Cries from the Heart by Johann Christoph Arnold Read Free Book Online Page A

help to him since he’s already condemned?”
“Who can tell? There are many – oh, so many! – people
without faith who just confuse the ignorant. Don’t listen to them
because they themselves don’t know where they’re going. A
prayer for a condemned man from a man still alive will reach
God, and that’s the truth. Just think of the plight of a man who
has no one to pray for him. And so, when you pray in the
evening before going to sleep, add at the end, ‘Lord Jesus, have
mercy on all those who have no one to pray for them.’ This
prayer will be heard and it will please the Lord. Also pray for all
the sinners who are still alive: ‘O Lord, who holdest all destinies
in thy hand, save all the unrepentant sinners.’ That’s also a good
prayer.”
    As my father wrote in his book
Discipleship:
“It is a great mistake
to think that we can understand our own hearts. We may understand ourselves superficially, but only God really knows our hearts.
Therefore, even if we suffer the severest temptations, trials, and
attacks from the Evil One, we can always turn to God with trust
and great hopes for victory.”
    If prayer fails to comfort a suicidal person, we who are close to
him must have faith and believe for him. When someone sinks in
darkness and thinks he is separated from God, he must be assured
that others will pray for him. There is profound protection in the
prayers of others.
    Much of the emotional isolation
in modern society is rooted
in our confusion about the real purpose in living: we forget that
our first task is to love God with all our heart and soul, and to love
our neighbor as ourselves. If we took these two great commandments seriously, much loneliness and depression could be averted.
Loving our neighbor is prayer in action, and it is something each of
us can do. I often wonder whether we do not rely too heavily on
experts. When a person is desperate and suicidal, an “expert” may
be the last person he wants to face: after all, who can cope with
analysis or advice when he feels unable even to face himself? Naturally one cannot rule out the use of psychiatry or medication, but
we should not forget that often the simple support of a listening
ear – a friend or family member, pastor or priest – is the best help.
    Here is part of a letter I received recently from a mother of three
children:
    I was admitted to a psychiatry ward twice, the second time
because of severe depression after the birth of my son. In a sense,
hospitalization removed me from the stressful situation, and I
felt that the personnel there accepted me as I was and did not
expect things of me that I felt unable to do. But long-term help
did not come from hospitalization or medication. It came
through the prayers and love of family and friends.
In dealing with someone with mental illness, I think understanding and accepting that person is the best help. I didn’t find
it easy when someone said to me at that time, “We all have our
down days.” It made me feel she didn’t understand it at all, and
I felt she expected me to somehow pull myself out of this depression, which I simply could not do. You see, I had no control over
how I felt at that time after the birth. I couldn’t laugh, couldn’t
cry, didn’t feel any love for my baby or my husband. It was hell, I
tell you. I felt cut off from God and man.
Basically I couldn’t function. I spent most of my days on my
bed. My mother did a lot for our baby and for me. I felt incapable of doing anything. And that is hard for people to understand; maybe they thought I was just lazy. But slowly I recovered.
I was able to do more, work again gradually, as I got better.
People didn’t really know how to help, although they tried.
But my minister understood. Whenever I told him I couldn’t
pray – and that was a real need for me – he always answered,
“Then I will pray for you.” And