There are many individuals within the Bible who struggled with suicidal thoughts. According to Grace Evangelical Society, a few of them include Elijah, Job, and Jonah. Elijah had just finished calling down fire from heaven and successfully battling the prophets of Baal and Asherah. Israel even got here back to the Lord after this amazing showdown in Chapter 18 of 1st Kings. Then, when Jezebel threatened to take Elijah’s life in chapter 19, Elijah panicked and ran for his life. An emotionally and physically exhausted Elijah asked God to take his life.
But God refused to do this. Instead, He encouraged Elijah to get some sleep and ministered to his physical needs with food and water, in addition to his emotional needs with His presence. Sometimes, one of the best thing to do for somebody struggling emotionally is solely to be quiet and present with them within the moment.
Job lost all he owned and all of his children in a single day (Job 1:13-19). Then, in chapter three, he expresses his regrets in regards to the day he was born. Finally, in Job 3:11, he asked, “Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish after I got here from the womb?”
The words that Job’s friends spoke to him are an awesome example of how not to answer someone who’s fighting suicidal thoughts. In the top, the Lord Himself got here and ministered to Job and restored to him even greater than he initially lost.
God asked Jonah to evangelize the enemies of Israel. Jonah wasn’t in any respect keen on that concept. In the top, he became indignant with God because God saved them. Jonah likely felt like he betrayed his people. He asked God to take his life, but God refused, explaining that He had pity on Nineveh because they did not have the power to “…discern between their right hand and their left…”
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