I instinctively shrink back from relationship with Jesus

Bob8102

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I have been actively seeking to be saved for 15 years. it is not working. Just today, I realized that I instinctively shrink back from having a personal relationship with Jesus. Until my instincts change, I guess I'll be out of relationship with Him and outside the kingdom of heaven.

I know the gospel and about heaven and hell. But my personal instincts - derived from the sinful nature I inherited from Adam and Eve - are stronger, apparently, than any facts, logic or call of God. I can't help shrinking away from relationship with Jesus - it's instinctive.
 

Maria Billingsley

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I have been actively seeking to be saved for 15 years. it is not working. Just today, I realized that I instinctively shrink back from having a personal relationship with Jesus. Until my instincts change, I guess I'll be out of relationship with Him and outside the kingdom of heaven.

I know the gospel and about heaven and hell. But my personal instincts - derived from the sinful nature I inherited from Adam and Eve - are stronger, apparently, than any facts, logic or call of God. I can't help shrinking away from relationship with Jesus - it's instinctive.
Do you Love Him?
 
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Maria Billingsley

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No. I love myself. it's my nature.
Ok, well there you have your answer. It is impossible to have a relationship with Him unless you love Him. There is hope though, He can heal your hardened heart if you are willing. I will pray for you. :prayer:
 
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Bob8102

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Ok, well there you have your answer. It is impossible to have a relationship with Him unless you love Him. There is hope though, He can heal your hardened heart if you are willing. I will pray for you. :prayer:
Thank you.
 
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Pavel Mosko

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I have been actively seeking to be saved for 15 years. it is not working. Just today, I realized that I instinctively shrink back from having a personal relationship with Jesus. Until my instincts change, I guess I'll be out of relationship with Him and outside the kingdom of heaven.

I know the gospel and about heaven and hell. But my personal instincts - derived from the sinful nature I inherited from Adam and Eve - are stronger, apparently, than any facts, logic or call of God. I can't help shrinking away from relationship with Jesus - it's instinctive.

1 John 2

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
 
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Deade

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No. I love myself. it's my nature.

Bob, have you ever considered you are suffering from depression? I have had clinical depression for 40 years, controlled by medicine. We make bad decisions while depressed. I have yo-yoed in and out of my relationship with Christ. One thing that comforts me is that I have not stopped believing everything the Spirit has taught me. We only become reprobate through unbelief. Praying for you. :cool:
 
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paul1149

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my personal instincts - derived from the sinful nature I inherited from Adam and Eve - are stronger, apparently, than any facts, logic or call of God.
God is infinite, and His power is greater than any blockage we can have. But we have to tap into that power in order to overcome.

"If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. - Jhn 7:17​

Jesus gives us a path here to faith. If you go to God with a willingness, that's all He needs to work with. His power is perfected in weakness, if we will but turn to Him (2Cor 12).

And if you can't be willing, you can be willing to be made willing.

'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. - Jer 29:13

This is still true. Because we are complicated, the process can take a long time. It doesn't happen on its own, we have to actively turn to God. But if we do so it will happen.
 
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Lukaris

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I have some issues but I also believe in pursuing the Lord’s commandments in alms giving to others & prayer for the salvation of others. This is directly from the Lord in Matthew 6:1-15. The Lord’s Prayer has our penitential needs and is a proactive intercession for our neighbor. If we really understand it, we will see the Lord’s commandments in it ( see Matthew 7:12, Matthew 22:36-40). There is evangelism in the Lord’s Prayer ( see Matthew 9:36-38). Alms giving & prayer are our basic living faith ( Ephesians 2:8-10, James 2:14-17, Acts of the Apostles 26:19-20 etc.).
 
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1watchman

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No. I love myself. it's my nature.

Well, at least you are honest! I don't understand why you come on here to tell us you are bad and don't want the Savior and to be pleasing our Creator-God ---the Father of mankind! We are ALL born bad as even Genesis 2 & 3 shows. God provided a Savior and a new spiritual life in His Son, and you seem to just ignore that and cry that you are just self-indulgent.
Do you really want the remedy many here have spoken of? Are you willing to put aside pride and read John 3; John 14; Roman 8 in the Holy Bible and hear our God speaking to us? Well, at least I will pray for you that God will help you mature and yield to Him before it is too late ---which could be very soon. --1watchman
 
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Bob8102

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Thanks to all who responded and who are praying for me. I pray for everyone on Christian Forums in general and those who offer to pray for me in specific. I have been actively seeking salvation for 20 years, not 15 as I said above. This past Wednesday, I simply, sincerely, said to Jesus, "I really want you to be my Lord and Savior. I need your help to want to do, and to do, your will." Then I latched onto Romans 8:1. Since then, whenever my OCD starts generating doubt, anxiety and/or fear, whether by means of an intellectual thought or by feeling, I quote that verse. I understand myself to belong to Christ since Wednesday. It's easy for me to remember, since it was Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican holiday. It's not that I have completely stopped giving my life to Christ again, but el Cinco de Mayo is the official date in my head on which I became a Christian.
 
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Bob8102

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Since the verse links apparently do not work as well as they used to, I'll quote Romans 8:1 here: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."
 
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aiki

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I have been actively seeking to be saved for 15 years. it is not working. Just today, I realized that I instinctively shrink back from having a personal relationship with Jesus.

Why? "Shrinking back" suggests you perceive a threat, a danger. Do you? Does God seem dangerous to you? He is, of course; but He isn't only dangerous. God is full of love, and joy, and mercy, too. Do you believe this?

