Is there ever a cap on how much God is willing to help us?

[Far Side Of the Moon]

I know most will say no but....

I think if God always helped us our lives would be perfect and easy and I know a life of ease isnt the life he called us to...
However I do know he uses us in different ways.

I just ask because my life is going so well right now and I'm so thankful and I feel if I were to ask for anything(within reason...) I feel God would be gracious enough to grant it...perhaps...

Honestly I feel like I'm fine and I can take it from here...

I just wonder if God would ever stop helping me..or anyone for that matter...even if our lives are at a certain point of contentment.

 

[Doug Melven]

He who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

God is always willing to help us.
But, never forget why He blesses us so richly, He blesses us so we can be a blessing to others.

 

[St_Worm2]

I know most will say no but....

I think if God always helped us our lives would be perfect and easy and I know a life of ease isnt the life he called us to...
However I do know he uses us in different ways.

I just ask because my life is going so well right now and I'm so thankful and I feel if I were to ask for anything(within reason...) I feel God would be gracious enough to grant it...perhaps...

Honestly I feel like I'm fine and I can take it from here...

I just wonder if God would ever stop helping me..or anyone for that matter...even if our lives are at a certain point of contentment.

Romans 8:32 comes quickly to mind. (edit: sorry Doug, I posted this w/o reading your post first)

Hi Far Side, the thing is, sometimes when we think that God isn't helping us is when He is actually helping us the most. His principle concern isn't that we are happy, rather, its that we become more and more like His Son, that we grow in Christlikeness each and every day as we live out our days as Christians this side of Glory, because He knows that's what we actually need.

That's why suffering (which the Lord often uses to discipline us) is something that every Christian experiences. As the Bible tells us:

Hebrews 12
7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.​

As Theologian/Pastor Charles H. Spurgeon once said:

"I've learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages".​

Why, because he came to realize that it was during the times of trouble and suffering in his life that he drew closest to God, that he finally depended on Him as he needed to (something that is absolutely necessary in the good times too). God doesn't want us handling things on our own because He knows that we can't (but the good times always seem to lull us into the false belief that we can handle things in this life w/o Him unfortunately ).

Don't forget the great promise He makes to us in Romans 8:28 as well, that He will cause 'all' things to work together for our good. I believe the Bible makes a point of telling us that principally in regard to the things that we see as "bad" in our lives (so that we can begin to see/understand that God intends them for our good).

Missionary Elisabeth Elliot's famous quote comes to mind as well:

Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering.... The love of God did not protect His own Son.... He will not necessarily protect us - not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process.
​

I know it's tough to do, but whenever trouble comes (and it always will if you are His), we may not be happy about it, but we can certainly be joyful about it, knowing that the Lord uses all the difficult times in life to draw us closer to Him as He continues to grow us up in His Son .. Philippians 1:6, 2:13

In Christ,
David

 

[Far Side Of the Moon]

He who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

God is always willing to help us.
But, never forget why He blesses us so richly, He blesses us so we can be a blessing to others.

So true I defintely would love to be a blessing to others.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

I know most will say no but....

I think if God always helped us our lives would be perfect and easy and I know a life of ease isnt the life he called us to...
However I do know he uses us in different ways.

I just ask because my life is going so well right now and I'm so thankful and I feel if I were to ask for anything(within reason...) I feel God would be gracious enough to grant it...perhaps...

Honestly I feel like I'm fine and I can take it from here...

I just wonder if God would ever stop helping me..or anyone for that matter...even if our lives are at a certain point of contentment.

There is the story about the two cows in a paddock. One was the very spiritual cow, and the other was just a normal one. The very spiritual cow felt that she must eat the tufts of grass with the cowpats on them so that she can add a bit of unpleasantness to her life to bring her closer to God. The normal cow knows already where she stands with God and so avoids the cowpat ones, and enjoys the green, juicy, delicious ones.

