A Non-fiction Appointment with Dr. Michelle Bengston

Today we’re doing a bit of a switch. While we here at the Diamond Mine love our Christian Fiction, we will be focusing on Christian non-fiction this week. Because our world is so full of hopelessness, depression and suicide, Terry has chosen to focus on one person’s struggle through depression.

Please notice our giveaway this week is for everyone! Dr. Bengston's devotions, Prescriptions of Hope are free to download. Make sure you grab the link at the end of the interview.

TP: This is my first blog for the Diamond Mine. I’m so excited to be part of this. I contacted my very good friend and author Dr. Michelle Bengtson about her non-fiction book. She has much to offer and I’m wondering if you will bear with me and read what Michelle has to offer, mostly about her battle to write her book Hope Prevails.

You have a story to tell, about standing up through Jesus, to be able to fight depression.

MB: Yes, there have been many times when darkness has not only loomed but has pushed against me to the point that my back felt pinned against the wall. Right after I told God that I would pen the book He asked me to write, Hope Prevails: Insights From a Doctor’s Personal Journey Through Depression, out of obedience to Him, I became deathly ill. I was unable to take care of my patients in my private practice, required two surgeries, was on medically-induced bed rest for over 5 months, and plummeted from 113 pounds down to a skeletal 74 pounds. This had the enemy’s handprint all over it.

To add insult to injury, the longer I remained ill and in pain, unable to work, the more depressed I got. The enemy had me right where he wanted me, and I began to believe the lie that I was joy-immune.

All I could do all day, every day was lie in bed, watch sermons online, pray, and listen to praise and worship music. A friend called me the night before one of the surgeries, and in genuine love and concern shared a Scripture that I knew I must hang onto.

I began searching for Scripture to help refute thoughts I was having. When I found them (i.e. like John 15:11 “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow” to refute the lie that I was joy-immune), I wrote them on post-it notes and posted them where I would see them around the house (on my mirror, light switches, dashboard, etc.) and each time I saw them, I recited them out loud. Speaking them out loud was crucial because Scripture says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17).

TP: What Bible verses help you?

MB: The verse I always stand on is Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Even when I look at my circumstances and they don’t seem to make sense from a human perspective, it always helps to know that the situation never takes God by surprise, and He knows what needs to be done and how it will end.

There have been so many times when I have felt the push and press of darkness. I know that evil forces are not pleased that I stand for God, and I expose how evil works. When that push comes, I always remember God’s promise and declare, “no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me," declares the LORD (Isaiah 54:17).

I also declare God’s promise from Psalm 91:5-7, “You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.”

To combat worry and fear, I remind myself of Joshua 1:9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

TP: You often meet early in the morning with Jesus, just a private walk and talk with Him, as your stay. Can you give us an example of that truth?

MB: No one wants to be the poster child for depression I had treated patients for over two decades when I became so ill and spiraled down into the pit of depression myself. Sadly, at first, I tried all the recommendations that I learned in school. While they helped, they were insufficient to eradicate my depression. It was only when I began to understand the spiritual root of depression and address that with God’s word, did I experience freedom. But there were days when I can recall thinking, “This is too hard. I can’t do the work today that is required if I want healing.”

Sadly, so many don’t know how to fight depression, and it’s been my mission, if you will, to help teach them. God has given us all the tools we need, but we have to do the work and use the tools in the midst of the battle.

There are days when I just “don’t want to” write or post the daily devotion or provide an encouraging post, but I know “I need to.” It’s that still small sense at my core that someone needs to hear it. I would want others to do that for me, so it encourages me to be obedient to the Father’s prompting. Invariably, someone will comment that it was just what they needed to hear or read that day. I love it when God allows us to partner with Him like that—it makes it all worthwhile.

TP: Darkness doesn’t just strike at us, but also our family. This is a truth for you too, yet in spite of it, how have these experiences brought you closer together?

MB: The day my book, Hope Prevails: Insights From a Doctor’s Personal Journey Through

Depression, released, my husband was diagnosed with cancer. That was no coincidence. All of our attention shifted from book release festivities and launch parties to doctor’s appointments, surgery, and chemotherapy. But together, we have tried not to focus on the problems, the things that seem impossible from our vantage point, and have instead tried to keep our focus on The Problem Solver.

We can choose to look at life and our difficult situations through a lens of worry, fear, and anxiety, or we can choose to live in the peace that Jesus came to give us, and trust that God will work things out for our good and for His glory. It is impossible to serve two masters. Either you trust the enemy (as evidence by worry, fear, anxiety, doubt, etc.) or you trust God.  The enemy is called the Father of Lies—he is incapable of telling the truth. But God is not a man, so He cannot lie. I’m putting my trust in the one who is always true to His word.

