if God only permits that which we can bear?

Question

then why do people commit suicide? please don't answer "they had a mental illness" because that still means god gave them something they could not bear

tom - everything comes from god, including satan, does it not?

Answer 1

I've experienced things that go beyond what one could bear so I don't believe in the notion that God never gives us more than we can handle. Many people experience terrible things in life and that questions the idea of a benevolent God.

Answer 2

Only Christians can put their faith on God's promise that they will not be tempted beyond what they can bear and will have a way of escape (1 Cor 10:13). Those Christians who choose to commit suicide do not put their faith on this promise and God. Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb 11:6)

Answer 3

The scripture your question refers to is written to brethern and does not apply to everyone. Quite simply, as with Job, there is a hedge built around those who have the spirit of Christ; a hedge available but not present with all people. It is also something not understood or taught to all who claim the name of Jesus Christ.

To really answer your question one must consider some other aspects of God which are clouded by your question and some of the answers.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. James 1:13

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Hebrews 2: 14,15.

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
I Cor. 10: 13.

The spirit of suicide is very strong and even the most grounded Christians have had to deal with it. God may allow temptations but they either come from ones own lusts and from the wicked one who seeks whom he may devour.
In the case of Job, his own wife threw suicide at him as a solution to his terrible plight. "Curse God and die the death," she taunted. The devil is not subtle and is a killer.

To answer your question would require a knowledge of the individual and what was going on in the spirit at the time. There is no blanket answer but I can tell you this:

God deals with all mankind in what most of us identify as the emotion of hope. In case after case of suicide I find that pain, loneliness and remorse are among the biggest factors; but the ultimate factor is the loss of hope.

Christians have, or should have, the Lord's spirit to identify the spirit which seeks their life. Further, Christians, kind of like emergency response teams, have the ability to bear each others burdens: Something not available to the world in general.

Finally people who do not have the spirit of Christ are still in a state of bondage and have a will which is not subject to God. No one has true freedom outside of Christ. Free will is the ability to choose what you will serve; not free to do this and that or that and this as most believe.

Until you make a spiritual choice you have have few if any freedoms; other than those granted by the Constitution or God's mercy. God's hedge is available to anyone willing to step inside His gift of life in Christ Jesus.

Answer 4

When people lose their hope and cannot see a way to rise above their problems, suicide seems a logical choice.

Notice I said when people lose their hope, not when God takes it away. A person who is striving after God is under His protection ... obviously someone who loses their hope is not someone who strives after God.

You are applying promises that God gives His children to people who are not His followers.

I promise my children that I will do everything in my power to protect them, to nuture them and help them grow to be wonderful adults. But I don't make that same promise to your children, do I.

Answer 5

To tom, god created everything, including satan, he knew full well what satan was capable of, or else he wouldn't be omnicient. Therefore satan is of god and all temptation, trials, and tribulation comes from god to say otherwise is blasphemy and takes away from the omnipotence of god.

Answer 6

God will only put on a person what they can bear and in all things He will show you the way out

but if you choose not to take the way out or you choose to put more on your self

He will not interfere

but still offers a way out

it is up to us to take it

Answer 7

So, God hands out mental illnesses too? What a guy.

Answer 8

It's there way of trying to say they're superior to the poor dudes that just can't cope anymore.

It's a terribly arrogant attitude.

Answer 9

I believe you are assuming that they commited suicide because of a test that God put upon them.. instead of something that they took upon themselves or got from Satan?

Answer 10

They didn't take to God in prayer