Until my instincts change, I guess I'll be out of relationship with Him and outside the kingdom of heaven.

And those instincts will change by what means?

God's not going to force you into His family and kingdom. You aren't a puppet and He won't treat you like one. If you want to know and walk with Him, He's delighted to have you, but it's up to you, ultimately, to accept His offer of spiritual adoption.
 
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Thanks to all who responded and who are praying for me. I pray for everyone on Christian Forums in general and those who offer to pray for me in specific. I have been actively seeking salvation for 20 years, not 15 as I said above. This past Wednesday, I simply, sincerely, said to Jesus, "I really want you to be my Lord and Savior. I need your help to want to do, and to do, your will." Then I latched onto Romans 8:1. Since then, whenever my OCD starts generating doubt, anxiety and/or fear, whether by means of an intellectual thought or by feeling, I quote that verse. I understand myself to belong to Christ since Wednesday. It's easy for me to remember, since it was Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican holiday. It's not that I have completely stopped giving my life to Christ again, but el Cinco de Mayo is the official date in my head on which I became a Christian.
Dear one, yes, continue to hold fast what is said in Roman 8:1-2. That good thing that was committed to you. Keep by the Holy Spirit that dwell in you.

Dear one, seek the Lord’s strength continually that you do things that are in accord with His will, as we have heard:

Seek the LORD and His strength; seek his presence continually! -Psalms 105:4

God bless you.
 
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Deade

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Thanks to all who responded and who are praying for me. I pray for everyone on Christian Forums in general and those who offer to pray for me in specific. I have been actively seeking salvation for 20 years, not 15 as I said above. This past Wednesday, I simply, sincerely, said to Jesus, "I really want you to be my Lord and Savior. I need your help to want to do, and to do, your will." Then I latched onto Romans 8:1. Since then, whenever my OCD starts generating doubt, anxiety and/or fear, whether by means of an intellectual thought or by feeling, I quote that verse. I understand myself to belong to Christ since Wednesday. It's easy for me to remember, since it was Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican holiday. It's not that I have completely stopped giving my life to Christ again, but el Cinco de Mayo is the official date in my head on which I became a Christian.
Since the verse links apparently do not work as well as they used to, I'll quote Romans 8:1 here: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

Another thing I find helpful, while depressed, Bob: is do not give yourself a choice each day to serve God or not. Decide today, for tomorrow and always. You might be weak one day and decide wrong. We are not actually saved until we are resurrected immortal. But like God, we can call the future in faith. We can decide today to choose to serve Him forever. :D
 
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1watchman

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Good to hear of Bob's joy in finding the Lord Jesus as His Savior. Now one needs to go forth making Him LORD of one's life (lest Satan work to defeat us with lies). That is what pleases the Father who sent Him to redeem us and bless us. Going forward we need to live in that love and show it forth to all around us! Right?
 
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aiki

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Thanks to all who responded and who are praying for me. I pray for everyone on Christian Forums in general and those who offer to pray for me in specific. I have been actively seeking salvation for 20 years, not 15 as I said above. This past Wednesday, I simply, sincerely, said to Jesus, "I really want you to be my Lord and Savior. I need your help to want to do, and to do, your will." Then I latched onto Romans 8:1. Since then, whenever my OCD starts generating doubt, anxiety and/or fear, whether by means of an intellectual thought or by feeling, I quote that verse.

Fantastic! When I struggled with anxiety and OCD decades ago in my early twenties this was what I began to do with Scripture, too. After a time, persisting in making OCD and anxious thoughts a trigger to fix my mind upon God's word, both the OCD and anxiety dissolved. Of course, I had to be careful not to turn Scripture into a kind of "magic spell" against these things, just reflexively quoting Scripture to myself, paying little attention to what I was saying, thinking that Scripture had of itself some magical power to counter OCD and anxiety. I had to learn, not just to quote Scripture in counter to my anxiety and obsessiveness, but to believe it, to put the full weight of my trust upon it and count it as the truth. As I did, the freedom of the truth, of God's truth, became mine.

Here are some of the verses that helped me in dealing with OCD and anxiety:

2 Timothy 1:7
Romans 8:15
Hebrews 2:14
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
1 Peter 5:6-10

Welcome to the family of God!
 
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Dorothy Mae

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I have been actively seeking to be saved for 15 years. it is not working. Just today, I realized that I instinctively shrink back from having a personal relationship with Jesus. Until my instincts change, I guess I'll be out of relationship with Him and outside the kingdom of heaven.

I know the gospel and about heaven and hell. But my personal instincts - derived from the sinful nature I inherited from Adam and Eve - are stronger, apparently, than any facts, logic or call of God. I can't help shrinking away from relationship with Jesus - it's instinctive.
I don't know how to say this more gently, but you are giving yourself excuses.

First, we do not have instincts that prevent relationships. We have an instinct for survival. We have an instinct for self-preservation. Those are not choices we make but strong motivations. So there is no instinct against relationship with Jesus.

Second, there isn't a single Bible reference to this supposed "sin nature" we were born with. It is not there because no one in the BIble, including God, ever mentioned it. Sinful nature? Yes. Sin nature? no. We are what we are because we chose to do wrong...over and over again.

My suggestion is to seek repentance from sin, that God shows you wour sin that you might be granted repentance and forgiveness. Relationship with Jesus is the end product of that process.
 
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