TP: Prayer bricks, all around you, building a hedge of protection, to help you overcome. How does this help you? Can you give an example?

MB: Years ago, when I first started writing this book, God very clearly told me that I needed a group of people praying for me. I didn’t know who to ask, and didn’t want anyone to feel pressured to say yes if I asked them. So I told God I needed Him to bring people around that He wanted to use to pray for my family and me.

I have been fortunate recently to have the support of praying brothers and sisters in Christ. Each morning, I wasn’t sure how I was going to make progress given the physical challenges, but with the prayer support of others, I finished the book on time despite what seemed like an impossibility to me.

Most recently, I received a cancer diagnosis after turning in my newest manuscript to my publisher. This was a complete shock to me. My husband and I were, in fact, on our way to see his oncologist when I received the call from my doctor saying the words no one wants nor expects to hear.

I subsequently underwent surgery and began treatment. I shared with praying friends, and many agreed to pray daily for me. It seemed that evenings and nighttime were the worst for me in terms of pain and side effects. Many nights, as I lay in bed with tears streaming down my face from the excruciating pain, I still experienced His peace, and over time the pain would lessen enough for me to get at least a little sleep. In those times, I knew someone had offered prayer on my behalf, because I couldn’t have made it in my own strength.

TP: Christian music seems to be a big part in your arsenal to overcome darkness. Can you give us an inside story of how Christian music, ‘in the moment’, was there for you?

MB: Many years ago, when I was enduring that life threatening illness and so many months of bed rest, I grew frustrated because I could do little other than pray and watch sermons online. One Sunday afternoon, a friend texted me a message telling me that she’d thought about me while at church and heard a particular song. So she wanted to share it with me. I listened to that song at least a dozen times. In listening to it, my strength and my resolve to fight grew stronger. So I began listening to praise and worship music literally 24 hours a day. Music was constantly playing in my room. I knew I was under spiritual attack, and Scripture says, “God inhabits the praises of His people” and the enemy can’t stand when we praise God, so he will leave. Even when I was in too much pain to verbally offer my praise to God, something would well up inside me and allow me to sing my praise to God in song. That’s exactly why at the end of Hope Prevails,  Hope Prevails Bible Study,

 and at the end of this new book on worry, fear, and anxiety, I included a recommended play list of songs which encouraged my heart in hopes that they will encourage others as well.

TP: Through it all, God is honoring your stand for Him. Now you have opportunity to speak up for Jesus through Fox National Radio tour. Can you tell us that story, how God placed you there?

MB: The real miracle is in the fact that I'm able to stand there and speak at all. Twenty years ago, I was petrified and hated public speaking! I turned down professional opportunities back then as a neuropsychologist for radio and television interviews out of fear. Over the next two decades, God did nothing short of a miracle in my heart. When Hope Prevails was getting ready to release, I was asked to do a radio interview, and I agreed. During that interview, I experienced joy like I had never experienced it before, and can vividly remember telling my husband, “This is what I was born to do!”

Over the last several years, I have had the opportunity and blessing to do many radio, podcast, and television interviews, and to speak to numerous church congregations.
Recently, I was at an event and met an individual who was previously a television journalist. He now owns his own public relations firm, and needed someone whom he could suggest to journalists to interview for health/mental health related issues. That has afforded me to be interviewed on several different topics on various different radio stations across the country, in the hopes that it will increase my opportunities to speak and share about God’s truth in a multitude of venues in addition to radio and television.
There is no greater joy to me than speaking and sharing the hope we have in Christ!

TP: Please join me in thanks to Dr. Michelle Bengtson for her interview today.

You can follow her at https://www.DrMichelleBengtson.com , or on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/DrMichelleBengtson/ , or get her books at Amazon or any major book distributor.

For this interview, Michelle is offering her Devotions of Hope for free for a limited time. https://drmichellebengtson.com/free-offer-prescriptions-of-hope/

Thank you Michelle for you interview.

Dr. Michelle Bengtson (PhD, Nova Southeastern University) has been a neuropsychologist for more than twenty years. She interned at the University of Oklahoma with "The Father of Neuropsychology," Dr. Oscar "Oz" Parsons, and completed postdoctoral training at both the Henry Ford Hospital and the University of Alabama Health Sciences Center. She lives in Dallas/Fort Worth with her husband, their two sons, and three dogs. Learn more at www.drmichellebengtson.com.

I’m looking forward to my next post, with a fiction author.

Interview by author and speaker Terry Palmer.