I have a distorted view of God

I need some prayer please..

I have a distorted view of God from something that went wrong as a kid, and I am obsessive and compulsive about this distorted view, and I can't focus on the simplicity like I need to. Sometimes I get this sense that God is not interesting in loving me, for whatever reason.

My prayer is to be able to believe that the God of the bible loves me, and counts me precious, even though He may not like the sin in my life.

Lord, I pray that you have mercy on this person, and grant him a sober view of you, according to the Scriptures. Let him know you, the one and only true God, the living God of eternal life, the fountain of living waters, the longsuffering, good God that you are. You are the God that gives liberally to those who ask for good things.
I also pray for myself as well, that I obtain a much more realistic view of you than I currently have. My view of you is too small. Enlarge my vision of you, mercifully, lovingly, and gently.
In your Son's name, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Christownsme: My prayer is to be able to believe that the God of the bible loves me, and counts me precious, even though He may not like the sin in my life.

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"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."

You have to stop sinning.

Eternity is a long time.

Kemosabe said:

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."

You have to stop sinning.

Eternity is a long time.

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Bearing the fruit of salvation.

Luke 6:43-45 “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

The problem most Christians have is that they view the fruit of salvation as behavior in both themselves and others. By inspecting behavior we are setting ourselves up for failure and disappointment in our own personal walk and in our relationship with others.

The most important fruit of salvation is not in our behavior, but rather, it's in our attitude towards our behavior. Attitude is a heart issue.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

When we identify a wrong behavior in both ourselves or others we should not view it as failure if the attitude towards that behavior is one that is broken or contrite.

Psalm 34:18 The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.

Once you acknowledge the behavior as wrong then God can work with you.

Proverbs 28:13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

Acknowledging a wrong will lead to a desire of wanting God to cleans and change us.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If the attitude of the heart is right, even though we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father.

1 John 2:1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Sin hardens our heart towards God and distorts our view of God's unconditional love for us. Our relationship with God is the most important thing to God this is why He says, "Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds". The reason why He says that is because He knows we are prone to sin and how sin hardens our heart towards God.

Don't let the deceitfulness of sin harden your heart to the everlasting love of God.

Hebrews 3:13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

The foundation of salvation is not seen in the fact that we don't sin, but rather, that we are alive to God after being dead to God. A spiritually dead person does not worry about their sin before God.

Sometimes our behavior needs time to catch up to our salvation.

maco: Bearing...

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After all that scripture twisting, the words of Jesus didn't change.

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."

We have to keep God's commandments for God to love us.

If we sin, then we glorify Satan.

If we stop sinning and keep the commandments, then we glorify God and justify the high price that was paid for salvation.

Kemosabe said:

After all that scripture twisting, the words of Jesus didn't change.

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."

We have to keep God's commandments for God to love us.

If we sin, then we glorify Satan.

If we stop sinning and keep the commandments, then we glorify God and justify the high price that was paid for salvation.

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Do we really have to stop sinning in order for God to love us?

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5:8&version=NKJV Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God is our Father, does a father stop loving his children when they sin? Does a Fathers love stop him from punishing, disciplining, and correcting His children. Do a Fathers children sometimes suffer and perish thru their sins, or their disobedience. Then he sheds tears of love and sorrow, but nothing stopped his love.

maco: Do we really have to stop sinning in order for God to love us?

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

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Yes, to abide in God's love.

God demonstrated His love to us.
What are we going to do?

What does Jesus say?

"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love."

If we wish to continue in His love, He stipulates a condition.

"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love."

What if we choose not to abide in His love, which requires that we keep His commandments?

"If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."

.

Did the father stop loving his prodigal son while he was sinning? The father knew what the son was all up to. Jesus actively loved us by going thru with the crucifixion even when we didn't know him yet, full of sin.

I'm not going to believe for a second that God only loves us while we are keeping His commandments. I will agree that our view of him gets distorted, so that his love seems like it's distant and far off. But God loved the whole world that He gave Jesus... that whole world was in sin at the time. You can't say God only loves a person who has the willpower to keep his commandments. Because if you did, then Jesus atoning sacrifice for Christians wouldn't be needed!

Kemosabe said:

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."

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His commandments are

Love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love others as yourself.

You have to stop sinning.

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You do your best to stop sinning, which means cooperating with God who helps you not to sin. But gee whiz, chillax a little here. Nobody gets thru life without sinning, even a born again Christian. Your sin, for instance, could be pride. And you don't even know about it. Are you loving your neighbor as yourself when you are proud that you haven't been so weak as to commit adultery, looked at inappropriate content, smoked or drank, or just that you are keeping yourself clean on the outside? What about your inside? Pride seems to come to mind to me.

Eternity is a long time.

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Are you, Kemosabe, trying to get me to muster up the strength to not sin by scaring me about "eternity is a long time"? A fear tactic? Is that how it works?? Like that will make a difference??

Those fear tactics never allow a person to experience God's love - they're always in fear. It can paralyze a person into strict mechanical obedience, which I don't think God is too fond of. He wants people to obey from their heart, not their fearfulness. God is our daddy "Abba", not a domineering ruler who is strict with his ways.


Fear of God is good in the standpoint that the law arouses consciousness of sin, and fear drives us to look to Jesus our Savior. But once we find Jesus, and trust in Him to guide us, fear shouldn't be a motivating factor.

I think I know where I'm at. I'm somewhere in 1 John 4:18 who hasn't been made perfect in love yet:

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.



I know you won't regard any of what I wrote because it's not a specific verse in the bible. But the heartbeat of God is to reconcile us, not to condemn us.

Christownsme: Are you, Kemosabe, trying to get me to muster up the strength to not sin by scaring me about "eternity is a long time"? A fear tactic? Is that how it works?? Like that will make a difference??

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You caught me, that's exactly what I was trying to do.

Fear of God is a wonderful thing.

Kemosabe said:

You caught me, that's exactly what I was trying to do.

Fear of God is a wonderful thing.

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How about love as a motive, have you considered that?

"Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?"
[Romans 2:4]

I have felt the same way, that God just doesn't love me enough to get me through my lifes struggles but the truth is he is allowing me to have those struggles so that I can help those with the same ones in the future after I conquer them.

Gods ways are mysterious, sometimes our hardships, are anothers blessing.