Lost Interest

[vocalyocal]

But at the same time, if we focus on them too much, they will show up...it's a balance. And also, I don't believe that someone's lack of interest in the Bible is necessarily demons torturing someone. It's like any other relationship...it goes through dry spells. Some say it shouldn't go through dry spells, yada yada, but it does. When we first really get interested in Christ and become a believer, it's like a honeymoon period...and then it wears off. This is when it matters the most...to see who is going to endure, who is still going to believe, who is going to choose to trust and to have faith. It only takes a tiny bit of faith...and you don't need to know a lot to choose. We are empowered through Christ to overcome anything. When we look at a relationship with God as a relationship instead of a sort of contract where we are robot-like, it changes the perspective. It changes the expectations. God doesn't expect us to be perfect...he expects us to be human, and forgives us when we are, so long as we ask for forgiveness. A simple thing to fall back on is the fruits of the Spirit. If nothing else, these are the things God wants us to display throughout our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Those are things that God exhibits and wants us to see and experience about himself, and then learn about, and take on, those fruits. But we can't learn about them until we see those things in God, and in others.

everything you have been talking about is all found in the bible, who would know what the fruits of the Spirit are if they didnt read the bible.......And the bible states if you love God you will keep His commands........again how will you show God that you love Him if you are not willing to keep His commands, if you dont know what His commands are.

when i first met my wife i wanted to know everything about her, i wanted to know her history and every little story she could tell me. i find it strange that anyone who says they love God but find His history boring, and what He likes and what He dislikes a big yawn.

granted we all can hear His voice, but its the written word of God that Jesus used against satan, if its that powerful and that much a sword against the enemy, then any weak Christian would be a fool not to learn how to wield it.

and if you dont know it, well get ready to be tossed to and fro because your not grounded in sound teaching, trees and nature are beautiful, but Jesus didnt pick a flower and stick it in satans ear

He spoke the word of God and nothing can stand against it


Hebrews 4:12

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.


BORING? you can walk out your faith without it?.........good luck!
id still be in bondage without the word of God, id still be a slave to sins i couldnt get free from.........its a treasure trove of keys to overcoming sin

the whole life of a Christian is being conformed to Christ and overcoming all the sins of this world, how can you do that without the most powerful weapon at your disposal.

 

[sunshine456]

I would advise you to reaffirm your focus and attention towards understanding what the "WORD" of GOD is. The scriptures are for our welfare, health and benefit. It is the reaffirmation of strong ethics based on the principles of TRUTH, LOVE and goodness.
It teaches us; it can mold us, and it offers us honorable guidance for christian prosperity and cleanliness.

"In my opinion it is humanities greatest tool for advise and knowledge to produce perfection."

"If you have a question, let wisdom guide you to find the answer.....scriptures are an excellent source to find that literary wisdom as well as GOD the heavenly father and his son lord JESUS CHRIST."

GOD bless and peace be with you in JESUS CHRIST.

 

[hedrick]

actually i went through some of your past post and i agree with you, you dont hear God at all through reading the bible.........thats really to bad because it is the best way to know what He likes and what He dont like

and to say His word is "Boring"..........well I sure as heck dont want to be standing next to anyone who declares the author of life has written a boring book, actually it was boring to me too, before i was saved and filled with the Spirit.

The Bible is a complex book. Parts of it are fairly easy to understand, but parts require an understanding of the historical context. I work with teens. A lot of them simply can't get much out of the Bible without someone explaining exactly what's going on. For them, simply reading the Bible on their own is going to be boring.

There are ways to help them, but the reaction is a common one, which we need to understand and not just reject.

Of course there are parts of the Bible that actually are boring. Sorry, but very few modern Christians are going to find all the regulations in Lev interesting. It's useful to understand why they're there. And in some general sense they're important. But a lot of people just aren't going to find the specific provisions for dealing with mildew very exciting. I consider the prophets to be really important. But at a certain point reading all those diatribes on the various foreign enemies becomes repetitive. Similarly with Kings and Chronicles. Yes, it's important to know what happened to the covenant people. But at a certain point all those kings getting into all those battles just start to blur together. Sorry if this is blasphemous, but I doubt I'm the only one to find it that way.

