking about replacing medication, counseling, doctors, or mental health care when those things are needed, okay? I'm talking about those seasons when life itself gets a little heavy. You know, when we're worried, afraid, exhausted, caring something we can't fix, trying to live today while our minds are already somewhere in tomorrow. And this idea actually, listen, it came out of something I recently walked through myself because I didn't just read about one of God's prescriptions, okay? I experienced it. When we're anxious, peace. Philippians 4, check it, tells us to bring everything to God through prayer and thanksgiving. Am I right? And then comes this incredible promise. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, y'all, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Peace that surpasses understanding. I don't know about you, but I have heard that verse. I have read that verse. I have probably repeated that verse to other people more times than I can count. But check it. Listen, recently, I think I've finally experienced it, y'all.

Surrender That Brings Unexplainable Peace

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Now, some of you know that I have been walking through something really hard with my son. And somewhere in the middle of it, I found myself listening to this song called I Surrender by Hill Song. Over and over and over. And mama, listen, while I'm listening, I'm talking, I was heavily having listen, some ugly cries. Not the pretty little tear rolling down your cheek, you know, like the one at church where you're trying to hide, like nobody can see you cry. I'm talking some snot crying. You know, the kind every time I listened, I cried. Every time I listened, I prayed. Every time I listened, I wrestled. And somewhere in all of those repeats, something started changing. And I'm serious, listen, but not the situation though, which is very curious. Um what changed was me. Because, you know, see, if I'm gonna be honest with you, what I kept wanting God to change was the situation. But then eventually I realized, hmm, I couldn't change the situation, but God could change me in the situation. And little by little I surrendered. Now, I wish I could tell you exactly when it happened, but I can't. There wasn't some big spiritual oh moment where the clouds parted, a dove landed on my shoulder, and I announced, okay, Lord, I have officially surrendered. I don't even know that I realized it was happening, if I'm honest. All I can say, girl, is I know that somewhere along the way, peace came. And ladies, it's still here, and this has been going on for six months, mind you. The only way I know how to describe it best is kind of like a weighted blanket. It just settled over me. The situation didn't subtly make sense. No, I'm still confused. I didn't get all my question questions answered. I still have lots of them. I still listen, check it, could not control the outcome. But somehow, this is so perplexing to me. I was okay. Like, I could have joy in the pain. So listen, this is what he meant, I think, the Lord, at the about the peace that surpasses all understanding. Because I really couldn't explain it. I still can't. It doesn't make sense based on the circumstances, and maybe that's exactly the point. Yeah, I don't know about you, but for years I've heard sermon after sermon about surrender. Surrender it to God, lay it at his feet, give him control. And I don't know about you, but I'd leave there with my head scratching, scratching my head, not my head scratching, I was scratching my head. Okay, yeah, but how? How do I do that? How do you surrender something that matters so much to you, right? How do you surrender, let's say, your child, your future, an outcome you desperately want? How do you let go when everything in you wants to hold on tighter? I think finally, for me, I reached this place where there were only two choices. Either I trust God with this or I don't. There wasn't a third option. Now, I couldn't say I trusted him while simultaneously trying to control everything he was doing. And that's when surrender actually started making sense. See, what I started to learn is that surrender it isn't giving up. Surrender is giving over. Giving over my need to know, giving over my timeline, giving over the outcome, giving over the person I love, giving over what I think should happen, giving over my need to understand and saying, God, I don't understand this, I don't even like this. I ain't even gonna try to hide it. I wouldn't have chosen this, but I gotta trust you with it. I do trust you with it. And somewhere, ladies, in that, surrender. Peace came. Oh, oh, oh, oh, mama, late uh, we need to pull up. We've gotten deep in the car line and uh uh it's moving. Oh McGravy, and look at that. The woman behind you is about to lose the piece that passes all understanding. We need to pull up. Okay, whew. There we go. Thanks. Okay. So uh where were we? Oh, yes, the next one.

