There are lots of lies, false and dangerous information about God and life being propagated by the social media, internet, authors, video games, commercial advertisement, the educational sector and some religious organizations that have led to the increase of suicide in the society. Unfortunately, many people especially the youth believe these lies and falsehood hook, line and sinker to the detriment of their own lives. It is of great importance that each individual knows the truth to be able to discard the lies because only the truth can set free.

I have classified the lies into the following four categories:

*Lies about God
*Lies about Life
*Lies about life’s challenges
*Lies about suicide

1. LIES ABOUT GOD
Foremost in this group is the lie that man does not need God. This in fact is the greatest of all lies from the pit of hell. To believe that man does not need God is to believe that man does not need blood and air to stay alive. As far as life is concerned, God is the Ultimate need of every living thing. He is life, the source of all life and the owner of every life. We all need God because He is our God and creator, Psalm 100:3. He is our very existence. In Him we live, move and have our existence, Acts 17:28; Job 12:10. Man without God is mere clay, Job:12:10. The ability to do anything, enjoy anything and live properly is a gift from God that comes only when we enter into a right relationship with Him and submit to Him as our Lord and God through Jesus Christ.

The simple fact that the fallen world we are in has tactfully removed God from all its system, By not acknowledging Him as God is the reason the whole world is in total disarray and chaos, Romans 1:19-32. God is the number one need of each individual and the whole Universe. The emptiness and purposeless living of many are signs that God is needed. He created us in his image and likeness, it is only proper He is given his rightful place as the controller of our lives.

Unfortunately, people who believed they don’t need God in their lives find it very easy to allow others have access and control of their lives. Many have allowed Satan to have free access to their lives. Meanwhile, the Holy Bible describes Satan as merciless, unsympathetic, evil, a liar, an adversary, a deceiver, a devourer, a thief, a destroyer and a murderer. Your guess is as good as mine concerning the type of life such people would have. Some believe that what they need us their fellow human beings and prosperity. Their possessions, chariots, silver and gold are their gods, Psalm 20:7. They put their trust in man whom the Bible warned us against in Psalm146:3-5. Pathetically, when faced with serious life’s challenges which in most cases are beyond human comprehension and what money could solve, such people realize the unreliability of human beings and futility of possessions. On this realization and with no one but themselves to turn to, they become recluse or deranged; they lose hope, become depressed, give in to suicidal thoughts and eventually carry out the evil act. Life without God is life in crisis.

Another lie the devil has been using to lead people to suicide especially when faced with challenges is that God does not love or care. This is a grand lie made not only to discredit God but also aimed at destroying the believer therefore utmost care must be taken not to believe this lie.

One thing Satan wants to achieve with this lie is for you to turn your back against God and hate Him. Hatred for God in one’s heart is the worst thing anyone could do because it means hating all goodness, life and forfeiting everything God has in store for those who love Him, 1 Corinthians 2:9. It means incurring God’s wrath, Deuteronomy 32:41; Proverbs 8:36.

Satan comes with this lie targeted at the two most needed and cherished things yearned for by humans which is being loved and cared for. Once this lie is believed, it worsens, weakens and destroys the heart already in pains, disturbed, and disheartened, and makes the believer become hopeless and depressed. Love and the assurance of being loved by God performs great wonders in the heart of man. When one lives in the joyful comfort of God’s loving kindness and care one becomes optimistic amid discouragement, strong in spite of weakness/brokenness, patient amid tribulations, brave amid danger, calm amid strive, cheerful amid gloominess and hopeful amid hopelessness.

It is a great lie that God does not love or care for you as it counters the very essence and character of God which is Love. God is Love and compassionate, 1 John 4:8. God loves every soul in the world both the believers and unbelievers alike. God’s love for humanity is the basis of creation and the foundation of creating man in His own image and likeness and the giving of dominion. It is the foundation of salvation and all that God has given and done and He is doing for mankind. How could God whose essence is love, the source of all true love be said not to love and care? How could God who loves and cares for you right from before you were born till this present time even while you were yet a sinner stop loving you? It is not possible for Him to stop loving and caring for you because of the attributes of His love which are; Great (Ephesians 2: 4-5), Endless, Boundless, Changeless. Steadfast (Deuteronomy 7:9; Psalm 136:26). It is not possible that God, whose love and care preceded your birth and conversion not to care or love you anymore? Is it possible that a God who cares for even the ants and sparrows not care for the one He created in His own image and likeness? How could a God who gave His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ to the world turn around not to love those whom the Son died for. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, Romans 5:8; 1 John 4: 9-11. It is not just possible as revealed in Romans 8: 35, 37-39

35)” who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulations, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or unclothedness, or peril, or sword?

