I’m not sure if I believe God is merciful or would help me

TommySoda said:

So David praying for his son (and being ignored) didn’t happen and was just a teaching lesson? I’m saying if his prayer can be ignored (god still carried the punishment) why can’t mine?

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Maybe you need to attend the Bible studies at your church, or sign up for a few courses at an on-line Bible college. I am surprised that you don't know that much of the historical writing of Israel is recorded for our education about how God worked with Israel to try and keep them faithful to Him. I am also surprised that you have not actually read the account of David, Bathsheba, their adultery, and the child that was born, and why it died. It is all there in black and white for you to read.

No wonder God doesn't answer your prayers. Maybe He is waiting for you to learn how to study His Word and to be more diligent in knowing Him through the Word. To find God you have to seek Him with all your heart, and He will hold back from you until you start to mean business with Him and set your heart to really seeking Him through prayer and His Word. When He sees that you really mean business with Him, He may decide to start fellowship with you, but not before.

TommySoda said:

So when I was younger I made a promise with God concerning me taking trips on planes (I’ve never been on one due to this experience). I was unable to fulfill this promise and I even went as far as to say “give me one final chance” (in prayer of course) that however didn’t work. I still kept doing the thing I promised not to. Anyway I’m a firm believer in temporal punishment and believe if I do get on a plane I’ll probably die. I’d love to travel one day but just thoroughly reading through the Bible, I don’t think even repentance could help me. There has been countless of biblical examples of God ignoring people’s prayers (David praying for his son to live) despite believing he’ll help them. I don’t feel any different. The promise went on saying “God please don’t kill me on a plane if....” or “please kill me on a plane if I....”.

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God does not expect you to keep your your promises to Him. He knew that you were being foolish when you made that promise. HE remembers that YOU are but dust, even if YOU forget sometimes ...

Psalm 103:14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

Recall that you are His child. How many promises do children make to their parents ... only to fail to keep them. And what is the typical parental response ... but to FORGIVE them. Is God less forgiving than we are as parents ?

(° ͡ ͜ ͡ʖ ͡ °) (ᵔᴥᵔʋ) said:

Yes, it is a sin to break a vow.

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... and we SIN against God ... nearly all of the time. It is the nature of children to do so.

His response ... is to forgive us ...

TommySoda said:

In the Bible plenty of people have repented and judgment still came. David repented for his ill son, dead... Ahab repented and God used a lying spirit to trick him etc. The Bible supports repentance not doing much.

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God told pharaoh he would surely die for taking Abraham's wife. he repented and wasn't killed. king Hezekiah was told by God that he would die and he prayed for this not to happen and the LORD listened and extended his life.

while david was punished, God didn't kill david. same for ahab. the LORD isn't going to kill you on a plane trip.

don't make anymore promises you can't keep. let your yes be yes and your no be no.

TommySoda said:

So when I was younger I made a promise with God concerning me taking trips on planes (I’ve never been on one due to this experience). I was unable to fulfill this promise and I even went as far as to say “give me one final chance” (in prayer of course) that however didn’t work. I still kept doing the thing I promised not to. Anyway I’m a firm believer in temporal punishment and believe if I do get on a plane I’ll probably die. I’d love to travel one day but just thoroughly reading through the Bible, I don’t think even repentance could help me. There has been countless of biblical examples of God ignoring people’s prayers (David praying for his son to live) despite believing he’ll help them. I don’t feel any different. The promise went on saying “God please don’t kill me on a plane if....” or “please kill me on a plane if I....”.

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I don't understand what you did exactly? You are saying that God is probably angry at you for riding a plane that you promised not to?

If i'm correct, read this again out loud and then ask yourself on how does this all sound to you?

TommySoda said:

So when I was younger I made a promise with God concerning me taking trips on planes (I’ve never been on one due to this experience). I was unable to fulfill this promise and I even went as far as to say “give me one final chance” (in prayer of course) that however didn’t work. I still kept doing the thing I promised not to. Anyway I’m a firm believer in temporal punishment and believe if I do get on a plane I’ll probably die. I’d love to travel one day but just thoroughly reading through the Bible, I don’t think even repentance could help me. There has been countless of biblical examples of God ignoring people’s prayers (David praying for his son to live) despite believing he’ll help them. I don’t feel any different. The promise went on saying “God please don’t kill me on a plane if....” or “please kill me on a plane if I....”.

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You were younger and much less mature.

Would you treat a child who makes a promise he can't keep with contempt if later, when they grow up, they realise how unreasonable their promise was and can't live up to it?

Of course not.