Cast Your Cares For Real

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Uh when we're caring too much, cast it. Now, first Peter tells us, cast all your cares on him because he cares for you. Now, I love the word cast. Not carefully place, not hand it over while you're keeping one finger on it. No, girl, cast it. Throw that thing. Because aren't we good at giving something to God and then picking it right back up? Like, here Lord, this is yours. And five minutes later, uh, actually, wait a minute. Uh, I'm gonna need that back. I haven't finished worrying about it. Uh, we pray about it, right? Then we rehearse it, surrender it, then Google it, give it to God, then call three girlfriends to make sure God's handling it correctly. I cannot be the only person here who has experienced that. Anyone else? I mean, maybe surrender isn't something we do once. Maybe sometimes we have to cast it again and again and again, and every time that worry comes back, God, uh, this is yours. Catch it. I'm casting it to you. Like I'm talking about every time Fear starts talking, God, uh, this is yours. Every time we start trying to control the outcome up, God, this is still yours and yours and yours. I'm going to cast it. But what about when the load gets too heavy?

Check The Yoke When Crushed

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Well, that one we need to check the yoke. Jesus tells us to come to him when we're weary and burdened. He tells us his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Well, that verse, I don't know about you, it makes me ask myself, hmm. If what I'm carrying is crushing me, did God actually ask me to carry it? Or did I pick it up somewhere? Like everybody else's expectation, someone else's opinion, guilt from yesterday, fear about tomorrow, the responsibility to fix everybody, our children's choices, our ex choices, the need to control what happens next. Oh my goodness, ladies. Some of us are carrying luggage with somebody else's name tag on it. I think we need to put that bag down. Cause his yoke is light. Now, that doesn't mean life will all of a sudden feel light. It means we weren't married. Married. Try that again. It means we weren't meant to carry life without him. And maybe part of surrender is finally admitting, God, I cannot carry this anymore. And then hearing him say, Good. You were never supposed to carry it alone anyways.

Pray Without Ceasing In Real Life

SPEAKER_01 10:22

When our minds won't stop, pray. Scripture tells us pray without ceasing. And now maybe some of y'all are thinking, well, Sherry, I have kids, I have got work, laundry, groceries, school emails, appointments, bills, and apparently these children expect to eat every single day. When exactly am I supposed to pray without ceasing? I'm glad you ask. Because listen, prayer doesn't always have to be 20 quiet minutes with our Bible open candle burning, coffee streaming, and worship music softly playing in the background. Beautiful, yes, absolutely. Tuesday afternoon, maybe not. Sometimes prayer sounds like Jesus help me at a red light. God give me some wisdom before a meeting. Lord, protect my child. When you watch them walk away, God calm my heart. When the text comes in, maybe praying without sin. Listen to me. Maybe let's try this again. Maybe praying without ceasing. There we go. Simply stop separating God from the ordinary parts of our day. We bring him into the car line. We bring him into the kitchen. We bring him into the meeting. We bring him into the hard conversation. We bring him into the worry. Instead of letting the worry become a loop, turn the worry into a prayer loop. Like I'm talking every time it comes back, pray again. Okay, mama. Oh, oh, look at that. Oh, the cars are moving again. Girl, you need to pull up. That woman behind you has now thrown up both hands, and I'm pretty sure she's not worshiping or listening to worship music. Oh gosh. Okay, good, good, good, good. Okay. Don't forget to put it in Parker neutral. All right. Where were we? Oh, next one.

When Fear Starts Talking

SPEAKER_01 12:22

When fear starts talking, do not fear. This is a good one. Listen. Over and over throughout scripture, God tells us people, right? Do not fear. Well, why is that? Well, I think it's not because there aren't scary things, because there are, right? Especially when we're raising kids by ourselves. I mean, I'm talking things like, well, what if something happens? What if I can't afford it? What if my child makes the wrong decision? What if I make the wrong decision? What if this doesn't work out? You got them fears? I know I do. God, listen though, but God isn't telling us our concerns aren't real. No, no, no, not at all. What he's doing, though, I think, is he's reminding us that fear isn't the only thing that's real. He is too. And here's something I've had to remind myself through what I've walked through with my son recently. And that's God is already standing in the tomorrow I'm afraid of. Now, I haven't gotten there yet, but he has. And if God is already there, well, maybe I don't need to go there today. What about you? So what about when we start living tomorrow today?

