I'm thinking of walking away from God, here's why...

[dante'sComedy]

~ iron sharpens iron. Find a good church. Which is no small task to say the least. If you don't feel comfortable in a church leave and try another one. Call around and find one that teachs God's word.

~ Secondly, If? Lord save me is the only prayer you can pray? Then its enough for the Lord. I came from an occult background and it was an up hill climb for years. i'm 38 now. And, Satan's attacks are less aggressive because I know Christ is faithful by what i've had to endure.
~ Jesus is a faithful friend , and theres no one who knows suffering and rejection like Him. By His stripes we are healed!
~ the body of Christ is here to assist you. Find some trusted friends in the Lord. One's who will come along side you and pray and share in your pain. It's important to know your not alone.

~ I'm sorry for the horrible experiences you've suffered. You can't go it alone. Jesus said, He would send the Comforter His Holy Spirit. You need this person of the trinity to fill you with Christ's will in your life and not the will of man.
~ There's no doubt Satan uses people those held captive to his will to do his bidding. How much more the Spirit of God in us to work the works of God. " He's not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind." Thats God's word the sword from our lips to remove strongholds. (Strongholds) have to do with thoughts or mind sets we've been born with or learned. That are opposed to the new creation of "Christ in us the hope and glory."
~ By Christ finished work. We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." ~ Find out all that Christ has paid for and begin to thank Him for His presence in your life. "Put on a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" Remember praise loosed the chains on the disciples when they were imprisoned for Christ.

 

[cafefan374]

I recently went through something that left me on a spiritual hiatus. Mental torment, anxiety, ultimately I said ENOUGH! I was like "God if I don't take a break I'll end up hating you"

 

[Tim Myers]

"I'm thinking of walking away from God"

Check back with us in a year or two and let us know how that's working out for ya......

 

[lutherangerman]

Hi ... I know what you experience.

I have schizophrenia and sometimes the devil hurts me a real lot.

I don't understand it very well, sometimes I manage to feel really good and have peace and happiness and I feel this is going to last, but then I get attacked by satan again and feel like everything shatters and God leaves me in this mess. But I found that when I take heart and say to God, if you want it like that so be it, then I go into these attacks with faith and God always rescues me. Just yesterday I had brutal doubts and evil voices said mean things to me and I felt all my faith would go away, then I overcame myself and said to God if you want it like that so be it. Then I laid down in bed and waited and after a short while I felt this bright, watery, shining presence in my room. I thought, ok this is God I will trust Him, and then the voices got silent and I felt better quickly. This has happened a few times by now. And I think this is what Apostle James means when he wrote that we shall submit to God and the devil would flee. We humans just have these imaginations, we think when we submit this would make our life so depressed. But we can count on God, if we submit to Him and pray God will come to our aid as the loving Father He REALLY is.

About your ugliness, I know that too. Some years ago I got the wrong medicine for my schizo and it made me very fat and bloated, I almost couldn't recognize myself in the mirror anymore. No girl looked at me anymore and I felt so ugly and lonely. But later I got courage and made a diet and after some months I was presentable again. But most importantly, I learned that attractiveness, in the end, has more to do with our spirit, with our charisma. If we loathe ourselves and give up hope and all that, we get boring faces and everyone sees we have no courage anymore. And that's what girls notice and they don't find us attractive for partnership anymore. I went to a christian retreat and there was an old man there who inspired me, he had no shame about his age and his disabilities and trusted other christians and was nice to anyone. This gave him a charisma of goodness so despite being old he always gave this impression of freedom and joy to others which made him attractive. This is something you must pursue too, and I promise you women will notice it. Just also do a diet if you're overweight or something like that, go wandering a lot, go to the gym. You may have an ugly face but you can still be attractive in the rest of your body. And don't pursue model girls with great figure, recognize other girls too even when you think they're ugly, they may just have the same problem as you.

If you stick with this approach, you will find a girlfriend and you will be attracted to each other in all things, also sexually, and then you can marry and have sex and everything else. she will kiss your scars and love you to bits. Just emphasize your inward man over the outward man and don't pursue the super attractive women. You will find these model women aren't worth it anyway.

