What do you do when you realize that God's plan is everything you don't want in life?

Questioning Brother

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Oh I see. So you're thinking that God should have created a bunch of robots without any capacity to envision anything except that which they're programed with. No choice to love or not love God....just a mere automaton.

Would be better than going through this pain.
 
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Strong in Him

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How do you go on when you realize God's plan is for you to go through EVERY situation you have prayed for decades to avoid? I have lost trust in Him. I don't want his plan. I have literally begged Him for decades to prevent all the problems he has put in my life. (Health issues for my wife, monetary issues, job issues, etc).

First, that sounds like a very painful situation; I'm sorry.
Second, he has not PUT those problems in your life, and I don't believe it is his plan for you to go through them. My belief is that the devil sent them - because he is a thief and is trying to destroy your relationship with God, John 10:10. When Job went through lots of problems, they were from the devil. In Job 1 we see behind the scenes of what is going on; Satan said to God, "he only worships you because he has money and an easy life". God said to him, "ok then, he is in your hands, and Job lost everything - yet he did not curse God or stop believing. Even when his wife said "curse God and die", and his friends said, "you must have sinned because you are suffering", Job refused to turn from God. In the end, Job was commended and his friends were rebuked by God for their attitudes.

My deepest heart's desire is for all of the problems to be fixed/not happen.

Well you can't turn back time so that they never happened.
What will happen if they are fixed? If you had a wonderful life, brilliant health, more than enough money - what then? Would you trust God only because he has given you good things in this short, temporary, life? Would the things you had be evidence of his love for you?
What about the cross?
You CAN come to God, pray, ask for forgiveness, help, and receive eternal life ad receive EVERY Spiritual blessing - because Jesus, who was perfect - suffered pain on a scale you will never know, and gave his life for you. He did that because he loves you and your wife and wants you to be his children. When you know his love, nothing will ever be able to separate you from it.

I also don't care what he has done for others (Job, Joseph, etc). So what do you do?

What do you think you can do?
You can't turn back time.
You don't seem to trust, or maybe even be talking to, God.
You're not interested in hearing how he has helped others.
I would guess your problems would still be there if you rejected God completely.

What do you want to happen?
You say your "deepest desire" is to be problem free. God wants our deepest desires to be for him. In the NT when a man asked abut eternal life, Jesus knew that he was very rich and, though he had talked about loving his neighbour, he had not mentioned a desire to love God. So Jesus asked him to give up the ting that meant the most to him - his money. The man was not willing to do this, so he went away sad - with money but without the eternal life that he wanted.
Like I said, if you had a perfect, worry free life would that bring you closer to God? Maybe God wants you to know, and trust, him even though things are going pear shaped? Romans 8 says "In all these things, we are more than conquerors", Romans 8:37.
Various people in the OT said "EVEN IF God doesn't ...... I will still trust him. That included Job, and 3 men who were thrown into a furnace for worshipping God.

What I USED to do was rely on my feelings/problems/lack of problems to dictate my faith.
Having a great day; God clearly loves me. Everything going wrong; I'm not talking to him.
What HE did was to keep on loving, holding and teaching me through this time - and then he reminded me about the cross, which shows just how much he loves me, and all of us.
 
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Questioning Brother

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First, that sounds like a very painful situation; I'm sorry.
Second, he has not PUT those problems in your life, and I don't believe it is his plan for you to go through them. My belief is that the devil sent them - because he is a thief and is trying to destroy your relationship with God, John 10:10. When Job went through lots of problems, they were from the devil. In Job 1 we see behind the scenes of what is going on; Satan said to God, "he only worships you because he has money and an easy life". God said to him, "ok then, he is in your hands, and Job lost everything - yet he did not curse God or stop believing. Even when his wife said "curse God and die", and his friends said, "you must have sinned because you are suffering", Job refused to turn from God. In the end, Job was commended and his friends were rebuked by God for their attitudes.

It became His plan when he refused to stop the problems from happening. His continued refusal to remove them makes it His will for me to go through them. Also, I am not Job.


Well you can't turn back time so that they never happened.
What will happen if they are fixed? If you had a wonderful life, brilliant health, more than enough money - what then? Would you trust God only because he has given you good things in this short, temporary, life? Would the things you had be evidence of his love for you?

I did trust MUCH more when things were going better.


