SUICIDE

Then Judas… went out and hanged himself. —Matthew 27:5

It is a very sad state as we are told that every 65 minutes a vet commits suicide http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/21/us/22-veteran-suicides-a-day/ and it may be even worse than that. Even as grim as it is for vets, we are told that in 2013 “someone in the country died by suicide every 12.8 minutes” https://www.afsp.org/understanding-suicide/facts-and-figures. White males, we are told in this article, accounted for 70% of all suicides in 2013 and people in the 45-64 year old age group had the highest level of suicide and the greatest increase of suicide since 2000 AD and especially since 2006 AD.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/232659-obama-signs-military-suicide-prevention-bill-into-law is a “suicide prevention bill” that was signed into law recently to help vets. I am all for helping vets, but this bill appears to focus on the physical aspect of suicide and not the most important part— the spiritual.

Suicide is largely a spiritual problem. God is the author of life; Satan is the author of death. Just read Genesis chapters 1-3 and you can clearly see this. Satan is a liar and the father of lies. He is also a murderer (John 8:44). He promises things, but with no good intentions. He has only evil in mind as his end goal. He sets people up to destroy them. He hates God and the people God has created. He cannot destroy God, but he does seek to destroy what God has created.

Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. This was satanically motivated (John 13:26-30). The promise of money for fulfillment was Satan’s ploy for Judas, but after Judas realized, according the verse above in context, what he had done, he felt remorse. Instead of Judas confessing his guilt to the Lord, Satan encouraged him to commit suicide. Satan is out to destroy people however he can (1 Peter 5:8).

We are in a spiritual battle. Worldly governments do not seek to solve problems of any kind, including the suicide of vets or anyone else, by turning to the Lord God Almighty. There may be individuals in government who seek this avenue, but governments as a whole do not. We do need to pray for our government as commanded. Pray it may seek God’s solutions and not humanistic ones. May we do so.

Dear Father, please give wisdom to our leaders in how to best handle life’s problems. I ask this in the authority of Jesus.