Many believers are afraid of living a pleasant, calm, filfulling life because they think that living that life will draw them away from Christ, so they do things to add suffering in the vain intention that this will bring them closer to God. It is the same spirit that impelled some Corinthian men to divorce their wives because they thought that being single brought them closer to God. And many were martyred, not because it was going to happen to them in any case, but they did things that brought it on themselves, because they believed that it was an honour to be martyred, but in reality it was a form of suicide by the state. The true martyrs did not seek martyrdom and worked to avoid it, and it was only when they were forced into a corner where they had no choice either to obey God or suffer the death penalty. It was the same in Communist countries. The quiet Christian believers who got on with serving and worshiping God mostly were ignored by the state, but the ones who agitated against the government got into trouble. You will notice that neither Jesus nor Paul ever agitated against the Romans and did not stick their noses into the politics of the time. It was the Judaists who had Jesus killed and persecuted Paul and it was their riot against him in Jerusalem that got him imprisoned. The Roman governor could not see anything wrong to bring charges against Paul, and was willing to release him, but Paul appealed to Caesar and so he went as a prisoner to Rome. Tradition says that he was actually released later, but was caught up in a later persecution of Christians and there he lost his life.

So we don't look for trouble. Paul wrote that believers should study to be quiet and to mind their own business. That is good advice for living a quiet, fulfilling life for the Lord.

 

[dreadnought]

I know most will say no but....

I think if God always helped us our lives would be perfect and easy and I know a life of ease isnt the life he called us to...
However I do know he uses us in different ways.

I just ask because my life is going so well right now and I'm so thankful and I feel if I were to ask for anything(within reason...) I feel God would be gracious enough to grant it...perhaps...

Honestly I feel like I'm fine and I can take it from here...

I just wonder if God would ever stop helping me..or anyone for that matter...even if our lives are at a certain point of contentment.

The Lord has goals for each of us. As long as we are trying to achieve those goals, I don't think he'll retract his grace from us.

 

[St_Worm2]

There is the story about the two cows in a paddock. One was the very spiritual cow, and the other was just a normal one. The very spiritual cow felt that she must eat the tufts of grass with the cowpats on them so that she can add a bit of unpleasantness to her life to bring her closer to God. The normal cow knows already where she stands with God and so avoids the cowpat ones, and enjoys the green, juicy, delicious ones.

Many believers are afraid of living a pleasant, calm, filfulling life because they think that living that life will draw them away from Christ, so they do things to add suffering in the vain intention that this will bring them closer to God. It is the same spirit that impelled some Corinthian men to divorce their wives because they thought that being single brought them closer to God. And many were martyred, not because it was going to happen to them in any case, but they did things that brought it on themselves, because they believed that it was an honour to be martyred, but in reality it was a form of suicide by the state. The true martyrs did not seek martyrdom and worked to avoid it, and it was only when they were forced into a corner where they had no choice either to obey God or suffer the death penalty. It was the same in Communist countries. The quiet Christian believers who got on with serving and worshiping God mostly were ignored by the state, but the ones who agitated against the government got into trouble. You will notice that neither Jesus nor Paul ever agitated against the Romans and did not stick their noses into the politics of the time. It was the Judaists who had Jesus killed and persecuted Paul and it was their riot against him in Jerusalem that got him imprisoned. The Roman governor could not see anything wrong to bring charges against Paul, and was willing to release him, but Paul appealed to Caesar and so he went as a prisoner to Rome. Tradition says that he was actually released later, but was caught up in a later persecution of Christians and there he lost his life.

So we don't look for trouble. Paul wrote that believers should study to be quiet and to mind their own business. That is good advice for living a quiet, fulfilling life for the Lord.

WOW Oscarr, I must say that I have never met anyone who looks to cause trouble for themselves in a vain attempt to become a better Christian.

I know there were those crazy guys in the middle ages who beat and whipped themselves in an attempt to atone for their sins, and there are those guys in the Philippines today who intentionally nail themselves to a cross because they believe they are "identifying" with Christ by doing so. Surely there is no church today that teaches people to do such things, is there

Quite frankly, the kind of people who think that way, like your "spiritual" cow example above, seem very confused, at best, and in need of counseling!

What I believe they are actually doing is showing their contempt for God, because they must believe that God is inept somehow, that He is incapable of doing for them what He promised us He would .. e.g. Philippians 1:6; Romans 4:20-21. God doesn't need our help to get the job done, but such people must believe that He does I've talked quite a bit with @Far Side Of the Moon here on CF and I don't believe she's the kind of person who would ever consider doing such a thing.