What about the cross?
You CAN come to God, pray, ask for forgiveness, help, and receive eternal life ad receive EVERY Spiritual blessing - because Jesus, who was perfect - suffered pain on a scale you will never know, and gave his life for you. He did that because he loves you and your wife and wants you to be his children. When you know his love, nothing will ever be able to separate you from it.

As long as my material situation is bad, The spiritual blessings mean nothing to me. He could ALL of his spiritual holdings on me, the absolute entirety of his spirit, and that would not do anything for me with the material issues unchanged.


You don't seem to trust, or maybe even be talking to, God.
You're not interested in hearing how he has helped others.
I would guess your problems would still be there if you rejected God completely.

Going through this has burned the trust bridge to the ground and then He urinated on the ashes.

I Like I said, if you had a perfect, worry free life would that bring you closer to God? Maybe God wants you to know, and trust, him even though things are going pear shaped? Romans 8 says "In all these things, we are more than conquerors", Romans 8:37.
Various people in the OT said "EVEN IF God doesn't ...... I will still trust him. That included Job, and 3 men who were thrown into a furnace for worshipping God.
Trust won't happen until he fixes the problems. If he never does, then he won't get trust from me again.
 
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Strong in Him

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It became His plan when he refused to stop the problems from happening. His continued refusal to remove them makes it His will for me to go through them.

It may feel like that, but no.

If God said, "right X has messed up/doesn't worship, or believe in, me any more; what can I do? I know, I'll start with illness, then I'll send some unemployment/financial problems, then I think I'll try this ......", THAT would be God planning bad things for your life.
He doesn't.
He seems to have allowed you to go through them - why, I do not know; you'll have to ask him.
But if he punished people for their sins then he wouldn't have needed to send Jesus. That would have been far less painful for him, but he didn't do it.

I did trust MUCH more when things were going better.

Forgive me for asking, but is that really trust?
Is faith saying "I believe God exists because I am having a great life", or "I have no outward reason to believe, or trust, in God, but I do anyway"?
2 Corinthians 5:7 - we walk by faith, not by sight.
The Bible is full of stories about people who were at the end of their tether and all seemed hopeless, and it was then that God stepped in and they knew him, and his power, in a new way.

As long as my material situation is bad, The spiritual blessings mean nothing to me. He could ALL of his spiritual holdings on me, the absolute entirety of his spirit, and that would not do anything for me with the material issues unchanged.

As God is Spirit, wants us to worship him in spirit and in truth, wants us to have eternal life and is so concerned about where we will spend eternity that he sent his Son to die for us; as he has told us not to love the world, or store up earthly treasures, or that our physical life, and bodies, are only given to us for a while and neither we, nor this world will live for ever - and you are saying, "material blessings are the only important things, I don't care at all about the spiritual", what does that tell you?

Going through this has burned the trust bridge to the ground and then He urinated on the ashes.

Trust won't happen until he fixes the problems. If he never does, then he won't get trust from me again.

I don't doubt that, because of all your pain, that is how you see it.
But SOMETHING has made you share your painful story and ask for advice on a Christian forum. Why do that if you don't care, and don't intend trusting God because you believe he has left you?
What made you specifically ask Christians what they would do in your situation?

Like I said, the Bible and history are full of examples of people who trusted God and had faith in the bad times; THAT is what trust is.
Believing in God when everything is great and easy, and there is little reason to doubt his goodness, is not trust.
 
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Questioning Brother

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If God said, "right X has messed up/doesn't worship, or believe in, me any more; what can I do? I know, I'll start with illness, then I'll send some unemployment/financial problems, then I think I'll try this ......", THAT would be God planning bad things for your life.
He doesn't.
He seems to have allowed you to go through them - why, I do not know; you'll have to ask him.
But if he punished people for their sins then he wouldn't have needed to send Jesus. That would have been far less painful for him, but he didn't do it.

A) I didn't say jack about punishment. B). When he said, "go ahead, Satan." Instead of,"No.", it became His plan. He took ownership by at the very least incorporating it.

Forgive me for asking, but is that really trust?
Is faith saying "I believe God exists because I am having a great life", or "I have no outward reason to believe, or trust, in God, but I do anyway"?
2 Corinthians 5:7 - we walk by faith, not by sight.
The Bible is full of stories about people who were at the end of their tether and all seemed hopeless, and it was then that God stepped in and they knew him, and his power, in a new way.