Stay In The Day

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Well, this is my favorite saying, always stay in the day. Because Jesus tells us, do not worry about tomorrow because tomorrow has enough trouble of its own. I love how practical that is. Basically, girl, today is enough. Because listen, we do this, don't we? We sit we're sitting in Monday, but we're living in Friday. Having conversations that haven't even happened yet, preparing responses to things nobody said, solving problems that don't exist yet, creating scenarios and then creating backup scenarios for our imaginary scenarios. And suddenly we're exhausted from living a day that hasn't even happened yet. Funny, right? We gotta laugh at ourselves, right? Because listen, when I was sitting in those car lines years ago, I could do this with the best of them. My car was sitting still idling, but my mind was running five miles ahead of God. And I've learned something today. Tomorrow, it gets really heavy when we try to carry it today. Ladies, God gives us grace for today. Tomorrow, there will be grace waiting there too. We don't need tomorrow's strength yet. We need today's. So, lady and ladies, stay in the day. When the night feels too long, morning is coming. Psalms 30 reminds us, and I love this, weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning, and praise the Lord Jesus for that. And we know though, however, some nights, well, they aren't eight hours. Some sometimes a night is a season, like a divorce, a financial struggle, a custody battle, a child who is struggling, loneliness, starting over, waiting, watching something happen that you desperately

Morning Is Coming In Long Nights

SPEAKER_01 16:05

want to change, and realizing you can't. Those can be some long nights. But here's what I love. Night doesn't get permanent residency because morning is coming. Maybe not when we expected, maybe not packaged the way we wanted. Maybe morning doesn't mean everything goes back to the way it was, but check it darkness doesn't get the final word. And when morning comes, God has something waiting for us. New mercy. Lamentations tells us his mercies are new every morning. Every single morning. Uh ladies, yesterday doesn't get to use up today's mercies. Oh no. Maybe yesterday wasn't your finest parenting moment. You yelled, you lost your patience, you forgot something. Uh dinner was cereal. Everybody went to bed mad. Maybe you said something and immediately thought, ooh, well that did not definitely, ooh, that's definitely not going in a Christmas card newsletter. Girl, own what needs owning. Apologize where you need to apologize. Learn what you need to learn, but don't drag yesterday's condemnation into today. God already delivered today's mercy. Fresh, new day, new mercy, new opportunity. And maybe that's what Paul meant. Through everything, listen, everything I have walked through recently, I have also started understanding Paul differently, finally. I mean, this man was shipwrecked, stoned, imprisoned. I mean, Paul says it in Philippians that he learned to be content, whatever the circumstances, and he had some circumstances. I don't about don't know about you, but I used to hear that and think contentment meant, well, that must mean being happy with everything. I don't know. But I don't think that anymore.

Contentment That Coexists With Pain

SPEAKER_01 18:04

I think I'm finally beginning to understand it. You see, contentment isn't I like what's happening, I like being shipwrecked. No. Contentment is what's happening doesn't get to let's try that again. All right, let's try that again. Okay, so we said contentment isn't I like what's happening. Contentment is what's happening doesn't get to determine whether I trust God. That bears repeating. What's happening doesn't get to determine whether I trust God. You see, because I can want something to change and still have peace. I can pray for a different outcome and surrender the outcome at the same time. I can grieve and trust God. I can cry and still be content in Christ. I can be sad and have joy. I can even snot cry through the same song 50 times, and apparently God can work that too. Seriously. Maybe we've been praying, God change this so I can have peace. But check it. Sometimes I think God answers, you ready? What if I give you peace before I change it? Uh yeah. Mic drop. Wasn't my life. Listen, that's different. And ladies, listen, that hits. I know that kind of peace is real. Can't tell you exactly when mine came. I can't tell you how it came. I just know that I know that I know that it came. And it's still here. Like that weighted blanket I talked about earlier. Not because everything's the way I want it, but because somewhere along the way, I stopped asking my circumstances for something only God could give me. Peace. Oh, ladies, listen. Oh, ooh, ooh, oh, hey, mama. Hey, uh, we need to pull up. Uh, we have officially become the reason the car line is backed up. Uh, we've been sitting here talking about casting our cares while somebody three cars back is about to cast something at us. Move that car, girl. Whew, okay. There we go. There we go. Oh, now listen, before those doors open, let's check our prescription one more time, okay? This is our car line prescription. So we're gonna listen, okay. So we're gonna talk about this real quickly. So when anxiety rises, peace that surpasses all understandings. Okay, well, listen, girl, when you're caring too much, you're gonna cast your cares on him. When the load becomes crushing, you gotta remember his yoke is light. When our minds won't stop, ooh, we are gonna pray without some ceasing. And when fear starts talking, oh, we are gonna do do not fear. And when tomorrow starts stealing today, oh tomorrow has enough worries of its own.

