Why is it that every year just after the holidays so many people fall into sadness?

Maybe this describes you as well.

With raised holiday expectations, obligations, unusual schedules and eating habits it’s easy for your body to rebel and spin you into a case of the post holiday blues…some even deeper into depression.

These post holiday blues don’t tend to last very long. As you get back into regular schedules and habits the cloud tends to dissipate but having a feeling of sadness certainly isn’t only tied to the holidays passing.

And although God knows while you are in this world you will face times of sadness, He knows often times your sadness is tied to circumstances that will change. It is easy to get distracted by the world and lose focus one what is truly important.

Knowing this, God doesn’t want you to get lost in it all. He wants you to get lost in Him.

John 16:33
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

A common cure for sadness is hope. Hope is a wonderful thing; it can propel you and guide you, motivate you and inspire you. But, if your hope is rooted only in temporal things, your hope will only be temporary.

So, when you were approaching the holidays a few weeks ago, maybe you got excited in the hope of vacation, of seeing friends and family, of giving and receiving gifts…this is all normal and wonderful…but still very temporary.

When the holidays pass, there’s a void, and sadness creeps in.

This cycle has been around since the beginning. Even the Psalmist wrestled with sadness and sought comfort in the hope of God.

Psalm 42:5
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.

The world and all the temporary distractions in it will compete for your attention daily often twisting your emotions up, causing confusion and loss of direction. This is when you should submit totally to God.

Proverbs 3:5-6
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

God is a God of hope and true hope can only come from Him. This hope comes from the complete trust in God and His plan for you.

Romans 15:13
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace, as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Life situations will weigh on you and pull you in different directions making you feel like you are going to bust, but you must always remember, that greater is He who lives inside you than he that is in this world.

2 Corinthians 4:8,9,10
8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.