Have you ever breathed out so hard that you hoped the next breath didn’t come in? Over a span of nearly 5 years on multiple occasions I remember tears filling my hands and praying “Lord, you’re all I have but don’t want this pain anymore, let me breathe out as hard as I can and for it to be my last. But if another breath fills my lungs, I will praise you with it”.
Out….
Hold….
Gasp...
Praise.
I am blessed to have never considered harming myself nor have I suffered from chronic depression with an unknown cause, but I have suffered acute depression with a known cause that invaded nearly every moment for five years. One may think that would give person a relief knowing why they hurt but honestly it only frustrated me with myself because I could not be released of it. I asked for healing, had others pray for it, and sought counseling yet this pain was still there. So, all that frustration of not healing became self-directed as “your just a messed up person Troy”. I felt hopeless, and that it would never pass. I still don’t understand this but then one day in a miraculous moment of prayer with a close friend I FELT IT LIFT!
Why do I share this personal story with you? It is not to tell you that, “just pray and it will go away.” No doubt the Lord may do that for you, or He may permit it to stay with you for years as He did with me. But I want you to know is, “you are not alone, and Jesus cries each tear with you”.
I have multiple non-Christian & Christian friends who call me or come by my home telling me of how they want the pain to end in their life and some are haunted by dark thoughts of taking their own life. I think of Job a righteous man who cursed the day he was born, wished it was blotted out and his birth was never known. I think of David a man after God’s own heart saying “I am worn out from my groaning”. I think of Jesus weeping. So, hear this my loved friend,
you are not alone.
I urge you to bring your attention to the truth brought out in Hebrews 5:7-10, & 7:25. Focus on how Jesus offered prayers and cries to God while on Earth and currently sits at the right side of His Father offering our cries to His Father as an interceding high priest, “Jesus cries each tear with you”.
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. -Hebrews 5:7-10, ESV
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. -Hebrews 7:25, ESV