Why on earth would God kill you on a plane for a promise you made in ignorance? Why would he uphold a promise you made in ignorance - and a promise that is impossible to keep? What kind of God would He be if he does not know how to treat people appropriately and understand the maturity level of a person?

The examples in the Bible where God didn't answer a prayer are very serious - and there is no evidence David believed God was going to heal his son. He was simply hoping. Not one of those examples are for something as arbitrary as what you are describing.

Seriously dude, God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love, power, and a sound mind. You're living in fear of God doing something he has not said He would do.

When I was in my preteens I thought God gave me HIV because I looked at a inappropriate content magazine - and I felt I deserved it. I lived in fear up until about 15 years old that I was going to die of AIDS. Turns out, God doesn't do that sort of thing.

TommySoda said:

Anyway I’m a firm believer in temporal punishment and believe if I do get on a plane I’ll probably die. I’d love to travel one day but just thoroughly reading through the Bible, I don’t think even repentance could help me. There has been countless of biblical examples of God ignoring people’s prayers (David praying for his son to live) despite believing he’ll help them. I don’t feel any different.

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Greetings,
There seems to be a need to retrain the thoughts about who God is to you. The entire Bible OT to NT, gives us a strong account of the nature and character of a loving Father who is balanced in his dealings with mankind. He is affectionate, disciplinary, righteous, loving, jealous, Father, Redeemer etc. He is balanced in His approach to us and can't be compared to man.

I'm curious if redirecting your thoughts to the goodness of God would take focus off what you "firmly believe" to be this unrelenting harsh character and nature, which is not consistent?
Have you asked Him in prayer to reveal who He is to you and His thoughts about you flying on an airplane? He may reveal Himself to you through a dream, vision, scripture or circumstance that is consistent with His character and nature (He thinks of us as a bride, he is gracious to us, he disciplines out of love to save us, he sent His ONLY Son to die and shed blood for us) I could go on but I think the point is reconditioning the mind to read the entire Bible to understand his characteristics without partiality and spend time with your Heavenly Father to develop closer relationship with Him.

TommySoda said:

So when I was younger I made a promise with God concerning me taking trips on planes (I’ve never been on one due to this experience). I was unable to fulfill this promise and I even went as far as to say “give me one final chance” (in prayer of course) that however didn’t work. I still kept doing the thing I promised not to. Anyway I’m a firm believer in temporal punishment and believe if I do get on a plane I’ll probably die. I’d love to travel one day but just thoroughly reading through the Bible, I don’t think even repentance could help me. There has been countless of biblical examples of God ignoring people’s prayers (David praying for his son to live) despite believing he’ll help them. I don’t feel any different. The promise went on saying “God please don’t kill me on a plane if....” or “please kill me on a plane if I....”.

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Sounds like a foolish vow, God warns people about making vows God wont hold them guiltless who fail to perform a vow made to Him, Jesus told us not to make oaths or vows as they come from the 'evil One' and as you can see this has caused you some torment.

A way to comprehend this is to consider yourself a part of His church, the bride of Christ.
And Christ offers to you the way of salvation, so He would have already forgiven you of your foolish vow, as the examples pertaining to a woman who makes a foolish vow in the Father's house.

Numbers 30 deals with the Law concerning vows.
Numbers 30 New King James Version (NKJV)
The Law Concerning Vows
Numbers 30 New King James Version (NKJV)
The Law Concerning Vows
30 Then Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes concerning the children of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: 2 If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.

3 “Or if a woman makes a vow to the Lord, and binds herself by some agreement while in her father’s house in her youth, 4 and her father hears her vow and the agreement by which she has bound herself, and her father holds his peace, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement with which she has bound herself shall stand. 5 But if her father overrules her on the day that he hears, then none of her vows nor her agreements by which she has bound herself shall stand; and the Lord will release her, because her father overruled her.

6 “If indeed she takes a husband, while bound by her vows or by a rash utterance from her lips by which she bound herself, 7 and her husband hears it, and makes no response to her on the day that he hears, then her vows shall stand, and her agreements by which she bound herself shall stand. 8 But if her husband overrules her on the day that he hears it, he shall make void her vow which she took and what she uttered with her lips, by which she bound herself, and the Lord will release her.

9 “Also any vow of a widow or a divorced woman, by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.

10 “If she vowed in her husband’s house, or bound herself by an agreement with an oath, 11 and her husband heard it, and made no response to her and did not overrule her, then all her vows shall stand, and every agreement by which she bound herself shall stand. 12 But if her husband truly made them void on the day he heard them, then whatever proceeded from her lips concerning her vows or concerning the agreement binding her, it shall not stand; her husband has made them void, and the Lord will release her. 13 Every vow and every binding oath to afflict her soul, her husband may confirm it, or her husband may make it void. 14 Now if her husband makes no response whatever to her from day to day, then he confirms all her vows or all the agreements that bind her; he confirms them, because he made no response to her on the day that he heard them. 15 But if he does make them void after he has heard them, then he shall bear her guilt.”

