Grief

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Comfort for grief when mental damage or chemical imbalance is involved in the choice to end life.

What hope is there when a dear one ends his life?

What does God do for defective brains?

 Some choices are made by sick brains incapable of good choices.

In sorrow, He is my comfort. He is a strong and mighty tower and a fortress from the woes in this old world.

Psalms147:3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. 

 With heavy grief, I heard the horrible news my friend had become very discouraged, depressed and had ended his life. I wept in such agony. I had been impressed to pray those last 10 days for his salvation. Did God hear me? Could he be saved if he committed suicide? Uncontrollable sobs shook my frame. He was a good friend. Was he ready to meet Jesus? I could not sleep till I had an answer. 

Did depression change him till he had no hope?

He was a lawyer. He knew the law. He knew killing was wrong. I am so glad God knows about mind illnesses. He is judge. We can trust He will do the right thing in all cases.

His law is not to be broken. Suicide breaks the commandments.

I wrestled in prayer over knowing the answer. I felt if I only knew I could rest and also take comfort to his widow and family.

 Suicide is breaking 6th commandment

"To shorten life by self-murder is a breach of the sixth precept of God's law. He has not granted us permission to commit suicide gradually any more than he has given us a permit to commit suicide suddenly. While one puts out existence at once, the other does the work according to approved fashion. The fashionable suicides, by wrong and sinful habits, commit suicide gradually, prolonging their own suffering, and casting a heavy burden upon sympathizing friends. Which is the greater sinner?"  {HR, January 1, 1873 par. 1}
  Jesus said, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. This man had been such a help to me when I was discouraged and depressed over business losses, and the death of my own son. The hormone surges of being a new mother without a live child to feed were flooding my body. This kind man had encouraged me to hope. He always knew just what to say. My husband and I were facing enormous financial consequences which it would be impossible of ever recovering from. Both of us were tempted to end everything. This kind man gave us hope and a desire to live.

  Now he was gone. I searched the Bible and the writings of my favorite author Ellen White. Surely somewhere, I could get assurance that when this man had shot himself, God had preserved his life forces long enough for him to cry out to Jesus. The thief on the cross was saved in his last hour as he believed Jesus could save him. Surely God would minister to this man who had helped so many in crisis. Then I found this quotation.

In the final hour of the merciful, Jesus personally ministers to the suffering ones. Knowledge of this is a great comfort to those who mourn the loss of such a one who has shown kindness and mercy.

The merciful "shall obtain mercy" (Matt. 5:7). "The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself" (Prov. 11:25). There is sweet peace for the compassionate spirit, a blessed satisfaction in the life of self-forgetful service for the good of others. {HP 238.5}
He who has given his life to God in ministry to His children is linked with Him who has all the resources of the universe at His command. By the golden chain of the immutable promises his life is bound up with the life of God. The Lord will not fail him in the hour of suffering and need. "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:19). And in the hour of final need the merciful shall find refuge in the mercy of the compassionate Saviour and by Him shall be received into everlasting habitations. {HP 238.6} Heavenly Places.
"The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and Thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness." Psalm 41:1-3. {MB 23.2}
He who has given his life to God in ministry to His children is linked with Him who has all the resources of the universe at His command. His life is bound up by the golden chain of the immutable promises with the life of God. The Lord will not fail him in the hour of suffering and need. "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19. And in the hour of final need the merciful shall find refuge in the mercy of the compassionate Saviour and shall be received into everlasting habitations." {MB 24.1} Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings
"Even the babe in its mother's arms may dwell under the shadow of the Almighty through the faith of the praying mother. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth. If we live in communion with God, we too may expect the divine Spirit to mould our little ones, even from their earliest moments." {AH 274.3} Adventist Home
  Many mentally retarded, genetically damaged people are but tiny children in their minds. This promise shows God is faithful to restore that child with defective intelligence to the parent.
"Not a sigh is breathed, not a pain felt, not a grief pierces the soul, but the throb vibrates to the Father's heart. . . . God is bending from His throne to hear the cry of the oppressed. To every sincere prayer He answers, "Here am I." He uplifts the distressed and downtrodden. In all our afflictions He is afflicted. In every temptation and every trial the Angel of His presence is near to deliver."--The Desire of Ages, p. 356. (1898) {CM 116.2}
"Our fondest hopes are often blighted here. Our loved ones are torn from us by death. We close their eyes and habit them for the tomb, and lay them away from our sight. But hope bears our spirits up. We are not parted forever, but shall meet the loved ones who sleep in Jesus. They shall come again from the land of the enemy. The Life-giver is coming. Myriads of holy angels escort Him on His way. He bursts the bands of death, breaks the fetters of the tomb, the precious captives come forth in health and immortal beauty. {2SM 259.6}
As the little infants come forth immortal from their dusty beds, they immediately wing their way to their mothers' arms. They meet again nevermore to part. But many of the little ones have no mother there. We listen in vain for the rapturous song of triumph from the mother. The angels receive the motherless infants and conduct them to the tree of life. {2SM 260.1}
Jesus places the golden ring of light, the crown upon their little heads. God grant that the dear mother of "Eva" may be there, that her little wings may be folded upon the glad bosom of her mother."--The Youth's Instructor, April, 1858. {2SM 260.2}

