Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope

Welcome to Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. I sure do love hymns that highlight the blood of Jesus. Listen to Joni sing this old favorite.

Joni Eareckson Tada: There is a fountain filled with blood

Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains.

Lose all their guilty stains,

Lose all their guilty stains;

And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,

Lose all their guilty stains.

I sure do love that last line. And sinners, washed beneath the flood, the flood of Christ’s blood, lose all their guilty stains. Oh, praise God for the fountain of blood that cleanses us as white as snow. For First John chapter one, verse nine says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us, cleanse us, from all unrighteousness. Wow, the blood covers all. It even may well be the best cure for real depression, because there is a direct connection between being washed in the blood of Christ and being set free from depression.

And it does bother me when I hear people say that only the weak-minded struggle with severe depression. That’s because I sometimes get hit hard with more than just downcast feelings. There are times my disability gets me so down, so badly, that I feel like disappearing. I don’t want to talk to anyone, I don’t want to go to work, I don’t want to face the world.

And I’m not the only one who has days like this. I think of them as the "day of evil" spoken about in Ephesians chapter six. When those days come, when the strong winds of adversity almost blow away your confidence in God, I’ve got to hang on for dear life to a couple of well-worn scriptures that anchor me, that assure me that joy really will come in the morning. And when it comes to depression, I take encouragement from that great hymn writer of old, William Cowper, who also suffered from depression.

He constantly struggled against suicide. Once he even tried to hang himself. Another time he fell on a knife, but the blade broke. And at one point, he threw himself into a river hoping to drown. He had a mental breakdown and was placed in an asylum for 18 months. During his detention, he read Romans chapter three, verse 25, the part about the blood of Christ being so powerful as to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, even the guilt of suicidal thoughts. That little verse made all the difference.

And after his conversion, he became friends with John Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace. It was just the inspiration Cowper needed to write this beautiful hymn that I’ve sung for you today, "There is a Fountain." Strangely enough, Cowper’s most powerful hymns were written after great times of depression. We may become depressed on this side of eternity, but aren’t you glad that little by little God renews our minds, all because there is a fountain filled with blood? So I thank God for William Cowper. He reminds us there’s no permanent cure for our woes here on earth, but heaven’s door has been washed open by the blood of Jesus Christ. Thank God for that wonderful fountain that overflows into your heart today.