So I’m honestly tired of being a Christian I have zero energy to pursue God anymore. When I wasn’t in my walk with Christ my life was so much better I was happy I had fun I had great friends but now it’s all gone.
??? Okay...So, God isn't your friend? Walking with Him doesn't give you joy? Knowing that the Almighty Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, the Greatest Being in all of Existence, the Supreme Power and Sovereign over Everything is your Saviour and Friend just tires you out? Really? You sure you really have a relationship with God?
I don’t say my prayers anymore because they don’t get answered and even when I do pray my life seems to get worse I don’t read my bible anymore because I have no energy to do so and I don’t want to throw away my relationship with god I really don’t but I’m just sick of living like how I am and I want to just give up.
Well, God
always answers our prayers. Sometimes, yes, sometimes, no, sometimes, wait. Of course, God doesn't promise to answer prayers that emanate from a sinful life.
Isaiah 59:1-2
1 Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.
He also doesn't promise to fulfill prayer requests that are out of whack with His will.
James 4:3
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.
1 John 5:14-15
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
And sometimes we don't recognize His answers to our prayers because we aren't expecting His answers to arrive in the way that they do.
So, why did God make you in the first place? Did He make you so that you could just live as you please, satisfying and gratifying yourself as much as possible? No. He made you to know Him,
Philippians 3:10-11
10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
John 10:14
14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
John 17:3
3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Ephesians 3:17-19
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--
19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
and in knowing Him, to love Him,
1 John 4:16-19
16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
19 We love Him because He first loved us.
and in loving Him, to live in a way that glorifies Him.
Matthew 5:16
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
1 Corinthians 10:31
31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Romans 15:5-6
5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus,
6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 6:20
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
This is what God made you for. And when you live in the way God made for you to live, there is fulfillment, and joy and peace that you can't find in any other kind of living. It stands to reason, then, that your miserable experience as a Christian so far is the experience of one who is not actually walking rightly with Him, living according to His purposes. I don't point this out to be critical and unpleasant but to expose the fact that your experience of God is not the experience God promises to those who walk with Him His way. No, God's promises to His children are promises of rest (
Matthew 11:28), spiritual abundance (
John 10:10), and the peaceable fruit of righteousness (
Galatians 5:22; Hebrews 12:11).
I look around and the people who don’t follow god seem to be blessed financially and in other areas and they have so much fun like why does everyone else around me seem to have such great lives even other Christians and I’m here struggling.
I was talking yesterday with a young man fresh out of prison. He was saying much the same thing you are. Until fairly recently, he was deep into gang stuff - drugs, violence, sex - but found it empty, and deeply dissatisfying, and destructive. While in prison, he came to faith in Christ and now wants to walk with God. But, it costs to live God's way. His gang buddies don't understand what's happened to him and have rejected him. He's finding it really hard to find a job since he hasn't developed employable skills. The momentum of his old, godless, sin-filled habits presses strongly against him. He's seeing his former comrades in crime doing well and he's wondering if he's made a mistake in choosing to follow Christ. I urged him to take God's eternal view of life and to remember that the short time he lives on this globe is a fraction of a fraction of the blink of an eye in the context of the eternity that is yet to come. Will he make Esau's choice and give up a great future inheritance in order to satisfy a present desire or need? This was the question I put to him and I would put to you. Jesus said,
Matthew 16:24-26
24 ..."If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
