Depression Among Muslims

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“The Lord is good to all;
He has compassion on all he has made.

— Psalm 145:8-9

When we think of the overwhelming population of Muslims in the world, many images come to mind. But we want to take a moment to focus on this—Muslims are broken, hurting people. With this in mind, we can remember that showing compassion to the broken is a character trait of our Lord Jesus, which we should desire to exemplify.

In the Middle East, GCM disciple makers meet people everyday who are depressed and hurting for many reasons such as divorce, abuse, neglect, abandonment, and poverty. However, we see this as an opportunity to show the love of Christ and demonstrate the peace and joy that can only be found in Him.

One of our disciple makers, Navid, struggled with depression for years as a result of his family breaking up and sexual abuse. When we first met him, he was in a dark place. His whole existence was sitting alone in a dark room, chain smoking cigarettes. He had no understanding of why he was alive. He was emotionally numb and had no hope for his future.

Sadly, Navid’s story is not unique. Day after day, we continue to meet people like him who are asking “god,” “Why am I here?” What a significant opportunity for us to reach them with the love of God. They see something different in us than in everyone else around them. Even those who are affluent still feel there is something missing in their lives. As a result, they too have deep depression inside. When they meet us, the response is always the same—”Why are you so happy? What do you have to be happy about?”

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“Their response is always the same—“Why are you so happy? What do you have to be so happy about?””

In Navid’s case, the disciple maker he met replied, “What do you have to be so depressed about?” After Navid shared his troubles, the disciple maker said, “That’s all? I have much worse troubles in my life!” With laughter, the disciple maker explained to Navid he did not have to live in this depressed state.

That conversation led these two to become friends and, eventually, Navid became a disciple of Christ. Today, he is one of GCMs core leaders. What we learn from his story is that God will stop at nothing to reach people. He is absolutely committed to using every opportunity to reach the lost. The question is—are we?

We encourage you today to take a moment and ask God to increase your heart of compassion toward Muslims. Ask God to open opportunities for you like this—to be able to see the hurting, the brokeness, and the humanity in the lost. Commit today to be a tool in the hand of God to show God’s love to the hurting and depressed around you.

#UNTILJESUS

Read Navid’s full story by clicking below. Please share his and other inspiring stories from our website on your social media channels. Help us spread the word about how God is transforming lives in the Muslim world.


With your generous gift to GCM, you are helping bring hope to the hopeless and wholeness to the broken. Thank you for getting involved with us in transforming Muslims worldwide through Jesus Christ.

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We believe the Scriptures, both the Old and New Testaments, are inspired by God and are the revelation of God to man, the infallible, authoritative rule of faith and conduct. (2 Timothy 3:15-17, 1 Peter 1:21)

We believe that there is one God, eternally existent who has revealed Himself as embodying the principles of relationship and association as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. (Deuteronomy 6:4, Luke 3:22)

We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His atoning death through His shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His ascension to the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for us, in His present rule as Head of the Church, and in His personal return in power and glory. (Matthew 1:23, Luke 1:31)

We believe in the creation of mankind in God’s image, and the fall of man, resulting in universal guilt and total depravity; and the necessity, therefore, of redemption and restoration; that all men and women are lost spiritually and face the judgment of God, that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, and that repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for regeneration by the Holy Spirit. (Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 2:17)

We believe salvation is received through repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, being justified by grace through faith, man becomes an heir of God, according to the hope of eternal life. (Luke 24:47, John 3:3)

We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost; the saved unto the resurrection of eternal life in the presence of our Lord, and the lost unto the resurrection of damnation and eternal punishment. (Matthew 25:46, Mark 9:43-48)

We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ and that all true believers are members of His body, the Church, which has the duty to preach the Gospel to every person. (Ephesians 1:22-23, Ephesians 2:22)

We believe that we must dedicate ourselves to prayer, to the service of our Lord, to His authority over our lives, and to the ministry of teaching, preaching, the prophetic, the apostolic, and evangelism. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

We believe in upholding the ordinances of the church of water baptism and holy communion.

The ordinance of baptism by immersion is commanded by the Scriptures. All who repent and believe in Christ as Savior and Lord are to be baptized. Thus, they declare to the world that they have died with Christ and that they also have been raised with Him to walk in newness of life. (Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:16, Acts 10:47,48, Romans 6:4)

The Lord’s Supper, consisting of the elements—bread and the fruit of the vine—, is the symbol expressing our sharing the divine nature of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:4), a memorial of His suffering and death (1 Corinthians 11:26), and a prophecy of His second coming (1 Corinthians 11:26), and is enjoined on all believers “till He comes!”