REASON #2: We all have a God-ordained course that we’re supposed to keep and complete. We’re not supposed to stop halfway down the course. We’re supposed to find and finish our course.
Say this out loud: I have a God-ordained course.
Sadly, many Christians have just wandered all over the place and done everything under the sun except try to find out what they’re supposed to be doing. But if you’re alive, it’s not too late to find your course. There’s something you’re supposed to be doing. There are things in which you’re supposed to be involved. You are supposed to relate to and helping other people. And you’re not supposed to quit until you finish your course.
Now you’ll be tempted to quit, but doesn’t the Bible talk about running your race with patience and perseverance? It is important. There’s a lot of work to be done, and everybody needs to be doing their job. If you leave early, and you don’t do your work, guess what? We must do it. Don’t be surprised if you do that, and later, we show up at your house and say, “Hey, what was the idea leaving early and not getting your work done? We had to do yours and ours too.” I’m sure we’ll forgive you and get past it, but you may hear from us about it.
Now some people say, “Well, aren’t people who commit suicide lost?” I don’t know why you’d think so automatically. If you were saved before you committed suicide, why wouldn’t you be saved after? If you were lost when you committed suicide, you’d still be lost after.
People have all these ideas about it: “Well, technically, yes, but if you did this, and you were already dead, could you get forgiveness?” That’s just men’s reasoning and thinking. If you’re saved before you did it, you’re saved after. And you know, why would killing yourself be that much different from killing somebody else? That’s not an unpardonable sin. It’s not an unforgiveable sin. It’s a sin, and it’s wrong, but there’s no need to assume that because a person committed suicide, he is automatically going to hell or that he is lost. I see no reason to assume such a thing. If you’re saved before, you’re saved after.
Like this woman who attempted suicide by hanging described, she wasn’t saying she was lost. She said that she regretted it immediately. It hit her, and she was sorry. She was so glad she got an opportunity that most people don’t get—to come back and get it right.
In 2 Corinthians 1:8-10, KJV, Paul said, “We would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.” Paul was having some moments, wasn’t he? He said, “We despaired of life.” What does that mean? He didn’t want to keep living. He didn’t want to keep going. This is Paul we’re talking about.
I don’t care who you are, how much you think you know, or how much you think you know about God—you can be pressed beyond your limit. You can be pressed to the point where it just seems you can’t handle it—and you can’t. I know a lot of people think, Well, I’m strong. I can handle anything. But the truth is anyone can be maxed out and pushed to the point where they are tempted to despair of life. Anybody. And if you think not, then you’ve just never been pressed that far.
But we need to learn what Paul learned because he didn’t quit. Verse 9 says, “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.” This is victory over death, isn’t it? The devil will come and say, “You can’t handle this. This is too much for you. You’re not able to overcome it. You’re not able to deal with this.” A lot of times, you need to look up and say, “You know, you’re right. I can’t. I’m not enough, but I’m not alone. I have Somebody with me, and ‘greater is He that’s in me than he that is in the world’.” (1 John 4:4)
There was a time when Paul pressed the Lord about helping him concerning that thing that was oppressing and vexing him, and what did the Lord tell him? “My grace is sufficient for you.” When he got the revelation, he said, “When I’m weak, that’s when I’m strong. When I get to the place where I have no more, that’s when I tap into the Almighty; that’s when something comes up inside me that’s beyond me” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
You’ll notice when people get ready to commit suicide, they keep saying things like, “I can’t. I can’t handle this. I can’t do this. I can’t go on.” No believer should talk like this when the scripture says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Don’t say, “I can’t.” Maybe in yourself you can’t, but through Him, Christ Jesus Who strengthens you, you can.
Paul went on to say in 2 Corinthians 1:9-10, KJV, “We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us…” This sounds like the 91st Psalm, doesn’t it? Did He deliver Paul? Was He with him? Did He protect him? Did He rescue him, help him, and honor him? “He delivered us from so great a death, and he doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.” Don’t you like this? He delivered us. He delivers us. And from anything that happens in the future, He will deliver us. We’re going to make it. We’re not going to quit, we’re not going to give up, and we’re not going to say, “It’s hopeless. We’re helpless victims.” No, we’re not. When I’m weak, that’s when I’ll be strong. God will come up in me. His Spirit will quicken me. He will help me.