37) nay, in all these we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38) for I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39) Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of god, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

No matter what happens you must not give up on your faith in God’s love for you because He loves you so much. Remember that Job did not give up on God’s loving kindness and care for him in the face of the huge losses and could trust without wavering, Job 13: 15-16. King David was sorely persecuted, yet he remained steadfast because he never for once lost sight of God’s loving kindness for Him as he indicated in Psalm 26:3, 40:10

Challenges are not indications of the absence of God’s love for you. Hebrews 12: 6. Neither is it that God’s love is on trial. Whatever the intensity of the challenges you are passing through is not an indication of you not being loved and cared for by God. He is with you in all you are passing through even when it seems He is far away or hidden. He has promised to be with you always Isaiah 43:1-3.

God loves and cares so much about you in whatever you are going through. It is true that one becomes worried and full of anxiety when we see or experience things contrary to our expectations of what we think God’s love and care implies. This is where many of us get is wrong, God’s love like any other of His Attributes is beyond human wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Remember His ways are not like our own. Part of God’s way of showing His love is through chastisement to make you develop godly characters, Hebrews 12:6. Remember, faithfulness to God does not guarantee believers exemption from sufferings, pains, and troubles. However, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, Romans 8: 28. Jesus Christ actually told us we would face tribulations. This is because we live in a fallen world characterized by terrible happenings. He, however promised us His presence, grace, and help in time of trouble. We must never lose the assurance of God’s Love and care for us. When you lose the assurance of God’s love and care the first thing that would happen is that you would be angry and bitter against God. With anger and bitterness comes complains and murmuring against God. From complaining and murmuring comes despondency, hopelessness and the wish to die.

I may not know what you are passing through, the sorrows, the hardship, the pains, the burdens you are carrying, however one thing I know and I am sure of is that Jesus loves you. Hear what God says to you in Isaiah 54: 4, 10- 12

My beloved, hold on to God’s promises no matter how long you have to wait. Lamentations 3:1-27; Habakkuk 3:17.

2. LIES ABOUT LIFE

The first lie in this group is that pleasure and materialism is a way to fulfillment and happiness in life. This is a lie because the scripture makes us to know that a man’s life is not depended on his possessions and that true happiness is from God. Unfortunately, the devil is using this lie to send many teenagers, youths and adults to their early graves in two ways:

i) he either makes them get involved into sinful sex, drug abuse, alcohol, reckless lifestyle and all illegal means of making money all in the pursuit of fulfillment and happiness in life

ii) he makes those who wanted to belong but couldn’t be involved in such things to believe they are missing out of life thereby making them see themselves as social misfits and failures.

It is a deceit that not being involved in sexual immorality, drug abuse, alcoholic, partying, reckless lifestyle and making money illegally makes one a social misfit or failure!

Eventually, when those get involved in pleasure and materialism are confronted with the true realities of life that basing one’s values in life on fame, achievements, wealth, and sensual pleasure all ended up to boredom, emptiness, and disillusionment according to Ecclesiastics 1:2, they lose their equilibrium, become discouraged, depressed, despair and commit suicide.

Life is good and beautiful and is worthy of being enjoyed because life on earth is of short duration compared to eternity. God is not against the enjoyment of one’s life as the story of creation reveals among others that man’s comfort and enjoyment on earth was of topmost priority of God at creation, Genesis 1: 26-31; 2:7-25. God’s desire for us to have the best of life made Him give us His only begotten son to give any who believed in him abundant life after sin made a ruin of man’s life due to man’s disobedience in the garden of Eden. God has given us everything to enjoy.

However, the truth is that the story of creation also reveals man was created to fulfill a destiny – God’s plan, purpose and will (Genesis 1: 28) and in total dependence on Him. This is to say that life and all life’s activities must be done with God in view and the fulfillment of His purpose and will. Only then will such things not degenerate into superficial levity and sinful enjoyment which results is trouble and unhappiness. We can only find fulfillment and happiness if we look for them in God and His will by having faith and trust in Him, only this makes life worthwhile. This is to say that our activities can bring satisfaction and happiness only if one has a personal relationship with God. There is no true fulfillment, pleasure, and happiness of life when lived apart from God and of no benefit of others.