Hope for parents and family of Mental Patients: 

 A high percentage of these end their lives. Their medications are not taken right or they are changed to other medications and there is a loss of rationality. They end their unhappy lives. There is an increasing amount of these in our hospitals. As this world comes to an end we will see even greater numbers damaged by drugs and degeneracy for many environmental causes. 

God is merciful. He understands the whole picture. The following passage is a case history of defective brains due to alcohol use. The promise is given to the mother that she needs to be faithful and she will see her children after the resurrection. In judgment, God considers all factors. He knows the capacity level the mind has for obedience. He knows all environmental factors. He knows about the radiation exposures, emotional or physical trauma, substance contamination, and all drugs which have affected the functioning capacity of the brain. He can see the undetected, hidden brain tumors affecting behavior.

Don't ever try to judge a suicide case has hopelessly lost eternally. Let it rest in God's hands to decide. You can gain great comfort from these quotations. God is just. He knows the whole picture.

"The Lord has mercifully spared the mother the greater sorrow, which would have been a living sorrow, had her little ones lived. The mother must educate herself to look with reconciliation upon her present sorrows. It is well with those that are not [living]. She will, if faithful, meet them again in the morning of the resurrection. The Lord has mercifully softened the affliction ever before her eyes, of the birthright given to her son who is deficient in reason through the besotted father. {8MR 209.3}
A and B will always be children, and will be restored by the power of the great restorer, when mortals shall have put on immortality. All their sad marks are obliterated. These marks are now a beacon of warning, repeating the history of what intemperance will do. He [the angel] turned to the eldest and said, "Upon you rests a mighty responsibility to cooperate with heavenly  intelligences and your mother, to counteract, as far as [lies] in your power, the traces left upon the family. God has given you precious intellect. You have advantage in every respect over A; but if you practice a life of disobedience and transgression, you will lose the future immortal life which will be given to A and B. Your light will go out in darkness, unless you are loyal and true to serve the Lord Jesus. Why are you not as is A, never able to increase in knowledge, never able to expand the intellect? It was no sin of his own that has left him a child in reason, always a child. This should be contemplated by you, and you should make very effort to reach a higher standard than you have yet done. . . . {8MR 209.4}    

 In regard to the case of A, you see him as he now is and deplore his simplicity. He is without the consciousness of sin. The grace of God will remove all this hereditary, transmitted imbecility, and he will have an inheritance among the saints in light. To you the Lord has given reason. A is a child as far as the

capacity of reason is concerned, but he has the submission and obedience of a child."--8MR 210 (1893).  {LDE 293.4} Last Day Events by Ellen White

Proverbs 18:10 The name of the LORD [is] a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. 

Psalms 46:11 The LORD of hosts [is] with us; the God of Jacob [is] our refuge. Selah.