June 1st, 2005

[Bowser]

Is Anyone Listening?

The father of the child cried out, "I believe; help my unbelief!"

-Mark 9:24 (NRSV)

I had been praying regularly regarding the problems of substance abuse, anxiety, and depression that my family and I were experiencing. But was God really listening? I became disappointed with God and gradually stopped praying. Instead, I began to turn to friends for comfort. They were very supportive, but I knew something was missing in my life. I thought again about prayer. Perhaps prayer was not just expecting an immediate solution to my problem but rather trusting that God was working to bring good from our struggles. I made a conscious decision to reach out to God again and to remain open as I listened for God's response.

A short time later our family experienced our greatest loss -- our younger son committed suicide. While I had a standard response for friends who kindly inquired, I had no words to offer God. All I had to give God was my broken heart. What God offered me in return was a deep sense of his own sorrow. God did not offer quick answers or press me to speak. We simply walked together in silence. It was prayer.

Anne C. Aker (Virginia, U.S.A.)

Prayer:

Lord, help us hold fast to our trust in you even when we feel that you are far away. Amen.

 

[Bowser]

Here's a response to this topic by one of our members, MontrezAnthony.

He had the following to say:

Luke 7:1-5

1Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3So watch yourselves.
"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him."
5The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"

No words can offer a covering or explanation of the selfishness, horror or sadness of suicide. I have buried so many friends who fell into the trap of this tragedy. Last winter Bernard Blessing came and prophesied over our Church about offenses. He used the above scripture . He explained Back in the Days of Jesus. Many a hunter, used a pit trap. A trap dug deep and wide enough for the animal to be stuck without food and water. So the hunter could easily spear it and kill it. If it was a Lion, tiger, bear, they would leave it a while so it would get weak and then kill it.

Offenses of the enemy work the same way. If we take offense and hold unforgiveness in our hearts. We are in a pit trap. We tend not to want to pray(water for our Spirit) and we tend not to want to Read the word of God (Food for our Spirit) This slowly separates us for GOD. As we pray not for forgiveness and we won’t read how to forgive, we remove our self from God. We become easy picking for the enemy.
Jesus was saying BEWARE of offenses. There gonna come, we need to know that, but we need to forgive , our , brother, mother, sister, father, whomever offended us, if he/she offends us 1000 times, we need to forgive a 1000 times. Even when we feel God has offended us, we need to forgive him, He forgave us, and like a righteous father doing his Job, we must trust to him.

God says in his word, the enemy is a thief, he kills and destroys. God brings life, the devil takes it. The devil took that boy and put him in a pit trap, that he only thought suicide would give him release. I can guarantee you, if he would have had the word, been praying, had good Christian friends and family praying for him, he would have had an advantage.
But in the end though it was his choice, if he rebuked God, and wanted to end it. Then it was a choice. God is not to blame for these rash actions. If anyone mourns this tragedy it is the Lord.