If you despair and pull the trigger or swallow the bottle of pills, then you take it out of God’s hands and don’t give Him any opportunity or time. You have no idea what you missed, or what you might have been able to do to help others in time to come. Friend, your victory is other people’s victory. When you overcome, it affects lives around you. Did you know that? But if you give up and quit, that will affect lives around you, too. You would not want to give up and quit and inspire three other people to commit suicide over the next ten years. They look at you and think, well, if they couldn’t make it, I can’t either, so I might as well check out too.
You don’t want to be that kind of inspiration. You want to be the inspiration of the man or woman who—no matter what—wouldn’t quit. You held on to God, and He turned the situation around and showed you how He could save. Then year after year, when people ask you about it, you can stand up and say, “It never gets too bad for God to help you out. He will help you out of anything. I know I felt like it, but He brought me out. I’m so glad I didn’t quit, because now I’m enjoying this, and I’ve been a part of that, and these last ten years we’ve accomplished this… Now I’m not just going in empty-handed. I have some fruit. I have some rewards in the next life.”
I’m not quitting, how about you? “I’m going to run my race, and I’m going to finish my course.” That’s what Paul said in 2 Timothy 4, years after all these ordeals had transpired. Paul had been shipwrecked, beaten, stoned, and betrayed. He saw some things, didn’t he? But in 2 Timothy 4:5, he’s telling Timothy, the young minister under him, “Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” Then in verse 6 he says, “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.” They are boarding right now, and my flight is about to leave. He continues, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Glory to God. “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing” (4:5-8, KJV). Would that be us?
Now God is a faith God. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Is it “faith” if in desperation you quit, give up, don’t try anymore, and you succumb? Or when you say, “I’m defeated, it’s too late, it’s over.”? As soon as you get out of the body, guess Who you’re going to see. Is He going to be pleased with you that you quit and didn’t try? No. What pleases Him? Faith pleases Him.
This is so much better than being cut off in midlife, robbing yourself of the remainder of your years. If you have another 40, 50 or 75 years to go, it will pass by quickly, like telephone poles on the highway when you are going a hundred miles an hour. The next thing you know, you’re going to look up, and it’s going to be time to go anyway. Why cut it short? These days are precious days that we have. Our time on earth is very precious. Isn’t it so much better to stick it out through the pain, the anguish, the desperation, and the temptations to say, “No. I don’t care. God has helped me before. He’ll help me this time. He’ll never leave me, and He’ll never forsake me. I’m not going to take my own life. I’m not going to quit. I’m not going to give up. I’m going to give Him time to help me and show me.”
And then you make it, and it gets better and better. You get free, and then something good happens. Then something even better than that happens. There are challenges, but you overcome them, too. There are tests, and it hurts, but you don’t quit. Then something else good happens, and the next thing you know, you get up one morning and realize, “Glory to God. I’m done. The time of my departure is at hand, and I can honestly say, ‘I’m finished. I don’t feel like there is more I have to do. I have fought a good fight. I have run a good race. I have finished. I’m about to reach out and hit the ribbon. I’m finishing my race.’”
The next thing you know, you’re out of your body, and when you meet Him, He will say, “Well, done. Good job. You were faithful in a few things. I’m going to make you ruler over much. You didn’t quit; you stayed with Me” (Matthew 25:21). All the pain and anguish of the earth will be like something that happened in three seconds, and you’ll never think about it anymore. You’ll have eternity to enjoy the fruits of your reward.
I want you to say this to see how it feels:
I have fought a good fight.
I finished my course.
I kept the faith, and I’m ready to go.
Isn’t that the way to do it, after you’ve seen it all and done it all, and you’re old? You’re so old that the old people call you “old.” Then you’re out of here.
Why shouldn’t you just end it? Why shouldn’t you just take your own life? There are lots of reasons why, aren’t there? The devil is a liar. It’s never as hopeless as it seems to be, if you just give God time. You are on a course that you’re supposed to finish. You need to do it. You need to go all the way.
Watch for Part 3 of 3 in “Do Thyself No Harm” in my next blog. God bless you.
