Every fourteen minutes someone decides life is not worth the pain and makes a tragic choice. In the last month my husband and I have been shocked by the news of two friends’ suicides. I am shaken by it.
The choice to commit suicide screams “Hopeless” like a neon sign flashing in the night.My mind scans the facts, the maybes and hears a faint whisper: “I could not find rest for my soul.”
What happened behind the scenes of this life?
Did their brain chemicals send sad signals? Were messages of rejection and failure the mind’s default playlist? Did the chemicals and messages cook into a thick stew of sadness?
Was death delivered as a sound solution by an evil accomplice? Did a familiar voice consistently whisper “failure” as a result of strategy meetings in the spiritual dark places? Were demons offering blankets of oppression designed to smother joy and hope? Did they smile knowing the ripple effects of their work?
Where was God? The all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God could have stopped this!
God was there. He was ready to resuscitate life where hope’s pulse grew faint. He knew where and when to speak the Truth to the soul unsure of its value and purpose. The good Shepherd never stops looking for His lost sheep. His sheep know His voice, hear Him call out and run to Him.
Did the hopeless know His voice? Were they able to hear Him above the voice of the one encouraging death? Can a severely depressed person find the energy to move toward God and away from evil?
When we see a wound in the soul of our communities, we must apply Christ as the cure. – Francis Frangipane
Remember the men who tore a hole in a roof to get a paralyzed friend in front of Jesus (Mark 2:1-12)? Faith in action moved a mountain in the life of someone unable to move. These friends pursued Jesus on His behalf. That is a defining picture of intercessory prayer.
You and I can lift up the hopeless into the presence of Jesus, the One who defeated death.
Every opposing force is rendered powerless, when the name of Jesus is on our lips. He is the Savior. He is the hope we all long to know. He is the only hope that survives.
In the presence of Jesus we find the fullness of joy (Ps 16:11). By the power of His Spirit, each of us can live with overwhelming hope (Rom 15:13). And we can help others do the same by praying for them.
A Simple Prayer from the Bible:
May the God of hope fill _____ with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit ______ may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13) It is in the all powerful name of Jesus, I pray. Amen