Sunday, 1st August, 2021
Bible Reading: 1 Samuel 31:4, 2 Samuel 17:23, Matthew 27:5
Memory Verse: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Jeremiah 29:11 (KJV)
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one’s own death. Suicide is self murder. Factors that affect the risk of suicide include mental disorders, drug misuse, genetics, experiences of trauma or loss, and nihilism. Socio-economic problems such as unemployment, poverty, homelessness, and discrimination may also trigger suicidal thoughts. A number of psychological factors such as hopelessness, loss of pleasure in life, depression, anxiety, agitation, rigid thinking, rumination, thought suppression, and poor coping skills increase the risk of suicide. Satan and his demons capitalizes on one or some of these aforementioned factors and continues to bombard the mind of a man with suicidal thoughts.
Please hear me, beloved: No problem is worth taking your life for. Wikipedia reports that about 12 out of 1000 suicides cases are reported every year. Common methods of suicide include hanging, pesticide poisoning, and firearms. Though older people have been particularly associated with suicide, young people have their share especially in recent times. Students who failed major examination have been known to take their own lives. Suicides resulted in 828,000 global deaths in 2015, an increase from 712,000 deaths in 1990. This makes suicide the 10th leading cause of death worldwide. There are an estimated 10 to 20 million non-fatal attempted suicides every year.
Louis Scott is the name of the guy who jumped off San Francisco’s Golden Bridge in an attempted suicide. Thank God for His timely rescue. When interviewed, he adviced that you shouldn’t keep silent about your pain. Voice it out. Look for a Christian counsellor or your pastor. He also said it is very important you build a support system of faithful friends you can run to in times of trouble. Don’t live like an Island. Today, he goes about comforting others with the same comfort he has received (2 Cor. 1:4) saying nothing is too big to take your life for.
Dear friend, the true definition of our lives rest in God – what the Word of God says you are. Jesus is your only true hope for a future, not your circumstances. Our problems only points to the fact that we are human anyway. None of them should ever push you to suicide. They have come that they may pass away. Those who commit suicide dishonour God the giver of life and ultimately end their lives in hell.
Quote: Never let a stumble in the road be the end of the journey.
Prophetic Decree: Any arrow of suicide fired into your life shall backfire, in Jesus name.
Prayer Focus
1. Owner of life, I celebrate you.
2. I substitute my pain for the grace of God, in Jesus name.
3. I laminate my mind from any depressing thought, in Jesus name.
4. Holy Spirit, please fill me with words and thoughts of hope despite my daunting challenges, in Jesus name.
5. My root speaking suicide, I silence you by the atoning blood of Jesus, in Jesus name.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Isaiah 64-66
