YOUR LIFE HAS WORTH

      The last week I received a phone call that was quite heartbreaking. I was told about a young man that I knew who struggled to get silent in his walk with Jesus. They finally gave in to the struggle and committed suicide two weeks ago. Another time in 2019  received a phone call from a woman who in the past couple of months her family had experienced the deaths of two relatives from suicide. And a third relative attempted suicide.  Receiving the most recent call reminded me of times when others and I have had to battle the lies about suicide. According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2016 suicide took the lives of nearly 45,000 people. All that said, I would just like to encourage you once again that there is hope beyond where you are.

     There were several people in the bible that battled depression, fear & being suicidal for one reason or another. King Saul, King David, Elijah, Jeremiah and Judas; just to mention a few. Let’s look at a few examples from the life of King David. In Psalm 38:6-8 “I am troubled, I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long…I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart.” Sound familiar? Depression, fear, suicidal thoughts, etc. all begin in the mind. The mind is the battlefield that the devil uses to bring us to a point of despair, defeat, and the desire to give up on life. The fact of the matter is that none of those negative thoughts are true. The Word of God is true.

     In many of the Psalms you find David going through depression and other negative emotions. Depression, self-condemnation, etc. are usually rooted in guilt. We feel so badly about our life that we begin to isolate ourselves from others. Isolation is a major tool that the devil uses against us. If he can get us alone and keep bombarding our minds with his lies that we’re no good, useless, or no one cares… The list of lies goes on.

     Back to King David. In many of the Psalms you will find that David starts off with despairing thoughts but by the time you get to the end of the Psalm he ends on a happy note. Why is this? We find the answer in 1 Samuel 30: 6 – “Now David was greatly distressed…But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.” God is the ONLY one who can help us and deliver us of our hopelessness. Allow me to share just a few points from the bible that may be helpful to you.

God Has a Good Plan For Your Life. ¹¹ “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

¹² Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” )Jeremiah 29:11-12)   God has a specific plan in mind for everyone, but we won’t know that plan unless we ask him. God's plan for you is life, not death. The Bible teaches that both physical and spiritual deaths are the result of our sin and disobedience to God, but eternal life is a gift to those who receive it. (See Romans 3:23) Repentance is the first step in moving forward.

Death And Destruction Are the Work Of The Devil.  “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. “ (John 10:10)

     In this scripture Jesus refers to the devil as a thief. That’s what he is! All that Satan wants to do is steal from our families, and us. He does it by filling our minds with his lies so that we will become discouraged and give up.

The Giving and Taking Of Life Belong To God. “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19)

I won’t dwell on this point because I want to focus on some positives in closing. Simply put, it is never our place to take our own life or someone else's life.

     If suicide is not the answer, then what is?

Hope in the Lord “Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.” (Psalm 33:20)

     We must put our hope in the Lord, not in other people, not in our job, not in ourselves. Our hope should be in the Lord Jesus Christ only.  The solution to hopelessness is not suicide, but faith in God.

Tell Someone “¹² Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, ¹³ and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.” ( Hebrews 12:12-13)

     Tell your pastor or youth minister, your parents, a close relative, your teacher or school counselor, about the struggles you are facing and that suicide is in your thoughts. You can’t get help if the need isn’t made known.

     Lastly, but most importantly…

Accept Christ's Free Gift Of Eternal Life and Salvation “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Romans 10:13)

     If you call out to Jesus, He will answer you! But He’s waiting for you; he will not force himself upon you.  Look at what John 1:12 says; “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”  Once you accept Christ, God gives us a brand-new life and helps you learn to walk a holy life. Allow me to close with one of my favorite scriptures… “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. “  (2 Corinthians 5:17)

     We are here for you. You are not alone!

 

Becoming Strong and Stable

 NOTE: I originally posted this 4 years ago but felt led to do so again.

      Upon reading the following verse I felt led to encourage you with it. 1 Peter 5:10 - “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.” In the first part of the verse is the phrase “God of all grace”. One of my favorite definitions of the word grace is, “God’s ability in me to do that which I don’t have the ability to do.” I like that! It reminds me that the things I cannot do in my own strength, God will help me to do. Of course, we have to ask for His help.

      What I really want to focus on today are the last four key words in the verse – perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle.

 PERFECT – “…but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever Amen.” 2 Peter 3:18

     The word perfect in the Greek this word means “to mend (what has been broken or rent), to repair, to complete, to fit out, to equip, to put in order, to arrange, to adjust, to fit or frame for oneself, to prepare or ethically, to strengthen, to perfect, to complete, to make one what he ought to be.” (Emphasis mine)

     Imagine that, God desires to make us all that we ought to be! In other words, God wants us to mature. He wants us to allow Him to make the necessary changes in our lives so that we can strongly be a reflection of Him for others. This reminds me of Philippians 1:6 which says, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;” What a promise! He WILL complete the work he has started in us!

 ESTABLISH/CONFIRM- “But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.” II Thessalonians 3:3

     Establish in the Greek means “to make stable, to place firmly, to set fast, to fix, to strengthen, to make firm, to render constant, to confirm (one's mind). The idea here is that God wants to build your life and character so that when the storms of life hit, you will have firmly placed in your mind and heart the promise of God’s protection and grace to get you through that time.

STRENGTHEN – “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the LORD.” Psalm 31:24

     The meaning of this word is pretty simple - “to make strong, to strengthen; used of one's soul.” Simply put, the Lord wants to make you stronger in your character and in your walk with him. In times of difficulty as we turn to God for help, He promises to strengthen us. Some of the ways we can gain strength is through a bible study with other believers, by being part of a local church and most importantly by our time spent in the presence of God through prayer, praise and worship.

 SETTLE – “Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; the fear of the LORD is His treasure.” Isaiah 33:6

     This word means to “lay the foundation, to found, to make stable, to establish.” The word I want to focus on here is stable, but before I do that let’s consider the word establish in this definition. For those of you that are Christians you may be trying to find “your place” in your local church. You know you want to serve the Lord. You may even feel called to a particular area of ministry, but you can’t see how it will ever come about. Let me encourage you with this thought. (I must remind myself of this often!) Be patient. God will establish you where He wants you in your local fellowship. We’re all part of the body and we each have our function that God has designed for us. We just need to be willing to do what He wants us to do, not what we want to do.

     Now, getting back to the word stable or stability. Here I want to focus on that is that God wants to make you a stable person. If you call out to Him, as the above verse says, He will be the stability of your times. Jesus Christ is the only person that can give us true stability in our lives! The truth of the matter is that your life will never be ‘settled” until Jesus Christ has come into your life.

     What troubles you today? Look at what Psalm 37:5 says, “Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” You see, that is the key. We must commit everything to the Lord. We must settle in our heart and mind that no matter what we are going through in our life, we are going to live for Jesus. And Haggai 1:7 it says “…consider your ways.” In the Hebrew this translates as :Determine your heart will. that take it to a little deeper level doesn't it?

     Commit everything unto the LORD, and He will establish your thoughts. Do things His way; do them unto Him; turn them over to Him in prayer; and trust Him for the results. He will take care of you. If you are going through a struggle at this time, contact a leader in your church or someone that you know who is a mature Christian and ask them to pray with you.

 Until next time, be strong in the might of the Lord!