Within this category is yet another lie of the devil that life goes as planned. This is yet another deceit the devil is using to make the people become discouraged, depressed and commit suicide when things don’t work as they had planned it should be. The Scripture reveals that only God’s plan and purpose stands but man’s plans are subject to change.

It is a good thing to have good plans for one’s life, however, understanding certain truths about life would make us understand why things may not work out as planned and help us brace up when things don’t work as planned. The Scripture tells us certain facts about life that may likely not make things worked out as planned.

a). Life is spiritual. It is like as a wind, something not visible to the naked eyes. It is beyond the physical and what our senses can determine. This implies it is not something tangible that we can get hold of and get under our control.

b). Life is a great mystery. This implies many things about life are beyond human understanding and comprehension. Many things about life are enshrouded in great mysteries, they can only be known when it unravels itself, we only know of the moment we are in and not the future. Life is past finding out.

c). No one is sure of life, Job 24: 22. This implies no one can know or declare categorically what will happen in the next minute, Ecclesiastes 10:14. This is because life is full of uncertainties, it is unpredictable. Unforeseen incidents that one never envisaged such as ill health, accidents, misfortunes, natural disasters, death of loved ones and many others can happen suddenly and force many us to abandon our plans.

d). Life like a coin has two sides of everything and they work hand in hand and we can’t have one and avoid the other. The two sides are positive and negative sides; unpleasant and uncomfortable, light and darkness, male and female, day and night, dry and wet, the spiritual and physical aspect of life. There is the evil and good side, life/death, light/dark side, up/down, positive/negative, beautiful/ugly, fair/unfair, mountaintop/lowland, physical/ spiritual, plenty/lack, deep/shallow, happy/sad, strong/weak, desert/oasis, straight/bend, hard/soft, sweet/bitter.

e). Life like nature has its own times and seasons as listed in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. Life’s times and seasons like that of nature are not static but dynamic. It changes from one season to another without warning thereby making no condition permanent. Every man will experience his/her own share of the different seasons and times. Each season has its own times and purposes. The Scriptures also reveal certain truths we should know about times and seasons:

They are divinely determined and fixed by God and cannot be changed by any. Acts 17:24-26.Job 14: 5.
The Scripture also reveals that no man can predict or know when a change of time will come upon him. Ecclesiastes 9:11-12.
This implies that no man has the power to have prior knowledge of occurrences of life. This reveals the futility in consulting evil powers of divination, horoscope and many others that claim to foretell times and seasons. Change of times comes suddenly upon a man like as it did David, Joseph, Job, and all others before us and its duration differs from one man to another depending on the divine purpose it is meant to serve.

f). Only God’s counsel stands. God alone knows all that exists. He knows each day, time, seasons and everything that is good for us. He has an eternal plan that includes the purpose and activities of every person on earth, Jeremiah 11:29. Our plans if not dedicated to God have no permanent value. We must see life as a gift from God and look to Him to work out his purpose for us and for this reason we are charged to commit our ways to God for their establishment.

3. LIES ABOUT LIFE’S CHALLENGES

The first lie in this area is that your challenge is peculiar to you alone. To believe this is like believing you are the only human being living. Believing that one is the only one passing through a particular problem can be very disheartening and discouraging. It makes the victim judge that something is terribly wrong with him or her to warrant what he or she is passing through. Once this happens, self-criticism sets in, with self-criticism comes self-doubt which leads to low self-esteem and self-pity. When self-doubt happens, self-isolation sets in where the victim starts avoiding or disassociating from family and friends until he or she becomes totally withdrawn and go into seclusion. Once in seclusion, loneliness sets in. Loneliness will make the victim stop taking good care of him or herself, indulge in poor eating habits of either overeating or under eating or excessive intake of alcohol or drugs. With loneliness is self harm and destruction.

You must not believe the lie because no challenge/problem is unique or peculiar to any particular individual. Most challenges are universal. It is a common phenomenon, Ecclesiastes 9: 2. This means that whatever circumstance you are facing now is common to mankind and not peculiar to you alone. “Whom resist, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” (1 Peter 5: 9).

See complete post here - http://lovelashblog.com/2018/12/30/how-to-avoid-becoming-a-victim-of-suicide-part-6-dont-believe-the-lies-of-the-devil/

GOD LOVES YOU AND SO DO I