Feeling hopeless?

"It's hopeless! I don't know what to do anymore. I'm stuck. There's no way out."

That sounds like depression. It sounds like someone whose troubles seem to have no solution.

Does it sound like you?

Maybe you are in great pain. Frustrations at school, disappointments at home, anger about relationships. They can hurt more than words can describe. Maybe you see no way out. Statistics show that teen suicide has grown dramatically in recent decades. What if you feel like you could become one of those statistics?

I was there

On February 14, 1990 I almost committed suicide. My neck still bears the scar where I began cutting it open with a knife. I was nineteen years old. I had felt lonely and isolated for years. Then I was rejected by a girl with whom I was head over heels "in love." It was more than I could take. I just wanted to end all the grief of loneliness.

God had other plans for me. He saved my life that night.

My problem: idolatry

Since that time he's been transforming my life. I've learned to rely on him alone. I've learned I needed no one else. I found that I have happiness and contentment with what God has already given me. I've learned how wrong it is to claim that I "need" something more that he would give. I've learned my near-suicide was born of idolatry -- I was worshiping things, relationships, myself. I was seeking earthly salvation in place of eternal salvation.

Those who value anything above God-even parents and family-are falling to the same sin. This does not mean it is evil to value our family or friends. What is sin is getting our priorities in the wrong order. It was not wrong for me to desire the love of a young lady, but it was wrong for me to believe I "needed" her affection more than I needed God's love. The Bible promises us that when we love him first, the greatest blessing of life are ours in return (Romans 8:28). I've learned how true that is.

Trust God's grace

In a few weeks I will marry a wonderful young Christian lady. I would never have met her if God had not arranged it. Certainly not if I had destroyed myself. God is faithful. From our suffering he brings greater grace. There is no problem too big for God to solve, and no circumstance God cannot use to bring his love to those who repent and trust him.

Here's how we can be sure of that: "[God] who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). There is no way-since God has invested his Son in us-that he will ever let us down, that he will fail to give us what we need when we need it.

So look past those feelings that you are trapped in a painful situation. Look beyond the feeling that life is hopeless. Look to Jesus' cross and its testimony that his heaven-opening mission is completed. Look to the guarantee that God loves you and will never go back on his promises to you.

Eric Blievernicht is a quality engineer with an interest in Christian apologetics and the application of biblical principles to all of life.