 

[SavedFromChrist91]

I would advise you to reaffirm your focus and attention towards understanding what the "WORD" of GOD is. The scriptures are for our welfare, health and benefit. It is the reaffirmation of strong ethics based on the principles of TRUTH, LOVE and goodness.
It teaches us; it can mold us, and it offers us honorable guidance for christian prosperity and cleanliness.

"In my opinion it is humanities greatest tool for advise and knowledge to produce perfection."

"If you have a question, let wisdom guide you to find the answer.....scriptures are an excellent source to find that literary wisdom as well as GOD the heavenly father and his son lord JESUS CHRIST."

GOD bless and peace be with you in JESUS CHRIST.

God is GOOD, He is not boring, it's completely against anything he stands for, Why would he make us if we were just to be boring. Since he made us in his image at first.

The boring thing is something kids go through because as a kid you focus all your attention on yourself, you want all the presents, all the attention, all the glory, so God doesn't open up to you, Which is what sin does, IT DISTANCES YOU FROM GOD.

Re-assess your beliefs and when you truly find that Christ our Lord did what he did and God is good, everything changes.

 

[Ark100]

Building a relationship with God and communicating with God is more than just Bible and prayer...

Did you really just write that on a serious note?

Bible and Prayer are the two most essential weapons to build the strongest relationship with Jehovah God. If you don't read the Bible or pray (communing with God) how will you know more of who God is?

 

[Butterfly]

Yes, I absolutely did just write that on a serious note.

Because for years I read the Bible and prayed, but I never heard from God nor communicated with him. I was a Christian, sure. I knew the Bible well, sure. On the surface, I had a GREAT relationship with God. On the inside, not so much. It took me learning to see God in EVERYTHING, not just in the Bible, and learning to communicate with God as I would with anyone else, before my relationship with Him became what it should have been all along.

I believe in my first post in this thread, I said that Bible reading and prayer are vital...do not misunderstand me...they are vital, but they are not every single thing that makes you or defines you as a Christian.

You can know more of who God is through his creation. Keeping in mind that humans, minus the sinful part of us, are made in the image and likeness of God...we naturally bear talents, characteristics, and attributes of God. Those are of course often hid behind a dismal sheet of sin and darkness, which is the fleshly side of us. But if we look at other people, and at His creation, we can see Him in all of it...stripping away the sinful, dark parts of it, and looking at it from a pure, raw perspective...God is AMAZING. Everything he has made is AMAZING.

We absolutely can, and should, learn so much about God through Bible reading, and learn to communicate with him through prayer...prayer and Scripture are like you said two of the most powerful weapons. I'm not denying that one bit. But there are people who will say you're not a "real" Christian or you're not a "good enough" Christian if you don't read and pray a lot. Sometimes you have to look beyond the "standards" in order to find your own journey. One person can say "You must read 5 chapters a day and pray for at least an hour a day, in a private closet, or you will not be a good Christian" but new believers and those who have been raised in a Christian home but still have not connected with God themselves will find that discouraging if they end up not fulfilling that expectation. Nowhere in the Bible does it say you HAVE to read and pray a certain amount...but what IS said, and shown through the various stories, is how those things are powerful. And how would we know these stories without reading? We wouldn't...so I'm not saying "don't read, you're fine". What I"m saying is "You're fine...give it some time and look for GOd in everything you do...He will draw you back to himself, and out of that love and relationship will grow a desire to read and pray more...". It takes time...but it is worth it.

The song "The Motions" is one I'm thinking of...I don't wanna go through the motions, I don't wanna go one more day, without your all consuming power, I don't wanna spend my whole life asking "What if I had given everything?" instead of going through the motions." We can gain an idea of God's power just by looking around. He created EVERYTHING. How does that NOT show the power? It's ok to struggle with reading and praying...that's normal, and it's a part of the journey that will undoubtedly lead to an even more intensified desire to be close to God, if only you press on through the hard times.

 

[Gottservant]

Relationship is not a function of proximity, but commitment.

Way to go, you found a way to discern that!

