I don’t feel god

[Charles Shaheen]

Ok I’ve posted on here before and u all recommended to read some Bible verses and I have I also pray and listen to the Bible on the app when I do pray or talk to god I get goose bumps and idk why.
I don’t really feel god in my heart for some reason and I feel like that he doesn’t see me bc when I ask for forgiveness in my pray of my sins and then the next day I start off doing great feeling optimistic about not sining then I go and sin. my sin is I keep looking at other women while I’m married and I don’t want to do that I ask god to help me with that sin but it keeps happening.
mans I made a BIG mistake when I was a kid I told the devil that I didn’t need god and didn’t want him in my life and I’m afraid that is another reason that I don’t feel god
Please help what should I do?

 

[Albion]

From what I get out of your post, this problem is mainly about perceptions, not doctrine itself or belief in God, etc. or even the nature of sin.

If so, I could say to stop worrying about it, or stop doing it, but that wouldn't help.

What I think you need is the kind of clarity that can come from instruction and counseling. That can be had from a pastor, from classes conducted by a church, or possibly also from an active life as a member of a congregation in which the word of God is preached regularly, etc.

If any of that does NOT apply to you so far, I'd say to look into it.

 

[Tony B]

You can’t make up your own Christian faith, it is a gift from God. When Peter was asked by the Jews as to what they need to do to save themselves from God’s anger since they had just crucified Jesus, His Son, Peter answered (....and I paraphrase a little)....’repent every one of you, and be baptised in The Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of faith and your spirit shall be born again by the Holy Spirit....that is God’s promise to you, and to anyone else now and in the future, that follows the same path’.

You can’t make yourself be born into Christianity, nor can you parents make you a Christian. A church can’t make you a Christian, going to church services or reading the Bible doesn’t make you a Christian, practicing a denominational faith doesn’t make you a Christian, only God can make you a Christian.

Our spirit within us is dead, and only brought to life by The Holy Spirit, after we take hold of the gift of faith, which is that ability to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He lives. That faith is given us by God, a gift sent through His mercy and grace/unmerited favour towards us, that we haven’t earned or deserved in any way.

You either believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and He was raised from the dead, or you don’t. I don’t feel human love so much towards Jesus or my Heavenly Father, but I understand Who they are and try to keep Jesus’s commandments to show my love for them, and gratefulness for what they have done for me, their creation.

To love God our spirit must be born again, and we must learn and keep Jesus’ commandments....the Holy Spirit indwells in us to teach us those, and to give us counsel and comfort/encouragement.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Ok I’ve posted on here before and u all recommended to read some Bible verses and I have I also pray and listen to the Bible on the app when I do pray or talk to god I get goose bumps and idk why.
I don’t really feel god in my heart for some reason and I feel like that he doesn’t see me bc when I ask for forgiveness in my pray of my sins and then the next day I start off doing great feeling optimistic about not sining then I go and sin. my sin is I keep looking at other women while I’m married and I don’t want to do that I ask god to help me with that sin but it keeps happening.
mans I made a BIG mistake when I was a kid I told the devil that I didn’t need god and didn’t want him in my life and I’m afraid that is another reason that I don’t feel god
Please help what should I do?

Welcome! We are still in the flesh. Put your trust in Him, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
If your wife is noticing your wandering eye, then it must be hurting her. Do you want to hurt her ? If the answer is no, then start with this premise before you search out for lustful pleasure. God already knows each time you will do it and each time it hurts your wife, so fear not , He is there. So let that weigh enough of a a burden on you to seek the Holy Spirit in your plight. Be blessed.

 

[CaspianSails]

Ok I’ve posted on here before and u all recommended to read some Bible verses and I have I also pray and listen to the Bible on the app when I do pray or talk to god I get goose bumps and idk why.
I don’t really feel god in my heart for some reason and I feel like that he doesn’t see me bc when I ask for forgiveness in my pray of my sins and then the next day I start off doing great feeling optimistic about not sining then I go and sin. my sin is I keep looking at other women while I’m married and I don’t want to do that I ask god to help me with that sin but it keeps happening.
mans I made a BIG mistake when I was a kid I told the devil that I didn’t need god and didn’t want him in my life and I’m afraid that is another reason that I don’t feel god
Please help what should I do?

Your foundation of faith may not be strong. Can you answer this question, why do you believe in God and why do you believe He wants to redeem you. While faith is a belief in God who you cannot see it is not a blind leap of faith. What does it really mean to believe in someone or something?

God is the primary premise of our knowledge, does He exist. Is it credible to believe in God and in the Word of God? This must come first.

Biblical faith is not gratuitous, not irrational; it is not a mindless faith. It is first addressed to the mind then to the heart. Believing with all your heart is a passionate faith, one which one would die for.

On that foundation you can build. Faith is not bound by feelings, in fact a faith reliant on emotion or feelings will always fall. It is building your house on sand. God is the foundation of faith. God when we don't feel Him. We know that He exists because we believe He exists and we have staked our faith on that belief. There is evidence everywhere that God exists. Do not base belief or faith in emotionalism or experiences but in a belief in God. He is whether we feel him, or experience Him or not.

Experiences and feeling His presence can and should enforce our faith. But just as you know or believe in gravity or that the sun will rise again, so you must be the belief you have in the person of God.

This is the simplest form of foundation. We build from here as God continues to reveal Himself to you through His Holy Spirit and in His Son, Christ.

 

[plain jayne]

Let me give you some valuable words I heard from a retired pastor once. He was invited to substitute in my church one day when our pastor was out.

He preached on the relationship between "Faith, Feelings, and Facts".

He said to pretend your life is a three-car train. An engine, a passenger car, and a caboose.

You are the passenger car. You have to decide what will lead you as your engine - facts [faith] or feelings.