Didn't ask to know him in a new way. I want the old way I knew him back.



QB:As long as my material situation is bad, The spiritual blessings mean nothing to me. He could ALL of his spiritual holdings on me, the absolute entirety of his spirit, and that would not do anything for me with the material issues unchanged.
SIH: As God is Spirit, wants us to worship him in spirit and in truth, wants us to have eternal life and is so concerned about where we will spend eternity that he sent his Son to die for us; as he has told us not to love the world, or store up earthly treasures, or that our physical life, and bodies, are only given to us for a while and neither we, nor this world will live for ever - and you are saying, "material blessings are the only important things, I don't care at all about the spiritual", what does that tell you?

Ok, sorry too much hyperbole. It isn't that there is zero meaning to the spiritual blessings, it is that they don't help. It is like giving a starving person a bouquet of flowers. It is nice, but doesn't actually help their problem. All the spiritual blessings are like that to me as long as my material situation remains unchanged.


I don't doubt that, because of all your pain, that is how you see it.
But SOMETHING has made you share your painful story and ask for advice on a Christian forum. Why do that if you don't care, and don't intend trusting God because you believe he has left you?
What made you specifically ask Christians what they would do in your situation?

I was hoping someone would have a new perspective that might help me , but not really. Barring that I hoped that maybe enough people with better faith praying for me in this might get him to relent.
 
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Strong in Him

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A) I didn't say jack about punishment.

I never said YOU did - some do.

B). When he said, "go ahead, Satan." Instead of,"No.", it became His plan. He took ownership by at the very least incorporating it.

I don't see it like that, maybe you do.
James says that every good and perfect gift comes from God. Bad health and so on are not good gifts, therefore I don't believe they come from God, who is love, 1 John 4:8.

Didn't ask to know him in a new way. I want the old way I knew him back.

Supposing that's not possible?
Supposing HE wants you to know him in a new way?

Ok, sorry too much hyperbole. It isn't that there is zero meaning to the spiritual blessings, it is that they don't help.

Would it help to realise that this life - which can be hell for some people - is not all there is and God wants us to be sure we have a better one after we die?
Would it help to know that God is with you in all the bad stuff, and if you belong to him, the devil will never win?

I was hoping someone would have a new perspective that might help me ,

The perspective that life can be hell, and a mess, but God can be with you in the pain, maybe?
 
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hellothere123

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How do you go on when you realize God's plan is for you to go through EVERY situation you have prayed for decades to avoid? I have lost trust in Him. I don't want his plan. I have literally begged Him for decades to prevent all the problems he has put in my life. (Health issues for my wife, monetary issues, job issues, etc). I don't care what the reward is, it isn't enough. My deepest heart's desire is for all of the problems to be fixed/not happen. I can't bring myself to trust Him again. I also don't care what he has done for others (Job, Joseph, etc). So what do you do?
Same here. Health issues. Injuries. All that. People who don’t follow God don’t seem to have the same. I’ve been there mad at God and He didn’t answer. Faith is hard in hard times. Really tough. But I kept my faith and Gods plan isn’t so much a plan in that sense. It’s a relationship. Who else would I rely on each day if it wasn’t for Him? The health issues, how else get through it without Him? People turn those issues into drug problems, etc Believe me I know it’s tough. Try your best to hold on to faith. God bless
 
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Questioning Brother

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  1. I don't see it like that, maybe you do.
    James says that every good and perfect gift comes from God. Bad health and so on are not good gifts, therefore I don't believe they come from God, who is love, 1 John 4:8.
    Didn't say they did. I says his allowing them (and thus incorporating) them in his plan, poisons any chance of trust .

    Supposing that's not possible?
    Supposing HE wants you to know him in a new way?
Even the Bible talks about going back to the way a relationship was before. "Return to your first love..." etc


  1. Would it help to realise that this life - which can be hell for some people - is not all there is and God wants us to be sure we have a better one after we die?
    [*]Would it help to know that God is with you in all the bad stuff, and if you belong to him, the devil will never win?
  1. No. No help at all.



  1. The perspective that life can be hell, and a mess, but God can be with you in the pain, maybe?
I don't want a comforter. I want a protector. If he is with me and doesn't do anything, what is the point?
 
