Photo by Jack Finnigan on Unsplash
It’s a beautiful day in Mr. Rogers neighborhood, is it beautiful in yours?
OR, do you live in a neighborhood where it rains all the time…making you feel isolated, lonely, depressed. RAIN, RAIN, RAIN.
It is a popular belief that the suicide rate peaks during the winter months, especially where it rains all the time. There is actually a sickness called ‘seasonal affective disorder’. We tend to associate winter with depression. But, according to the French sociologist, Emile Drukheim, ‘most suicides take place in the spring because everything begins to awake; activity is resumed, relations spring up, interchanges increase. In other words, it is the density of human interactions, and not the environment that caused higher incidence of suicide in spring or summer.’
Some also believe that holiday cheer amplifies loneliness and hopelessness in people who have lost loved ones, or who have high expectations of renewed happiness during the holiday season, only to be disappointed. There are also many other factors like the occurrence of natural disasters, sickness or mental illness. And what effect has the Covid Virus had on the rate of suicide?
Believe it or not, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States! In 2018, 48,344 Americans died by suicide.
That’s an average of 132 suicides per day.
IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.
You can live ‘in the world’, but not be of this world!
Listen to the words of John the Baptist who was called of God to prepare the way for the ministry of Jesus Christ. He said, ‘the kingdom of heaven has come near’ meaning Jesus was coming and bringing the kingdom of God with Him!
Jesus proclaimed, ‘the good news of the kingdom’. The ‘good news’ is He has come to restore our relationship with God, wants to be a part of our lives and deliver us from this broken world into the Kingdom of God!
And He taught us to pray, ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, YOUR KINGDOM COME YOUR WILL BE DONE, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN’.
Does Jesus get His prayers answered? Has Gods’ kingdom come to the earth?
YES! And you can live in it now by accepting Jesus Christ as your savior! You will still be in this world, but not of this world. You will live in the physical world, but be of the world of the Spirit, the kingdom of God.
As the apostle Paul said in Colossians 1:13-14, ‘He (Jesus) has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins’.
Your life in the ‘kingdom of God’, the spiritual world will supersede your life in the physical world and as the apostle Paul admonishes us, we will ‘set our hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, and set our minds on things above, NOT ON EARTHLY THINGS!’ Colossians 3:1-2.
Instead of dwelling on the weather, political chaos, natural disasters, the Coronavirus, loneliness, hopelessness, loss, sickness, disappointment, and on and on, we ‘set our minds and hearts on the things above!’
Living in the kingdom of God, we do not worry saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But (we) ‘seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to us’. Paraphrased from Matthew 6.
We think about ‘whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, we think on these things.’ Philippians 3:8.
We keep our ‘minds steadfast, trusting in God and He keeps us in perfect peace because the Lord himself is the Rock eternal!’ Isaiah 26:3-4.
We think about the words of Jesus, ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid’. John 14:27. NKJV
We think about scriptural admonitions like, ‘do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ Philippians 4:4-7.
Or, ‘I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’.
Romans 8:38-39.
Or, ‘God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind’.
2 Timothy 1:7.
You will know that God loves you. You will feel His presence and in His presence is ‘fulness of joy!’ Psalm 16:11. NKJV.
You’ll be like Habakkuk, whose people were facing the invasion of their country!
‘Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.’ Habakkuk 3:17-19.
And live the lyrics of the song by Helen Howarth Lemmel.
‘Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.’
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.
Learn to live in the world, but not be of the world. Be of the kingdom of God and I guarantee it will be,
‘A beautiful day in (your) neighborhood!’
It’s a wonderful to have His peace regardless of our situations. As a human being, it difficult at times to remember He’s got our backs.
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People take their lives for many reasons, depression, lack of hope , no one to talk too. Reach out to the Lord, seek his guidance and wisdom, for he will not forsake you.
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