Article January 20, 1997 Issue

God's power over thoughts of self-destruction

Betty W. Hurlburt

A News article headline read, "Fifteen teens made suicide pact" (Associated Press, 1995). The article stated, in part: "... an emergency room physician ... said one girl told him the suicide attempts were part of an agreement in which fifteen girls vowed to kill themselves if any one did. He said all ... were doing well in academics and sports."

What should be the immediate response to such a report? Are those who want to stop this kind of tragedy alert enough to deny the power of such destructive thoughts on the basis that they could not possibly have their source in God? Such a denial is a powerful counteraction to thoughts of suicide. Can Truth-knowing prove to be a preventive to such specific aggressive suggestions coming as an individual's or a group of individuals' own thought? Yes, it can. It is the irresistible power of God, divine Love, that determines the life and purpose of man. Evil thoughts don't come from divine Mind and have no authority over man. Therefore, no one is destined to follow evil in any form, whether it appears to come from person, place, or thing. Right where misleading thoughts claim to be, right there is God's gentle and unerring leading.

Abraham, one of the Biblical patriarchs, showed that it is not God's will to sacrifice human life, but only to sacrifice whatever would keep us from trusting and obeying God. In his desire to serve God wholeheartedly, Abraham was willing to do whatever he felt was required of him. He even felt that he might have to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. His spiritual perception, however, had been sharpened during many years of listening to and following God with joy and without murmuring. In this ultimate crisis, he perceived at the very last moment the saving message from God, described in the Bible this way: "The angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him" (Gen. 22:11, 12).

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