Suicide Awareness—R Fritz
When we are around people, we should assess their mental and physical health. That is something that if we love people we should look at, it is us showing our love. We do not need to have a medical degree. We have too many people thinking about suicide, and we are not doing enough to stop it. I have set up suicide awareness classes for people to get the training needed to be able to see those who are showing signs of suicide. I have people say we are not suicidal and do not need the class, they do not understand the class is for the people around us we are trying to help. In other words, when it happens to somebody we know, it matters then. I have a different thought of being prepared before I need it, that is the way I look at things. Sometimes the signs do not show and there is nothing we can do. We might ask the question of how I change the result. It is first taking a suicide awareness class, second, it is having a relationship with the Holy Spirit. These two items will change how many people try suicide and succeed.
We are trying to gather information on suicide on our own. Suicide is a spiritual problem where most decisions are made by men and not by God. The Holy Spirit or God knows what is going on in our lives, but we are not asking for help in suicide cases. I have been involved in suicide awareness for at least eight years. I have helped to sponsor classes for five years which gave me what men knew about suicide this did help a lot. The biggest help came from the Holy Spirit as I was asked to talk to people sent to me because people were talking about suicide. Luke 12:11-12 says and this is Jesus, speaking “And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.” We trust the Holy Spirit and watch what happens. When we are the last step before somebody could commit suicide, we start praying as we are dialing that phone number then we let the Holy Spirit take over to ask the questions that need to be asked to change the thinking process in somebody. People have asked me to talk to different people about suicide. My success rate I give to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has asked me to pray for people who I thought were thinking about suicide knowing I made a difference in their lives without knowing them in some cases.
There must be more people out there to fight the spiritual battle, people who want to step up to save people from the spirit of suicide. There is depression and mental diseases that come before suicide to break people down. It is the pain that these people cannot take any longer, looking for a way out from the pain. When we focus on our pain when it gets too hard to bear, we are not focused on the right thing. The problem is because we are focused on pain, we forget who our healer and our Savior is. John 10:10 says and this is Jesus, speaking “The thief cometh not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” Satan wants to get rid of us, Jesus came to give us a great life. We forget who our enemy is and who is our Savior. Satan knows how to get our attention because he will keep telling us it hurts a lot. If we put all our focus on Jesus the pain disappears, I have seen it happen to myself. We need to remind people who are in a lot of pain who our healer is and to get back to Jesus because the battle is won in the Spirit. There are people who I have talked to that have a disease where they think they will die so they want to give the insurance money to their family. God gave suicide to be my specialty as a chaplain when I was ordained, something I take seriously knowing the Holy Spirit must be involved to win the battle.
I received a text message from somebody who told me a relative had committed suicide this week. They did not have any idea why this person would commit suicide. We always look at how we missed seeing the signs. I sometimes see things spiritually about people and start praying immediately. Some people’s lives are spared where others are not, God only knows for sure why but when our time is up that is it. It gets back to our relationship with the Holy Spirit and God’s plans for ourselves as well as the other person. People who commit suicide are only thinking of themselves because the people left behind are left with the grief and the cleaning up of the spiritual mess. That might be blunt, but it is the truth. The spiritual mess is family, children, and friends to deal with a spiritual decision made under duress. This person was not in their right mind because if this person thought and prayed about what they were about to do it would not happen. There are always ways to deal with anything if the Holy Spirit is involved. We take our most important decisions to men or just decide to make these decisions ourselves. Do we really trust God, it does not look like it because of our actions. If we cannot trust God with our smaller decisions, we certainly will not do it with our most important decisions.
We need to look at our sphere of influence and the people around us to make a difference in talking to and listening to people, especially those that are struggling with depression, or their life is becoming hard. It is us taking time to reach out to our family and friends. It is hard to believe a blood-bought person who knew Jesus would let Satan get them to think their life meant nothing. Galatians 1:3-4 says “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:”
The Holy Spirit gave me something to say to the person who texted me about the suicide. First, the person who committed suicide had second thoughts, but it was too late. Second God will use this terrible situation to make something good for this family. May God give you the glory. God Bless.