And forget Joel Osteen. He's not a good teacher. I would recommend John Piper instead. You need to get in touch with God not as some self help guru but as someone you need to learn to suffer with and to imitate. God will provide us with a job and such, and He will help you see the one girlfriend you will be able to trust as a partner. But God is not a genie who fulfills ALL wishes. Instead concentrate on fulfilling God's wishes and you will see He means it well.

Go out nature a lot, God speaks through His creation to us and we find love and peace. Buy a backpack, put a thermo can of coffee and some sandwiches inside, and some cigarettes if you want, and go wandering for a day or so. And just remember Jesus, He wandered a lot too. Pray to God to show you beautiful things. You will find a lot and become peaceful inside and satisfied by Jesus. Jesus is everything for us and will be with us until the end of time. Don't think He doesn't love you, overcome that doubt, let God His will and beg Him in love to come to you.

Don't give in to temptations to be an atheist. It's boring and leads to sin and to becoming weak inside. And it destroys genuine freedom and there is no bliss in it, it only promises but never really delivers. Instead of accusing God, learn to lament and to wail at Him who is Savior and Doctor and Prince of Peace. He will certainly help.

God bless you!

 

[briareos]

Hi guys

As a lot of you know, I've struggled for years with suicidal thoughts and tendencies, self harm, OCD, panic attacks and now a nicely developing addiction. On top of this, I work in an incredibly dehumanising, stressful environment, have an alcoholic father and a mother who has destroyed my life with guilt. my face is the net result of 2 bungled NHS operations which have left me looking like frankenstein's monster, I have no friends and, most importantly to me, I can't get a girlfriend. When I pray, God doesnt speak to me, the Holy Spirit seems to be continually absent despite my sincerest efforts and I still dont see anything changing.

In short, I do not have one single positive thing in my life, at all. Nope, not one thing...

Reading the Bible, it makes all these promises about what God wants to do, how we can be blessed, and prospered in the desert, and how God loves us and wants the best for us. Yet, we all know all things happen in accordance with God's will. Now, God's will for me seems for me to suffer needlessly, to face constant disappointment and upset and never to be happy. No matter how much I pray, no matter how much I bind/rebuke/claim victory/whatever Joel Osteen says to do, nothing changes.

I'm not naive, I didn't expect life to be easy after coming to Christ, but I didnt expect things to get worse on a daily basis.

So my thought is, if God wants me to suffer constantly, why is that something I should accept? And why would a loving father treat me so badly, after he rebukes others for doing the same?

Can someone please provide me with some guidance? I don't want to walk away from God, but I will not invest my love and adoration into a relationship that seems massively one sided at the moment.

Hi there.

Well I don't believe you can walk away from God, you believe in him, you believe hes true, you believe that you'll see him when you die. If you do walk away from God all you'll find is a world of guilt and sorrow that your not in the truth and you'll know, you'll always know God is true and real and that you are simply wrong becuase hes right. You believe these things.
No matter how bad your life gets, you can't leave God and do well as long as you believe him. That just doesn't work.You'll always waver and struggle and probly eventually come back.

Friend, on a loving note. God hasn't abandoned you. I will pray for you. The bible says prayer requires faith, you don't have much of that, you sincerely believe that he has let you down, that hes failed you and that he doesn't answer prayer so you don't have the ability to receive much from God. My words can't really change anything, I will pray for you becuase I am confident that my prayers can change lives.

Take care friend.
Lee

 

[cranberries]

Funny thing about that. There once was a farm hand, decent Christian man but never could bring himself to witness much. Once he had a conversation with little Billy about Jesus, the fella wasn't sure if the young man was really turning to Christ or just trying to "play along" he'd certainly not done enough witnessing to discern. So he talked the young man into trying out a tent revival.

Billy grew up, reached about 2.2 billion listeners, by 1993 2.5 million people had "come forward at "little Billy's" crusades, he wrote 28 widely circulated Christian books, founded a few seminaries, etc, etc. Number 7 on Gallup's most admired people of the 21st century (a secular) poll .. . .

So Leland, it is like this: Joel Osteen can do what ever he does & get whatever results he gets, but someone who only maybe reaches ONE person for Christ, may bring the next Billy Graham into the Kingdom. I'll keep looking EACH person I witness to in the eye, praying each one to be as fruitful as Billy. Besides, in heaven I am going to be too busy casting my crown at the feet of Him who is worthy of all honor and praise to waste my time with some two bit prosperity doctrine snake oil salesman.