16 These are the statutes which the Lord commanded Moses, between a man and his wife, and between a father and his daughter in her youth in her father’s house.

TommySoda said:

No riding a plane after breaking my vow.

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Let me get this straight: you made a vow with God to never get on a plane.
You broke that vow; you said that you "kept doing the thing you promised not to do" - so you've been on a plane?
You believe that if you get on a plane now you may die, since that would be breaking your vow - but you've already previously broken your vow to God to never get on a plane and you're still alive.

If that is correct, you haven't been punished for breaking your vow to never get on a plane.
So even if you can't bring yourself to believe the verses of Scripture that we've given you, or the fact that Jesus took the punishment for your sin on the cross, trust God and his forgiveness - you've already proved your own belief to be false.
If you still can't accept it and are insisting that if you get on a plane again, God will kill you, then you'll have to accept that never getting on a plane again is the price you pay for the vow you made, (even though you've already broken it and nothing happened).

TommySoda said:

No I’ve never been on a plane because I never stopped doing the thing I promised not to do. It went on the lines of “God please kill me in a plane crash” or “don’t kill me in a plane crash if I don’t” (can’t really remember) if I don’t do dot dot dot. Since I kept doing it I never went on a plane.

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Oh, ok; thanks for explaining.

So you promised God you would stop doing something and said "if I don't, kill me in a plane crash"? Because you kept on doing it, you won't get on a plane now because you believe that he will kill you?
I could be wrong but it sounds as if you may have promised to give it up because you knew it was wrong/harmful/unhelpful. If so, forgive me for saying so, but are you trying to fool God?
It sounds like you might be thinking, "I promised to give this thing up (for whatever reason) and was prepared to die in a plane crash if I didn't. I haven't given it up, but if I never get on a plane, I won't have to - I can keep on doing it, and I won't be killed by God in a plane crash because I'm never getting on a plane."

Why not try being honest with God, since he knows all about you anyway?
You're not fooling him; if what you promised to give up is wrong/sinful, he can convict you of/discipline you for it at any time. You've said "kill me in a plane crash": he doesn't need your advice about how to discipline you or order your life. He could make you stop doing it, or punish you in some other way - since you seem to believe that Jesus' death wasn't enough and you need to be punished for your sins. Dying in a plane crash may not be his will for you,and if you were dead, you'd never know why - was it because he was following through on what you told him he could do, or did the devil not want you to be forgiven by God and decide to kill you?

If what you said you'd give up was wrong, then by continuing to do it you are repeatedly and wilfully sinning. THAT should be the thing that worries you - not the fact that you feel mildly inconvenienced because you don't think you can get on a plane ever again and you would like to.

Galatians 6:7 - "do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."

TommySoda said:

I’ve actually stopped doing the thing. The problem is I said “can I have one final chance” and still fell into sin. Now I’ve stop repeating it and have for awhile. I realize you can repent for sin but there’s still lingering consequences for it (am I correct) I just don’t want to repent (I have) and think things are fine and dandy only to travel and you know... die.

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If you've repented and stopped doing the thing, the Bible says that God has forgiven you.
You might want to tell God that you are sorry that you repented before but kept on doing whatever - and thank him for being patient and giving you other chances. Yes, he gave you lots of them - if he wanted to discipline, or even kill, you for doing whatever it was, he could easily have done so. Just because you gave him the option of killing you in a plane crash, does not mean he was bound to stick to that. God is greater than we are; it's not for us to tell him what HE can do with us or our lives. He has a plan for you and has had since you were born - your saying "kill me in a plane crash if I do ....." is not going to change that.

God does not kill people for their sins. Jesus came and died in agony for us so that we could be forgiven, come to God, have new, and eternal, life and EVERY spiritual blessing, Ephesians 1:3. If you say "but God is going to punish me for my sin" you are saying that what Jesus went through for you wasn't enough or good enough.
Besides, if God killed you, that would be that - there'd be no chance for you to learn from it, grow in faith and live for him. That's what he wants for you; not to spend years saying "I can never go on a plane, I'm scared God is going to kill me". What are you learning from that at the moment? How has your faith in God been deepened? Do you love him more, or are you scared of him?

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

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise ..... He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance", 2 Peter 3:9.

If you have repented for doing this thing, and for continuing to do it when you said you wouldn't, you have been forgiven. Thank God for his forgiveness and ask him to fill you with his love and his Spirit, so that you can get on with your life and serving him.