 

[Ark100]

Because for years I read the Bible and prayed, but I never heard from God nor communicated with him. I was a Christian, sure. I knew the Bible well, sure. On the surface, I had a GREAT relationship with God. On the inside, not so much.

I was kind of like that too, before I was saved. I was only going through the motion before I was saved.
It was when Christ saved me and changed my life that the true meaning of living for Him made sense. That is when reading the Bible made sense,(and I understood what it meant by 'living word' of God) and that is when praying and communing in Spirit with the FATHER made sense.

You can know more of who God is through his creation. Keeping in mind that humans, minus the sinful part of us, are made in the image and likeness of God...we naturally bear talents, characteristics, and attributes of God.

I never disputed that God made us in His image and I do not dispute one bit that we should love each other and see Christ in our brothers and sisters eyes. BUT getting to know God and really understanding the very essence of who He is takes the power of the Holy Spirit in us through the word of God, communion with God, meditating on His words and living our lives in a godly way that glorifies God


God is AMAZING. Everything he has made is AMAZING.
But there are people who will say you're not a "real" Christian or you're not a "good enough" Christian if you don't read and pray a lot.

I'm not one of those people. Everything I write or say is to help others and myself draw closer to the Lord. There is no point seeing a brother or sister going into a pit or feeling condemned. I will however emphasise on the importance of prayer and reading the word of God because I know without a doubt that they are very very vital for every Christian who wants to draw closer to God.

Not reading or praying does not make them less of a christian because christian is a title. But it does however pull them away from God. The more you drink and feed from the word of God and His presence (through prayer) The more your life changes towards what God designed it to be. Its like getting to know someone on an intimate level. If you stop trying or learning about them, then what you already know starts to fade away and it becomes a hard task to get back to it again.

That is why David (King) said he meditated on the word of God DAY AND NIGHT. It became root in him as he did that. The kingdom of God suffereth violence, only the violent taketh it by force. The Kingdom of God is not just talk talk , its action and perseverance because being a true Christian takes perseverance, faith and complete devotion to God.



One person can say "You must read 5 chapters a day and pray for at least an hour a day, in a private closet, or you will not be a good Christian" (quote)

Im not like that. I don't tell people how to do things or how much time they need to spend. What is important is understanding of what they are doing, and allowing the Holy Spirit lead at all times.

When he is leading, there wont be any confusion even for new born again christians that are saved by the Lord for the Holy Spirit will be the one who will keep guiding them towards the Lord, quickening their spirit to wake, to read, to pray or to praise. Man does not have to get them to do that


We can gain an idea of God's power just by looking around. He created EVERYTHING. How does that NOT show the power?

Absolutely. I do that a lot. It will take an ignorant mind not to appreciate everything God has created. He is absolutely AWESOME. I only need to look up to the skies and behold the beauty and the works of God's hands.

I was driving through a fast food joint one afternoon and started to look at the sky, suddenly I saw something starting to form in the sky. It was a LOVE sign. Tears of joy welled up in my eyes. I knew that the Lord put that there at that moment to show HIS love through the works of His hands. All glory to His name.

 

[SavedFromChrist91]

I used to have so many panic attacks and depression/anxiety. When I found God, I fell in love with his word, what he's about, what his son Jesus was about, the Bible never gets boring for me, It's God's living word, anything you want to know if you ask him and he doesn't answer you directly, it's because the answer is in the Bible, that's why I find it important to read it, because the connection strengthens so much that it's a feeling you can't explain.

On a different note, I went through a test this morning through the Lord, I told him last night, I can't live without you, I stand before you for everything you mean, I am like your soldier and if I have to take the worst punishment I can get, I will speak glory in your name.

Low and behold, this morning, I wake up with extreme trembling, I couldn't stop shaking and I felt weak, It was a panic attack, It was like a test of his fate I have him in, What I did right away after having a glass of orange juice and water was, I went to the Psalms and read the poem to God and read the one about Oppressors and getting rid of them, I said one and because I meant it, everything went away within about 2-5 minutes. So in my view after seeing this is I think It's so important to stand by the word of the bible non stop because everything you need to connect with him is right in the words.