This is an amazing post.It really blessed me.

 

[cranberries]

I don't know what NHS surgeries are & didn't have much luck with Wiki/ Google.

I did dig up who Joel Osteen is & . .. I am not surprised that his words haven't done much good.

I understand having scars & disfigurements.

I am sorry you are going through a rough time. Sometimes it feels onesided boy don't I know it! The book of Job goes on for 37 chapters before God FINALLY speaks to Job in chapter 38 . . . . have you read Job? I have lived through the Book of Job myself, hence some of the scars, but the end of the book is remarkable. Really. Now with wife and children . . . happiness and contentment. Hang in there, there aren't easy answers, but there are answers.

I agree with this post.
I am sorry you are going through such a hard time.
But it is true,sometimes life is very painfu land difficult.
The only answer is to cling to Jesus and wait on Jesus.
The book of Job is a good book and shows God always comes through and we are so blessed to be children of God with everlasting life.

 

[briareos]

Funny thing about that. There once was a farm hand, decent Christian man but never could bring himself to witness much. Once he had a conversation with little Billy about Jesus, the fella wasn't sure if the young man was really turning to Christ or just trying to "play along" he'd certainly not done enough witnessing to discern. So he talked the young man into trying out a tent revival.

Billy grew up, reached about 2.2 billion listeners, by 1993 2.5 million people had "come forward at "little Billy's" crusades, he wrote 28 widely circulated Christian books, founded a few seminaries, etc, etc. Number 7 on Gallup's most admired people of the 21st century (a secular) poll .. . .

So Leland, it is like this: Joel Osteen can do what ever he does & get whatever results he gets, but someone who only maybe reaches ONE person for Christ, may bring the next Billy Graham into the Kingdom. I'll keep looking EACH person I witness to in the eye, praying each one to be as fruitful as Billy. Besides, in heaven I am going to be too busy casting my crown at the feet of Him who is worthy of all honor and praise to waste my time with some two bit prosperity doctrine snake oil salesman.

The farm hand couldn't bring himself to witness much. I harbor no contempt for the man but that's unacceptable, thank God he did save one but that was not his calling,not that lack of ability to bring himself...
You do what the Lord asks and wants of you, there is no place for "couldn't bring himself to witness much" simply becuase it references his own feelings, inclinations and willingness... something that has no place in the great commission. Your christianity may not bring you to do certain things, but you will absolutely be able to share your beliefs in christ, be willing to offer pray, be willing to reach out and witness. You get over yourself and are willing to witness. We shouldn't compare numbers but the willingness to lay it all down is a basic part of Godliness. Billy did great things, that doesn't mean he did. I am not judging him, but not being willing to witness much, is by no means a Godly attribute or standard.

 

[wayfaring man]

Once when suffering terribly almost to the point of physically dying, alone in the wilderness, I cried and cried out for God to save me, over and over, but things only got worse...then suddenly I felt a strong conviction over how I had slowly but steadily slipped away from my "first love" Jesus, and it was then that I began to cry out "Jesus help me, Please, help me Jesus" and then help came and healing manifested, and I recovered to go on living, with a renewed sense of the importance of seeking God's help through "calling upon the name of Jesus", and keeping all that He has done for us in mind, to help keep our love and appreciation for Him from waning.

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; <-----> 1st Timothy 2:5

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. <-----> Romans 10:13

The Lord "saves" us in the way which He knows is best. He may not immediately take away all that we struggle with, for some things, like patience, are learned by enduring unpleasantness, and God knows we're infinitely better off, to be of a patient spirit, than to quickly have all that we'd like and be of a hasty spirit.

This is not "the life", this is at best "a life", which may last around 100 years tops.

No one would knowingly desire the ideal to occur in a temporary life, nay, rather they would desire the ideal in an everlasting life...for a temporary "heaven" soon goes to "hell".

Better to have a temporary "hell", which disintegrates at the ushering in of an eternal "heavenly existence".

People who have it real easy in this life, have a much harder time entering into God's Kingdom, than those of us who have it rough. ( Mark 10:25 + Psalm 18:27)

This will become clearer the closer we become to Christ.