He said when we follow the truth, the facts of God's word, then our feelings follow us - not vice versa. Our feelings are in line with the truth and us and they stay in check.

And when we allow our feelings to run the show - to lead the way, because our feelings CAN be erratic and not based on truth, our "train" runs all over the place: on and off the track, into the ditch, possibly straight, but mostly not.

You say you "feel" a certain way or "not feel" a certain way. That's not necessary the way to judge the truth.

Here's the truth. God created you and loves you. He gave his son, Jesus Christ, to die for you. Once the heart and mind acknowledges that and submits to God via Jesus Christ - one is saved.

Our feelings may blow in the wind. We can even doubt God, get angry at him, or express great love for him.

Follow the truth of the Biblical facts about God. The devil will certainly mess with your feelings and mess with your head.

If you have submitted to God through Jesus Christ his Son and your desire is to follow God, obey him, and be called his - then you are saved.

Only you know that.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Ok I’ve posted on here before and u all recommended to read some Bible verses and I have I also pray and listen to the Bible on the app when I do pray or talk to god I get goose bumps and idk why.
I don’t really feel god in my heart for some reason and I feel like that he doesn’t see me bc when I ask for forgiveness in my pray of my sins and then the next day I start off doing great feeling optimistic about not sining then I go and sin. my sin is I keep looking at other women while I’m married and I don’t want to do that I ask god to help me with that sin but it keeps happening.
mans I made a BIG mistake when I was a kid I told the devil that I didn’t need god and didn’t want him in my life and I’m afraid that is another reason that I don’t feel god
Please help what should I do?

There is, unfortunately, a common misconception in much of modern Christianity that God is a feeling, or that we should be able to "feel God".

But what most people mean--and I include myself here as this is how I used to be as well--is that there are experiences of heightened emotion. I associated the Divine Presence with the goose bumps and rush of brain hormones like dopamine and serotonin that makes us feel good, effectively our body producing its own natural high. And this can happen in a wide range of circumstances--hearing good music, hearing an uplifting message, being part of a group experience such as a concert or, yes, even church. But these brain hormones are not God, nor are they His Presence. They are simply psycho-somatic responses.

But here's the the thing, what happens when the high runs dry? Or when we're having a particularly bad day and so our bodies don't respond exactly the same way, and we don't get that rush of brain hormones that makes us feel happy and at ease? If we associate these things with God, then it can seem like God is no longer there, we don't feel Him and so He's gone.

Couple this with a theology that makes God's presence, love, and work in our lives highly conditional on our own performance, then we are left wondering what we did wrong to make God go away.

So then we strain at gnats trying, as you have here, thinking that something you did as a child somehow has now permanently injured your relationship with God. God is absent because of something you did a long time ago.

That's just not the case. God hasn't left you or abandoned you.

What is important is to understand two really important things:

1) God isn't a feeling, His presence isn't found in sensation, or emotional experience, but in the objective truth of His word. Whether you are consciously aware or not; and regardless of how you feel, God is there, here, with you in and through His word and His Sacraments. This is His promise to you, and there's nothing you can do to change God's word, He is Faithful and True, and His word can never return to Him null and void. His love for you is invincible.

2) The Christian life is not a life of transaction, where we input the right set of performances and then God rewards us. The Christian life is a life found in the cross of Jesus Christ, it is the life of discipleship, found in the suffering and hardship of this world, where we struggle against our own flesh as well as against the external realities of this unjust and broken world. And we find the strength to endure, not through our own ability or sheer force of will--but rather we find this strength in the Gospel of Jesus Christ who promises us that we belong to God. That, come pain or death or anything, we belong to God and we have hope in the good that He will one day bring, for the day is coming when this present and fallen age shall perish and the Lord shall come and bring with Him a kingdom that can never pass away. And there is life, joy, peace, and justice forever and ever.

The struggles of this life are the fires of the refiner, like the purifier of gold and silver taking heat to the metal to test it and to refine it, to purify it.

God has not abandoned you, His word to you is Good News and salvation. Now here, in this world, there is the cross that we carry as disciples of He who went before us to Calvary, who suffered and died for us, and who rose victorious over sin, death, hell, and the devil that we might have life in and with Him.

The sins you struggle with, you may struggle with your entire life--but keep up the fight. Keep your gaze fixed on Christ who has already won the battle. When you fall, let your heart be contrite and repent, trusting in the mercy of He who is more than merciful. Trust the Gospel of Christ who saves you, and in light of all these good things which are yours in Him, go and love your neighbor.

This is our life here as the people of Jesus Christ.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[FutureAndAHope]

Ok I’ve posted on here before and u all recommended to read some Bible verses and I have I also pray and listen to the Bible on the app when I do pray or talk to god I get goose bumps and idk why.
I don’t really feel god in my heart for some reason and I feel like that he doesn’t see me bc when I ask for forgiveness in my pray of my sins and then the next day I start off doing great feeling optimistic about not sining then I go and sin. my sin is I keep looking at other women while I’m married and I don’t want to do that I ask god to help me with that sin but it keeps happening.
mans I made a BIG mistake when I was a kid I told the devil that I didn’t need god and didn’t want him in my life and I’m afraid that is another reason that I don’t feel god
Please help what should I do?

You do not need to feel God, it is rear to feel His presence, I think I have only felt it once in my whole life-time as a Christain. God would have us walk by His Word, the bible not by feelings.

As for having trouble with certain sins, the bible encourages us to pray more. Jesus said "pray that you enter not into temptation for the Spirit is willing, but the flesh weak". THis suggests that as we spend time with Jesus HIs Holy Spirit strengthens us, fills us with spiritual strength. If we don't pray regularly we become weak spiritually, and are more susceptible to sin.