Please help me answer this for my firend...

[becky013]

A friend asked me this & I'm not sure how to answer... Why when I let God into my life He seems to screw it up worse, and when I turn my back on him things are fine?

Please if you can help me answer this for him, I would SO appreciate it.
And I apologize if this is posted in the wrong area of the forums... this is my first post & I'm learning.

 

[Puptart]

It's all psychological. God doesn't screw up anyone's life.. but following God isn't necessarily the easiest thing in the world. I think when some people let God into their lives, they find they must make a lot of changes in their lives, and that can be difficult.

I'm someone who has turned my back on God before (became an atheist) and I triumphantly trumpted my life as being "much better" than it was when I was a Christian.. but now that I look back on that time in my life, I sort of see that my life wasn't "better", it was just that I had a lot less responsibility. Truly believing in God comes with the responsibility to make changes in your life to follow His way, rather than your own way. That's not easy, and it's not always attractive, because we want to be responsible to no one but ourselves.

That's just a thought for you anyway, something to chew on. It's one reason people often find life without God to be "better", when it may simply just be the easy way out. Another possibility is just sheer coincidence.. sometimes we hit times in our lives when we go through more downs than ups. That's human life for you, and it's possible these times in your friend's life just coincidentally occurred at a similar time to her having turned back to God.

Other possibilities include asking yourself "What do I expect out of God?" -- some people turn to God with the expectation that He will fix everything, and that we will be handed everything on a silver platter. When this doesn't happen, people say "Well God is doing nothing for me and my life is getting worse." Of course life is going to get worse, because expecting God to do all the work and expecting nothing from ourselves isn't going to get us very far.

Sadly we don't know anything about your friend and she isn't here to speak with, so it's hard to sort of pick her brain as to what's going on in her head. Perhaps she'd care to register with the forum and chat about it with others.

 

[Faulty]

They have different definitions of "screwed up" and "fine"?

That's also a sign of unrepentance on your friends behalf, thinking he knows better than God in any situation is rank arrogance.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Choosing God when He hasn't chosen you is a recipe for disaster.

 

[Darla1215]

The moment you become a Christian you are a marked person (Eph.1:13). To God and His Holy angels you are a loved one. To satan and his legion of evil wicked angels you are an ENEMY! These unholy angels intend to engage you in a Battle (Eph. 6:11-12)!

 

[razeontherock]

Becky, welcome to CF!

The only Scriptural answer here, is the last one, by Darla. For more in depth understanding, read the book of Job. Short version is, G-d doesn't "screw up our lives." As long as we are in satan's kingdom, he's content to leave us be. It's when we reach to break free, that all hell breaks loose. Sometimes literally!

Help your friend with their conviction; it will be absolutely necessary

 

[drich0150]

A friend asked me this & I'm not sure how to answer... Why when I let God into my life He seems to screw it up worse, and when I turn my back on him things are fine?

Please if you can help me answer this for him, I would SO appreciate it.
And I apologize if this is posted in the wrong area of the forums... this is my first post & I'm learning.

I have found that when I am walking the path God has set before me, my little world begins to shake and rumble. then when I wander from it, life does become easier. Why? Because when I walk along God's perscribed path I appose the master of this world, and he wants to make things as hard for me as possiable, so I quit and fall back into his fold.

So when ever things get too easy in life I stop and seriously look at what it is I am doing wrong.

 

[ViaCrucis]

A friend asked me this & I'm not sure how to answer... Why when I let God into my life He seems to screw it up worse, and when I turn my back on him things are fine?

Please if you can help me answer this for him, I would SO appreciate it.
And I apologize if this is posted in the wrong area of the forums... this is my first post & I'm learning.

It sounds like a subjective interpretation of events in your life via circumstance and coincidence.