Quite frankly, the Bible tells us to deal with the issues at hand only, IOW, that we are not even supposed to be concerning ourselves with the troubles of tomorrow, because each day has enough trouble of its own (w/o any additional/intentional help from us) .. Matthew 6:34.

*(the Bible does say things like this, of course, Acts 5:41; Hebrews 11:35, but that's hardly the same thing as you've described above)

Yours and His,
David

 

[Far Side Of the Moon]

There is the story about the two cows in a paddock. One was the very spiritual cow, and the other was just a normal one. The very spiritual cow felt that she must eat the tufts of grass with the cowpats on them so that she can add a bit of unpleasantness to her life to bring her closer to God. The normal cow knows already where she stands with God and so avoids the cowpat ones, and enjoys the green, juicy, delicious ones.

Many believers are afraid of living a pleasant, calm, filfulling life because they think that living that life will draw them away from Christ, so they do things to add suffering in the vain intention that this will bring them closer to God. It is the same spirit that impelled some Corinthian men to divorce their wives because they thought that being single brought them closer to God. And many were martyred, not because it was going to happen to them in any case, but they did things that brought it on themselves, because they believed that it was an honour to be martyred, but in reality it was a form of suicide by the state. The true martyrs did not seek martyrdom and worked to avoid it, and it was only when they were forced into a corner where they had no choice either to obey God or suffer the death penalty. It was the same in Communist countries. The quiet Christian believers who got on with serving and worshiping God mostly were ignored by the state, but the ones who agitated against the government got into trouble. You will notice that neither Jesus nor Paul ever agitated against the Romans and did not stick their noses into the politics of the time. It was the Judaists who had Jesus killed and persecuted Paul and it was their riot against him in Jerusalem that got him imprisoned. The Roman governor could not see anything wrong to bring charges against Paul, and was willing to release him, but Paul appealed to Caesar and so he went as a prisoner to Rome. Tradition says that he was actually released later, but was caught up in a later persecution of Christians and there he lost his life.

So we don't look for trouble. Paul wrote that believers should study to be quiet and to mind their own business. That is good advice for living a quiet, fulfilling life for the Lord.

If I can avoid trouble at all costs I will. I defintely wont break something that doesnt need fixing if you get my drift and I defintely wont throw a wrench in my life because it seems too perfect and my life cant be normal without chaos...defintely not that person.

If God wants me to live a pleasent abundant life I fully accept.

 

[Far Side Of the Moon]

WOW Oscarr, I must say that I have never met anyone who looks to cause trouble for themselves in a vain attempt to become a better Christian.

I know there were those crazy guys in the middle ages who beat and whipped themselves in an attempt to atone for their sins, and there are those guys in the Philippines today who intentionally nail themselves to a cross because they believe they are "identifying" with Christ by doing so. Surely there is no church today that teaches people to do such things, is there

Quite frankly, the kind of people who think that way, like your "spiritual" cow example above, seem very confused, at best, and in need of counseling!

What I believe they are actually doing is showing their contempt for God, because they must believe that God is inept somehow, that He is incapable of doing for them what He promised us He would .. e.g. Philippians 1:6; Romans 4:20-21. God doesn't need our help to get the job done, but such people must believe that He does I've talked quite a bit with @Far Side Of the Moon here on CF and I don't believe she's the kind of person who would ever consider doing such a thing.

Quite frankly, the Bible tells us to deal with the issues at hand only, IOW, that we are not even supposed to be concerning ourselves with the troubles of tomorrow, because each day has enough trouble of its own (w/o any additional/intentional help from us) .. Matthew 6:34.

*(the Bible does say things like this, of course, Acts 5:41; Hebrews 11:35, but that's hardly the same thing as you've describe above)

Yours and His,
David

I'm defintely not that person but I also got what Oscar was saying and I knoe he didnt mean it in any way...it was just an illustration and I totally got it. No harm done.

 

[St_Worm2]

Most of us get silly notions about things at times, I'm just glad to hear that you're not one of them in this particular case I'm also glad to know that if God wants you to have a pleasant, abundant life that you wouldn't give Him any arguments about it (I'm right there with you on that one ).