Depression does weird things to the mind and to the body.  For example, I’m the classic picture of a “Type A” personality.  High energy, self-starter, workaholic (if I’m not careful).  But I also fight depression.  And when it starts its deadly, insidious invasion of my mind, suddenly everything changes.  The energy goes away, replaced by lassitude.  I can’t finish anything, because my ability to concentrate is gone.  But worst of all, when I’m depressed I feel either guilty or worthless, or both. 
In my years of counseling other depressed individuals, these men and women have displayed the same symptoms.  In short, the average depressed person thinks, “I don’t feel like I’m worth much.”  From that thought, it’s just a short hop to, “God couldn’t love someone as worthless as me.”  

If you’ve read our book “Hope Again:  A Lifetime Plan for Conquering Depression,” you know that I now have a plan that regularly defeats depression.  Instead of letting it conquer me, I now conquer it!  Instead of focusing on the negative emotions swirling about me, I choose to read, believe, and meditate on the promises in God’s word.  Believe me, it works.  
For example, if you don’t feel like you’re worth much, read this passage and think about what it means:  “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4–5, NIV84) 

Two questions for you:  First, when did God love you and make you alive with Christ?  The answer is, when you were spiritually dead because of your “transgressions” – a fancy word meaning sins against God.  In other words, at your worst, God loved you!  That’s worth remembering when depression comes on.

Second, how have you been saved?  By your righteous works?  No!  You have been saved by grace.  That means you didn’t do ANYTHING to deserve salvation.  God loves you and me because He decided to love us, not because of ANYTHING we had done to deserve it.

 
The bottom line is that no one on planet Earth is worthy of salvation.  And yet, it is offered freely to each of us.  Don’t listen to the lies of depression.  Instead, focus on this passage, believe it, and thank God that in Christ, you are worth much because you are a child of God.