Did you know more people commit suicide during the Christmas Holidays than any other time of the year, I didn’t until recently? In all honesty, I never really thought about it. However, I have often wondered how someone could take their own life. It just doesn't seem reasonable to me, but it happens, it happens a lot.
When it was determined, I would write on this topic, I didn't really want to do it. I'm not sure why, maybe because I’ve never had suicidal tendencies, maybe because I feel more comfortable writing on the subject of addiction. Maybe, because Satan doesn't want the possibility someone may read this and turn to God instead of ending their life.
So instead of trying to find a way out writing, I started researching suicide. I would like to share some statistics I found online. It shocked me!
Suicide takes the lives of more than 30,000 Americans every year. Every 18 minutes another life is lost to suicide. Every day 80 Americans take their own lives and over 1,900 Americans visit Emergency Departments for self-inflicted injury (National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, total 706,000).
Suicide is now the 11th leading cause of death in Americans. For every two victims of homicide in the U.S. there are three persons who take their own lives. There are now twice as many deaths due to suicide as to HIV/AIDS. Between 1952 and 1995, the incidence of suicide among adolescents and young adults nearly tripled. In the month prior to their suicide, 75% of elderly persons had visited a physician. Over half of all suicides occur in adult men, aged 25-65. Many who make suicide attempts never seek professional care after the attempt.
Males are four times more likely to die from suicide than are females.
More teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia and influenza, and chronic lung disease, combined.
The one that really dropped my chin and made me say a little prayer was this:
EVERY 18 MINUTES ANOTHER LIFE IS LOST TO SUICIDE
Suicide comes from hopelessness, which stems from depression then leads to isolation, guilt, discouragement, anxiety, etc. All coming from a feeling of unforgiveness and whether the person has not forgiven someone else, themselves or does not feel like they can be forgiven, the feelings begin to eat at them until they can no longer deal with the emotions.
We must all understand that guilt comes from Satan, because of sins we and others commit.
Knowing you are forgiven by God is the key to forgiving yourself and others. It is not the sin that binds many, it is the guilt they have not yet released.
1 John 1:9 (KJV) 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It doesn't matter what your sin is, or how bad you think it is. Before I accepted Christ into my heart, I used to think some of the things I had done could never be forgiven. I was doubting forgiveness for myself because I thought these things were some of the worst things you could do.
That all changed after I humbled myself and asked for His forgiveness. He cleansed all my sins away and I AM FORGIVEN. You can be forgiven too. All you have to do is ask. Knowing God has forgiven me is enough to make me forgive myself. Because if He is willing to forgive me knowing all I have done, then I am willing to forgive me and others too.
Don't let Satan make you feel guilty for what you can be forgiven of or have been forgiven for. It all starts with him tempting us to sin, but it ends with God's forgiveness.
Don't allow guilt to lead into depression and thoughts or actions of suicide. Run to Christ and the Cross, just like me and so many others He is waiting there for you, to forgive and restore you; just call on His name.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (KJV)19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
Becky's Key for the Week: Life belongs to God. It is never our place to take our own life or someone else's life. God says all have sinned, and it is His desire that all come to Him for forgiveness.