The Car Line Prescription Recap

SPEAKER_01 20:48

And when the night feels endless, we need to remember that joy is coming in the morning. And when yesterday follows us in today, his mercies are new every morning. And then maybe underneath every one of those is one word. Surrender. Not giving up, giving over. You see, God's antidepressants, they aren't about pretending everything is okay. They aren't about putting a pretty Bible verse over something that genuinely hurts. They're about putting God's truth beside what hurts and deciding which one gets the final word. Fear doesn't, worry doesn't, yesterday doesn't, tomorrow doesn't, our circumstances, they certainly don't. God does. Ooh, wait, but before the doors open, the car the car line's moving again. I want to do a little quick prayer. Father, here we are. A bunch of moms sitting in our cars carrying things nobody else can see. And some of us don't even know how to surrender what we're carrying. So maybe we start there. Teach us, Lord, how. Teach us to trust you enough to open our hands. The child, the finances, the future, the fear, the relationship, the unanswered prayer, the situation we desperately want you to change. The tomorrow we've already started worrying about. We

A Prayer For Peace And Trust

SPEAKER_01 22:08

give it over to you. And when we pick it back up, because we probably will, Father, help us surrender it again. Give us peace that doesn't have to make sense. Help us carry your yoke instead of everything we've piled on to ourselves. Teach us to pray through the ordinary moments. And when fear gets loud, reminds us you remind us that you are near. And when the night feels long, remind us morning is coming. And when yesterday tries to follow us, remind us today's mercies are already here. And when tomorrow tries to steal today's peace, uh, Lord, bring us back. Back to this moment, back to your presence, back to trust because you, Father, you are already standing in every tomorrow we are afraid of. And Father, sometimes we keep asking you to change the situation. But today, we're asking you something else too. Change us in it. And Lord, while we're praying, we probably need to pray for the woman in the car behind us too. Lord, give her some peace that surpasses all understanding because we've made her wait through half this devotional. Bless her, Lord, and please keep her off the horn in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, mamas, listen, the doors are opening here. They come. Get ready for the backpack, the missing water bottle, the papal you were apparently supposed to sign yesterday. And of course, mom, what's for dinner? But before we break, our car line circle, remember cast the care, take his peace, carry the lighter yoke, pray through the day, don't let fear drive, stay out of tomorrow, wait for the morning, receive today's mercies, and to render the outcome. You don't have to understand everything to have peace. I finally understand that now. Sometimes peace doesn't come because the situation changed. Peace comes because somewhere along the way we did. And mama, before you go, if you're sitting in that car today carrying something that feels too heavy to carry alone, you need to let us pray with you. Shepherd's Village has a 24-hour prayer line at 855822 Pray. That is 8558227729. You can also visit Shepherd's Village.com backslash mead dash prayer to send us your prayer request. And listen, maybe what you need today is more than prayer. Maybe you're a single mom thinking sherry. I really do need help. I don't even know

Prayer Line And Immediate Support

SPEAKER_01 24:27

where to start. Oh, well, we got a place for that too. You just go to shepherdsvillage.com backslash immediate dash support. There, girl, you can find some resources, some support, and some next steps to help you figure out where to go from here. Because sometimes, as we talked about earlier, surrender includes letting somebody else walk alongside you. You don't have to carry it along. Now, oh, for the love, mama, we gotta pull up. Oh, the teacher's giving us that mean mug uh face. Okay, so I'll meet you back here in the Carline Circle next time, because around here, remember it's a single mom thing, and not the single thing that stopped you.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Thanks for listening to It's a Single Mom Thing. I hope you enjoyed our time together. If you have more questions on how to have a relationship with Jesus or need prayer, visit us at www.shepardsvillage.com backslash prayer. For more information and resources, check out our show notes.