How can I help someone who is suicidal?
Suicide is a tragic and devastating act that deeply impacts not just the person who takes their own life, but also their loved ones left behind. As Christians, we are called to love our neighbor and care for those who are hurting and in need (Mark 12:31). If someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, here is some guidance from the Bible on how you can compassionately support them during an incredibly difficult time:
Reach out with love and concern
The first step is simply letting them know you care and want to help. Do not judge or condemn, but approach them with grace, empathy and compassion as Jesus would (John 8:1-11). Let them know they are not alone. Offer to listen without judgement, help set up counseling or other assistance, and reassure them they have value (Matthew 10:31). Pray with and for them.
Provide practical help and support
Suicidal individuals often feel completely hopeless and overwhelmed with problems that seem insurmountable. Provide practical support by helping them access professional counseling, get medical assistance, or take steps to address issues contributing to the despair. Offer to assist with tasks, errands, or responsibilities that may be burdening them. Be there for emotional support and encouragement through regular communication and quality time (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).
Encourage professional treatment
Strongly encourage and support them in seeking professional mental health treatment. Offer to help set up appointments or provide transportation. Mental health issues often underlie suicidal thinking. Counseling, medication, addiction treatment or other interventions can help address these issues and provide coping strategies (Proverbs 11:14, Psalm 147:3). If they refuse help, keep trying in a caring way, enlisting others to persuade if needed.
Redirect focus to hope and meaning
Suicidal individuals see no hope and purpose in living. Redirect their focus to sources of meaning, hope and comfort. Share uplifting scriptures about God’s love, promises of eternal life, and how nothing can separate us from God’s care (Romans 8:38-39). Pray together. Remind them of their positive qualities and good they bring to the world. Suggest volunteering or other activities that could provide meaning and joy.
Limit access to lethal means
Those at risk of suicide should not have ready access to guns, certain medications or other lethal means. Remove guns from the home if possible, keep medications locked up, and consider safeguarding other means they may use to attempt suicide. Monitoring and support are also crucial during exceptionally high risk times.
Foster spiritual growth and connection
Study scripture and uplifting Christian resources together that reinforce meaning, hope, resilience, and comfort in Christ. If they belong to a church, encourage continued involvement and support from church members. Share how your own faith has helped you through difficulties (2 Corinthians 1:3-5). Pray together for strength, wisdom and comfort. God promises to be near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18).
Encourage positive lifestyle habits
Suicidal thinking can be exacerbated by isolation, unhealthy habits like substance abuse, and inadequate self-care. Gently encourage healthy social interaction, sobriety, proper rest, nutrition and exercise. Offer to participate in positive activities together. Caring for one’s physical and mental health supports psychological well-being.
Set healthy boundaries if needed
You cannot make someone choose life or access help. While being loving and supportive, don’t enable negative behaviors or fail to encourage getting appropriate help. Seek support yourself if needed. Let the suicidal individual experience natural consequences of behaviors like substance abuse. Preserve your own mental health by setting healthy boundaries if reasonable efforts are rebuffed (Proverbs 9:7-8).
Trust God’s sovereignty and timing
Despite your best efforts, you cannot control another person’s choices. Continue reaching out with love while trusting God is at work even in the darkest circumstances (Romans 8:28). He determines and knows each person’s appointed time on this earth (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2). Have faith that God’s purposes ultimately prevail, even when painful and incomprehensible.
What the Bible says about suicide:
– Human life is sacred and created by God in His image (Genesis 1:26-27)
– We are stewards of our lives, belonging to God (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
– God intends for us to live abundant, meaningful lives (John 10:10)
– Suicide permanently separates someone from the relationships and purposes God intended for their life
– However, Christians believe God offers redemption and hope to all who seek Him (John 3:16)
– Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:35-39)
– God is near to the brokenhearted and can redeem any circumstance (Psalm 34:18)
– Christians should approach suicidality with grace, compassion, and care
Hope and healing are possible
Despite the despair someone may feel in the moment, situations can improve, problems can be resolved, and hope and meaning can be restored. Suicidal crises are often temporary. Counseling, medication, addressing underlying issues, and caring support from others can help individuals rediscover hope and joy in living. God promises never to leave or forsake us (Deuteronomy 31:6). As Christians we have an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus – offering loving support, encouragement, and hope to those traversing through their darkest valley. Suicide directly impacts many families within our churches. We must care for one another, build a compassionate community, foster spiritual growth, and faithfully rely on God’s goodness and sovereignty even amidst pain we cannot fully understand this side of eternity.
As helpers, we point towards the hope found in Christ and walk alongside those struggling to help illuminate God’s love and promises until they are able to see light and meaning again. We continue reaching out with compassion while fully trusting God for the outcome. For He knows the plans and purposes He has for each life (Jeremiah 29:11). Our role is faithfully sharing hope, helpless to heal, and wholly reliant on God’s grace and power to redeem any life circumstance.
Bible verses about suicide:
Deuteronomy 30:19 – I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
Psalm 34:17-20 – When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.
Philippians 4:6-7 – Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Psalm 139:13-16 – For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Matthew 11:28 – Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Psalm 23:1-6 – The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Romans 8:38-39 – For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Psalm 147:3 – He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
John 14:27 – Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Isaiah 41:10 – Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Joshua 1:9 – Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Deuteronomy 31:8 – It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.
Psalm 27:13-14 – I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 – So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Psalm 73:26 – My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Isaiah 40:31 – But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Romans 5:3-5 – More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
1 Peter 5:7 – Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
Psalm 9:9-10 – The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.