ok so um Christ

The way to find your worth in Christ begins with understanding His worth and what He has done for you. Once you understand that He is the very crown of beauty, perfect and flawless in every way, and that He demonstrated His unfathomable love for you by willingly enduring the cruel cross for you, you begin to define yourself through Him. Paul puts it this way:
What He has done cannot be undone. Neither will it be done again. It is recorded for us so that we can consider it and order our lives according to it.

I'm not clear on what you mean by being heavy into law. Is it that you are trying to justify yourself by doing what's right? Doing good is a good thing, but when we base our worth on it it brings condemnation (or unfounded pride), because we can't do it perfectly. This is a Romans 7 scenario. Also see Rom 10.4.

If you're fighting sin unsuccessfully, it may be because you're using your own strength and not the power of Christ to do so. Our inability to walk perfectly should drive us to the Cross, not away from it. According to 1Jn 1.9, when we take our failings to God we are forgiven and cleansed by the Blood. As children of God we have the right to enter and abide in Christ's rest. If we are sincerely looking to Jesus the sin is covered and we have the hope of eventual manifest victory.

Christ doesn’t listen to non-Christians? That would be news to me. Seems every single person He spoke to and listened to in the gospels was a non-Christian. Paul on the road to Damascus was a non-Christian. God hears the prayers of anyone who is sincere of heart toward Him. Otherwise none of us would ever be able to come to Him.

Praying at meals is fine, but if that's all you do it sounds pretty superficial. God can do so much for us, but we have to be willing to make the effort to focus on Him and let Him work in our hearts. Most of our progress is not going to come automatically.

I think your friend is totally wrong on that. God is far more gracious than that toward those who want Him. And I frankly think the problem understanding grace is at the root of your struggles with faith. As long as you are trying to please God through works, you will struggle according to Paul's dilemma in Romans 7. But if you understand that Jesus has paid the price for you - because you could not pay it yourself - then you can accept His gift and your heart can come to sweet rest in Him. (See the scripture motto I use under my screen name.) The heavy burden of trying to please God by your own effort, which you were not designed to carry and cannot carry, will be lifted off you.

This is what Jesus refers to in Mt 11 when He says, ~come to me and enter my rest; learn of me, for I am meek and lowly; my yoke is easy and my burden light.~ It's also what Hebrews refers to as repenting of dead works. The more you learn of what Jesus has done for you, the freer you get, because you no longer need to perform.

dogs4thewin said:

In other words with the law I am not vwey good with the idea of grace. The person that told me that said that only believers can get to God and sinners are far from Him so in my head that is how I took that.

Click to expand...

The bridge is built, not from ourselves to God through righteous living; but from God to us through God's condescension in the Person of Jesus who meets us in our infirmities, weakness, even in our sin and death. Who by Cross swallows up the whole world wracked by sin and death into Himself, by grace, and by it dies the death of all men in order that He might be raised to life, as victor over these for the sakes of all men. And what God has done in Christ, He is doing for the whole world, for you and for me. That is why we preach the Gospel, to announce what God has done in Christ, and that by this Gospel God will bring the reality of Christ to us, joining us together with Him, His death and resurrection.

That is, in fact, the Mystery of Baptism, whereby we are crucified with Jesus and raised together with Him to new life, with the hope that we too shall be raised up on the last day.

Everyone is a sinner, and that is precisely why the Gospel is for sinners--for you and me. There is no one righteous, no one who succeeds morally in this life. When Christians imagine themselves "ex-sinners" or as personally righteous they forget who they are and their need for God's goodness and grace both for this life and the next.

A "mature" Christian isn't a Christian who sins less, but a Christian who knows he or she is indeed a great sinner and cries out, "Lord, have mercy on me." In the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, Jesus presents two people, a Pharisee who comes to the Temple and boasts of his righteousness, "Thank you God that I am not like these sinners, especially that tax collector!"; and a tax collector, a person tasked by the Romans to work against his people and extort money from them, this tax collector cannot even look upward to heaven, but merely beats his chest and says, "God, have mercy on this sinner."

Jesus tells us it is the tax collector, not the Pharisee, who walked away justified--righteous--that day. Because true righteousness comes from God, as grace, not through human effort. The Pharisee had no actual righteousness, only hubris. But the tax collector, while also having no actual righteousness, is contrite and confesses his sins, and righteousness from God is accounted to him by faith.

-CryptoLutheran

As you can see I am currently considering myself a Deist. I have trouble believing that Christ gives me worth but believe in one God. I have been going on and off calling myself a Christian for YEARS since I was about 10. My age on here is actuate which as you can tell would mean I have been struggling with accepting Christ for various reasons for over HALF of my life.

Click to expand...

Doubting God is okay I do from time to time. At these times and moments it is that we need to read the bible and especially those verses that encourage us in these times. I mean in faith Peter walked on water but he sank too, just saying none of us are perfect.

Any ideas as to how I can one prove to myself that Christ gives me worth and love me and two figure out how to be IN the world and not OF the world since I happen to be heavy into law and cannot seem to see the point in fighting certain sin as you all know and I know it will not go away.

Click to expand...

I think saying that u are a live today that your father is alive today. There is no way we can prove that God exists. For myself, this differs from person to person, it all started with faith. I had faith and in change I got rewarded. Still this is the way it works for me. You are definitely of worth, Jesus died and suffered for us and for our sin. He gave up his only son for you and for me. On the Jimmy Funhouse we were talking about forgiveness on the pages 84-86 and it shows how God forgives us this might as well help with increasing the feeling of self worth with God.

Plus Christians seem to take things too far sometimes, by for example seeming to see certain sinners as almost less than human. This does NOT apply to all Christians.

Click to expand...

Well sorry if this sounds harsh but you shouldn't listen to Christians like that its not to us to judge but to God. These people made my journey as a christian hard. But we shouldn't only listen to men. We should listen to God.

Help and prayer please if I died today I have no idea where I would go. According to one of my strong Christian friends Christ does not listen to non-Christians well since I believe him I have cut down on praying which I already did not do too much of only praying at meals because my parents do not know I do not idenify as a Christian anymore and praying that I can get to sleep at night.

thanks

Click to expand...

I'm praying for you to find God and Praying for you to receive peace and calmness in your heart. I do think you should restart praying and just truly believe God exists like u did when you started believing in God. He is there for you.
As well it would be a smart plan to talk to someone u can meet up with several times a week. someone who is able to pray with you to encourage you when you are down etc. Maybe you have a good friend or a close relative?

Hope this helps any. God bless and you are in my prayers

There is a principal in the bible that things that are in the presence of God get blessed. It is not always obvious at first. Think of Joseph, he was with God his whole life, received visions dreams etc. Yet he went to prison for many years, but finally came out as secondly only to pharaoh. So the end of this life was full and blessed.

You mention you have trouble with sin. You just need to be constantly in the presence of God. This is not a feeling, it is a habit. As we spend a good amount of time with God the Holy Spirit, Jesus Spirit strengthens us.

Mar 14:38 And he said to them, "Keep watch, and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

It is the Holy Spirit, that gives us willingness, with out prayer we are weak and will fall more easily into sin.