We can even get to the place, where we thank God, for our trials, and our infirmities and reproaches. ( James 1:2-4 + 2nd Corinthians 12:10 )

Yet, it is imperative that we lose not our "first love", which is our love for Jesus, and the mercy, grace, and truth freely extended to us because of all He endured on our behalf ! ( Hebrews 12:2-4 + Revelation 2:4 )

Additionally, instead of looking to those folks who appear to be "better off" than us to "lift us up", we are more blessed in looking towards those who appear to "have it worse", than do we, and seek to somehow be helpful to them...and by doing this we do honor the Person and Spirit of Christ; which in turn brings us closer to Him; which in turn quickens our own body, soul + spirit; which in turn gives us great consolation, satisfaction, with peace, love, and joy overflowing.

May The Lord Jesus be called upon, and may His Spirit bring faith, hope, and charity into our lives, as a strong witness of God's Goodness and Grace. Amen.

wm

 

[cranberries]

Maybe the farm hand did not witness much,but he did witness some and that witnesssing led to at least one person being saved and spreading the gospel all over.Then again there may have been others that had a seed planted in their heart and later got saved also.The farmer was growing in grace.God says one soul is worth more than the whole world.

 

[cranberries]

Once when suffering terribly almost to the point of physically dying, alone in the wilderness, I cried and cried out for God to save me, over and over, but things only got worse...then suddenly I felt a strong conviction over how I had slowly but steadily slipped away from my "first love" Jesus, and it was then that I began to cry out "Jesus help me, Please, help me Jesus" and then help came and healing manifested, and I recovered to go on living, with a renewed sense of the importance of seeking God's help through "calling upon the name of Jesus", and keeping all that He has done for us in mind, to help keep our love and appreciation for Him from waning.

For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; <-----> 1st Timothy 2:5

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. <-----> Romans 10:13

The Lord "saves" us in the way which He knows is best. He may not immediately take away all that we struggle with, for some things, like patience, are learned by enduring unpleasantness, and God knows we're infinitely better off, to be of a patient spirit, than to quickly have all that we'd like and be of a hasty spirit.

This is not "the life", this is at best "a life", which may last around 100 years tops.

No one would knowingly desire the ideal to occur in a temporary life, nay, rather they would desire the ideal in an everlasting life...for a temporary "heaven" soon goes to "hell".

Better to have a temporary "hell", which disintegrates at the ushering in of an eternal "heavenly existence".

People who have it real easy in this life, have a much harder time entering into God's Kingdom, than those of us who have it rough. ( Mark 10:25 + Psalm 18:27)

This will become clearer the closer we become to Christ.

We can even get to the place, where we thank God, for our trials, and our infirmities and reproaches. ( James 1:2-4 + 2nd Corinthians 12:10 )

Yet, it is imperative that we lose not our "first love", which is our love for Jesus, and the mercy, grace, and truth freely extended to us because of all He endured on our behalf ! ( Hebrews 12:2-4 + Revelation 2:4 )

Additionally, instead of looking to those folks who appear to be "better off" than us to "lift us up", we are more blessed in looking towards those who appear to "have it worse", than do we, and seek to somehow be helpful to them...and by doing this we do honor the Person and Spirit of Christ; which in turn brings us closer to Him; which in turn quickens our own body, soul + spirit; which in turn gives us great consolation, satisfaction, with peace, love, and joy overflowing.

May The Lord Jesus be called upon, and may His Spirit bring faith, hope, and charity into our lives, as a strong witness of God's Goodness and Grace. Amen.

wm

so very very true and thanks for sharing that.

 

[briareos]

Maybe the farm hand did not witness much,but he did witness some and that witnesssing led to at least one person being saved and spreading the gospel all over.Then again there may have been others that had a seed planted in their heart and later got saved also.The farmer was growing in grace.God says one soul is worth more than the whole world.

I am not condemning the farm hand, I am saying the negligence to witness is by no means a Godly attribute. Sure we all need grace. I am just saying the goal and biblical standard is higher than that and regardless of what billy did, it isn't pleasing in the sight of God to be negligent to witness.

 

[jonsun80]

to know God you must first not know God. So I say leave.

 

[briareos]

How so?