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Strong in Him

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Even the Bible talks about going back to the way a relationship was before. "Return to your first love..." etc

First LOVE is not the same as "first idea you had about God". Think of a human relationship; it deepens and grows the longer you know the person.

I don't want a comforter. I want a protector. If he is with me and doesn't do anything, what is the point?

If you want someone to wrap you in cotton wool and guarantee that life will never upset, or be unfair to, you; that's not what God does.
He IS with you and can give you peace, courage and strength IN a situation, so that when it's over, you will be stronger and more able to hep others who are going through the same thing. Not to mention that you will KNOW God's love, peace and so on because you will have experienced them for yourself. So the nest time anything comes along, or if you meet a non Christian who challenges you about your faith, you will be able to say "I know; I can bear witness to his love, faithfulness, that he is with us always and that nothing can separate us from his love. I know, because illness/unemployment/bereavement tried to separate me from him, and it failed."

If you had children, which would be best; to keep them locked up in a room so that nothing bad could ever upset them, or to give them the tools, and resources, to deal with bad situations so that they would become mature, rounded adults?
 
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Questioning Brother

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First LOVE...
It was a call for them to return to the relationship they had with Christ before.

REST(sorry phone giving me issues on copy/paste)

I don't want to be stronger, more courageous, etc. if I did, I would be asking for that not protection. Also, my experience is that his LOVE does NOTHING. It is as helpful as smiling and hugging a starving person then walking away without giving them any food whatsoever, while promising them a feast tomorrow.

I do have children, and I guarantee you I would cocoon them as much as possible when their is someone looking to hurt them, if it is in my power to do so. I'm not going to tell them, "get out there with the shooter. It's ok I love you."
 
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blackhole

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I don't want a comforter. I want a protector. If he is with me and doesn't do anything, what is the point?

You were never offered this. You were promised the opposite:

Rev 2:10 Fear none of those things which you shall suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried; and you shall have tribulation ten days: be you faithful to death, and I will give you a crown of life.
(end time, but a powerful point.)

Joh 15:18 If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.
Joh 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Joh 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
Joh 15:21 But all these things will they do to you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me.
Joh 15:22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin.
Joh 15:23 He that hates me hates my Father also.
Joh 15:24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
Joh 15:25 But this comes to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

You're following a god of your imagination.
 
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blackhole

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Multiple Psalms dispute that.
Ex.: 91, most of 23, 121, 59 etc.

The lack of protection was a change from the OT to the NT.

I want the protection promised in Psalm 91 especially.

1) Remember Job.

2) Even if you're right, the NT is ... newer. The change has happened, you don't get to choose the era.

3) Again, if you're right: either God is a liar, or he doesn't exist. Why bother with him?
 
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Strong in Him

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Multiple Psalms dispute that.
Ex.: 91, most of 23, 121, 59 etc.

The lack of protection was a change from the OT to the NT.

I want the protection promised in Psalm 91 especially.

I don't believe Christians are promised immunity from the trials of life and evils of the world.
Many Christians go through illness, disability, unemployment, bereavement, childlessness, financial problems etc etc. Many find that God is in those problems with them, and they learn more about themselves and him.
 
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klutedavid

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How do you go on when you realize God's plan is for you to go through EVERY situation you have prayed for decades to avoid? I have lost trust in Him. I don't want his plan. I have literally begged Him for decades to prevent all the problems he has put in my life. (Health issues for my wife, monetary issues, job issues, etc). I don't care what the reward is, it isn't enough. My deepest heart's desire is for all of the problems to be fixed/not happen. I can't bring myself to trust Him again. I also don't care what he has done for others (Job, Joseph, etc). So what do you do?
Can I ask you a few questions?

How old are you?

How long have you been married?

What do you do for a living?

Were you raised in a Christian household?
 
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klutedavid

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No, came to it late middle school
problem.jpg


That's what I call a real problem.
imgres
 
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Questioning Brother

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Yes that is terrible. I hope that God's presence help them. It also does nothing to diminish my problems or pain .

You know what I call a real problem? Watching my 50 year old wife have multiple strokes, go from being someone I could barely keep up with to bedridden, not be able to eat for around 3 months, and basically be stuck watching her die slowly. Add in all forms of aid stopping and telling me my barely adequate paycheck is too much for help. Also, due to stress having some hiccups at work so I am looking for another job closer to home. So do I have real enough problems for you?
 
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