Being a Christian doesn't improve our station in life. One is no less likely to have bad things happen for confessing Christ. The Christian and the non-Christian are on equal and level footing as it pertains to relationship drama, financial issues, food, housing, water, medicine, employment, drama, tragedy, etc. If anything being a Christian may bring its own set of suffering and problems--this was especially true in the Roman period when being a Christian could get you fed to lions, and the only sound you heard as you were being torn to shred by wild beasts was the sound of thousands shouting, jeering, and clapping.

That's hardly "the good life".

That said, I still think what you have going on is a set of coincidences and circumstances that you are interpreting as having a certain pattern (the human mind is amazing in finding patterns where there probably aren't any).

That said, if we read the New Testament and take what the Lord and the Apostles have said seriously, then we ought to respond to all suffering, pain, loss, and misfortune with, "Blessed be the Name of the Lord." That's not easy to do, and 99.9999% of the time that isn't how we feel. It's not supposed to be easy; but I am convinced that we can find joy in Christ during the midst of all misfortune (James 1:2), not by our own strength, but by the strength of He who lives in us and loves us.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Harry3142]

becky013-

In order for us to properly say and do what God wants of us, our original, sinful nature must be subdued, and a new nature implanted within us as the motivating force behind our words and actions. Those who try to use their original nature in the cause of Christ soon find that it is akin to trying to put a square peg into a round hole.

This Scripture passage should help you understand what this new nature consists of:

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. (Galatians 5:16-26,NIV)

The second paragraph of this passage tells us what the motivations are for the evil that we do. SOme are easy to identify, such as sexaul immorality and impurity. But others are more subtle, such as hatred, dissensions, and selfish ambition. But all of them can be placed under the heading 'narcissism', since they are evidence of a 'me first' mentality that pushes the needs of others aside in order to advance its own desires.

On the other hand, 'the fruit of the Spirit' listed in the third paragraph are evidence of a compassion for others that is more than just a veneer. With the motivations of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control as the root cause of all that we say and do, our words and actions are 'in synch' with what God wants of us. And this is because in order for the words and actions to be in accordance with God's will, the underlying motivation for those words and actions must also be in accordance with God's will.

We cannot get good fruit from a poisoned tree. In like manner, we cannot perform good works unless the impetus for those good works is itself good. And that means accepting, and then using, the fruit of the Spirit as the point of origination for all that we say and do.

BTW, another benefit to using the 'fruit' as the impetus for what we say and do is that even if others disagree with you concerning our faith, they will still want to be around us because they know that they can trust us. And trust is important to everybody, not just Christians.

 

[berachah]

You should read the story of Moses to your friend...especially when they try leave Egypt. When Moses (Jesus) tried to draw the people out of Egypt (state of life without God), Pharoah (the devil) immediately made life a lot tougher for the people. They had to persevere and act in faith to get out of Egypt and into the promised land.

 

[Ark100]

A friend asked me this & I'm not sure how to answer... Why when I let God into my life He seems to screw it up worse, and when I turn my back on him things are fine?

Please if you can help me answer this for him, I would SO appreciate it.
And I apologize if this is posted in the wrong area of the forums... this is my first post & I'm learning.

God does not screw it up. The enemy comes to screw it up. When anybody draws close to God, the enemy (devil) is angry and will come at them with his scare tactics.. This is where a lot of Christians have to stand in faith and follow the 'resist the enemy and he will flee' method.

When the enemy comes in to scare you with worries, with problems and all sorts of scare tactics, when you give in by becoming scared and going back to the world, of course he is happy, and he has your souls again, so he cant be bothered to scare you anymore.

Anyone who wants to stand in Christ has to go through trials and tribulations, and through it all, they have to keep their faith and their love of Christ, standing firm in righteousness, and believing in The LORD to see them through.

 

[FutureAndAHope]

Hi,

Life can be tough. I have had a lot of tough experiences since I have become a Christian, I think they are more intense because the devil want us to give up. He lays on the pressure to try to get us to quit. However this can be over come with time. My life is now stable and I don't suffer from any emotional problems, or difficulties. But for many years I did. It is just a matter of hanging onto the good things you know of God and asking for his help to overcome any difficulty.