 

[cafefan374]

See Below

 

[cafefan374]

Joel Olsteen is not a preacher, he is a motivational speaker, huge difference. I went through something that still has not quite gone away. I felt like God was always waitng to strike me down with something if I did not touch something such as a wall a certain amount of times, or If I did not check something over and over or if I did not do something he was going to hold something from me as a punishment (like if you do not watch this show, I'm not going to give you this job). There were periods that I was like "why are you being like this, why do you want to hurt me for no reason, why would you be this petty?" "All I asked for was a decent paying job, I'm not asking for a million dollars, I thought my request was rather reasonable considering that I had been in my undergrade for almost five years w/ no break, the moment I graduated from high school, I was in college" I graduated high school in May of 2005, and was in summer school June that same year. I have still yet to find a good job and I have been out of my undergrad for almost two years. I met a friend who I honestly thought needed help, and I really wanted to get him on the right track but he was just a user and I only went further broke trying to help him. Recently it was fear God was going to strike me w/ a life threatning illness if I did something he did not want or I didnt do something that he wanted, so I ultimately said "THIS IS IT! I'm always scared, I never have any peace, I'm paranoid, and always on edge. I'm sick of being mentally unstable and I'm sick of thanking you outloud for things I have yet to see b/c all it's make me is bitter, broke, remorseful, and resentful. I'm taking a break from you, I don't know how long it will be, but if I don't do this, I will end up hating you and beleive me lord, I never want that to happen, either this goes or I go! I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE" It might not have been said this way verbatim however, it was pretty close. I took a weekend away, though initially it was going to be indefinite. I'm still fighting some of this mental torment, so what I've done is stop putting others before me b/c I cannot take care of others if I can't take care of me first. Like my so called "friend", I said since I have not gotten what I've been seeking yet, I am suspending my help indefinitely. I wish it didn't have to come to this, but that's just the way things have to be.

 

[briareos]

Miss Elly

Joel Osteen is a very happy, cheerful uplifting person and he does help and encourage people. I do know of a sinner who turned to God because of Joel Olsteen. People have different ministries.

Thanks for bring some balance to the Joel discussion. I am not an avid listener of him but I am not aware of anything nonbiblical from him. Many people disagree with those who are apart of the charismatic beliefs simply becuase they preach about wealth, they believe in healing and miracles and they are sometimes wealthy, sometimes in the trinity. I don't intend to start a Joel debate but I find nothing wrong with him.

 

[Lee52]

Funny thing about that. There once was a farm hand, decent Christian man but never could bring himself to witness much. Once he had a conversation with little Billy about Jesus, the fella wasn't sure if the young man was really turning to Christ or just trying to "play along" he'd certainly not done enough witnessing to discern. So he talked the young man into trying out a tent revival.

Billy grew up, reached about 2.2 billion listeners, by 1993 2.5 million people had "come forward at "little Billy's" crusades, he wrote 28 widely circulated Christian books, founded a few seminaries, etc, etc. Number 7 on Gallup's most admired people of the 21st century (a secular) poll .. . .

So Leland, it is like this: Joel Osteen can do what ever he does & get whatever results he gets, but someone who only maybe reaches ONE person for Christ, may bring the next Billy Graham into the Kingdom. I'll keep looking EACH person I witness to in the eye, praying each one to be as fruitful as Billy. Besides, in heaven I am going to be too busy casting my crown at the feet of Him who is worthy of all honor and praise to waste my time with some two bit prosperity doctrine snake oil salesman.

Could not have said it better, Macx!

Brother, take you eyes off of health-wealth-prosperity preachers and look to Jesus ONLY. If you were in DC, we would welcome you into our congregation. We seek sinners to minister to instead of those who have no percieved need of Jesus. Our building is where we meet on Sundays to recharge our spiritual batteries for our work throughout the nations Capitol meeting needs of those who are not having their needs met. We don't care what you look like, nor do we care what your sins are. If you have a need, we will seek ways in Christ to meet your needs.

And our Pastor and his staff are not multimillionaires like Joel's.

Be blessed, I am praying for you.
Lee52

 

[briareos]

Well the two-bit snake oil salesman comment was a bit below the belt, a very false representation of biblical prosperity as displayed in several Godly men from the bible and very clear biblical teaching. I am not going to break out my latin logical fallacy terms here but it wasn't fair at all.

 

[Kaitlin08]

to know God you must first not know God. So I say leave.

This is interesting advice. I think it's beneficial for people who are angry at God, and perhaps some doubters, to follow through on it.