I feel discontent?

throwingbones said:

One of the responses said that if you worry a lot, your faith may be weak. Well, how do I strengthen it? Aside from reading the bible, praying, and listening to God?

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Not sure I can help you w/ your other questions, but if I may make a suggestion here. I think in a way faith is like a muscle. Yes prayer, reading scripture, fellowshipping w/ Christians and all that is all good, but that just provides the nutritional base for further muscle growth. To actually strengthen your faith you need to use it. You need to step out in faith in something, whether in some sort of service or whatever, and let God take control. The more you step out, the easier it'll get and the more faith you'll have. It wont always be that easy of course, like any workout regime, and can be abused if you just throw yourself into things based on emotion or w/o proper consideration, but in time I think it'll pay off. That's my take on it anyway. Good luck brother.

In what way do you worry?

This is interesting. Also I worry when I shouldn't. This morning was a big battle. For me it's not a problem of not trusting God as much as worrying: I start to worry: what if i don't pass the auditions for the school next year? what if I find it boaring in the end? How will I finance it? Where will I live? 1h45 away from school, or work as well to live close? Should I do university studies on the side, where I'm sure to get a scholership? Would it be to much...?
Where is the lack of trust here? I forgot about God.

Well my conclusion was that I should trust God to have surprises along the way so that things will turn out fine. In other words, things can change and things can come up that make all our planning untill then irrelevent. Beyond doing our best, taking the logical responsible steps, there's not much we can do...

... and beyond that, it's just a question of mind discipline. I'm working on that right now. Fine -- spend 5 minutes a day writing out your problems and brainstorming ideas, but after that -- enough is enough. It's really a question of mind discipline for me, because logically I trust God, but when I'm worrying I'm forgetting.

But your situation could be decidedly different because you have certain expecations from God that you hinted at in your post.

one thing you need to keep in mind is that if you've been praying for a certain thing for over a year now, God maybe telling you top wait or He may be telling you no. Whichever one it is, you can be certain that He knows what is best for you, and He only wants that for you. I know for many of us this is sort of thing is difficult to deal with, but you can't let whatever this is become a stumbling block for you.

I like the imagery of being lights shining in the darkness, or conduits through which the Holy Spirit is able to work. This starts by knowing that our most basic purpose is to know our creator. So our meaning is found in this. Henry Blackaby's "Experiencing God" is a powerful study to go through.

I know how you feel.

My advice (in my humble opinion) is to be yourself! Don't worry about what

others think about you. You do not have to answer to anyone except God and

God only!! I may not know exactly what you're going through, but I have

discovered that personal discontent is usually caused by someone else's

definition of you, meaning somebody is interfering with God's good works in you!
Please don't let that happen!

By no means am I saying be self centered or uncaring; God calls us to uplift one another and bear each others burdens. He will give you the wisdom to know his will ALWAYS AND FOREVER! Keep praying and reading the Bible.
Find a mentor in your church. We all need that special connection. Everything will fall into place, you'll see! God Bless!!