Suspicion

[Palermo]

Hi brothers,i want to ask you something,im a new convert,i have converted to christianity 2 months ago.but for 1 week,i have suspicion-like feelings about existence of god or his ability to hear our prayers.but i believe in existence of god,i believe that jesus christ is his son and died for our sins and ressurrected,ok,but i feel something bad,i cant stop myself thinking ''what if...?'' i begun to feel that my prayers doesnt being heared or answered for 1 week,i believe but such bad thoughts hurts my soul and makes me very sad and makes me feel guilty a lot i want your advices as well as your ideas about why i begun to feel such things.i think its that evil tries to torture my soul via making me feel so bad what do you think about it ? is it evils work ? is it because im a former atheist and have a 2 year atheist life before today ? what is it ? i need your advices and prayers i feel myself so bad :'(

 

[seashale76]

I will certainly pray for you. Are you baptized into Christ? You need to regularly go to church, learn about the faith, get baptized and partake of the body and blood of Christ- the fountain of immortality, and the medicine for what ails us. May God bless you!

Here are some helpful prayer resources for you:
P r a y e r
Let us
Abbreviated Prayerbook
Prayer for the Living
The Message of the Lord's Prayer

Learn about the faith:
OCA - The Orthodox Faith

Find an Orthodox Church to visit:
Orthodoxy in America

 

[paul1149]

Palermo - how wonderful that you have come out of atheism. I did myself at one point a long time ago. The Lord has ways of reaching us, and how precious both you and your journey must be to him.

It is entirely normal to go through dry periods when our prayers seem to go nowhere. Do not be fooled At these times if we hold firm we will make great advances in the faith. It is precisely when we are at our weakest that the Lord's power is most developed in us, in the secret place, according to a wisdom that the world cannot understand. (2Cor 12.9; Rev 2.17)

Stay in your Bible, at prayer and praise, in fellowship, and simply refuse to give in to the doubts about God's sovereignty, love and faithfulness. All the Bible stories involve delay and testing. He is going to come through for you. I'm led to suggest reading 1Corinthians, especially the first chapters which deal with God's higher wisdom. Also meditate on your authority in Christ, to tread on all evil that comes your way.

 

[Goodbook]

Palermo,
Your experience of 'what ifs' - doubts, are what I was plagued with as well when I became a new Christian. But you are not going to give into doubts because you are now in Christ.
Yes it is Satan trying to tempt you to believe you are not really born again.
Remember when Jesus was baptized, straight away the Satan tried to tempt him by trying to turn him from God's will. How did he defeat him? By keeping to God's Word. You know God's Word is true and it can defeat any lie from Satan.

Do you have a bible? Start reading it, this will renew your mind and defeat any doubts. You are a new creature in Christ.
Jesus died and his blood paid for your sins. That blood is important..if evil is plaguing you just affirm Jesus blood paid it all. Not just his death, for Satan could say 'everyone dies, so what?' but Jesus own blood shed for the sins of the world.

James letter says if you lack wisdom ask God and he will give it to you generously but you must ask in faith and do not doubt. He says a double-minded person is unstable in all his ways and won't recieve anything of God.

When I read this verse I knew it was true and that I had to put away everything I was following that was not of God, because I did not feel strong in my faith. I wanted to know why my mind had been so troubled, but the Holy Spirit led me to this verse. As you came from atheism you may have been following man-made philosophies,..I know I was, and this confused my mind. I confessed to God I would now only serve Him and he gave me peace and strength. I had to cast down every argument that opposed God and bring my thoughts captive to Christ. (this mean a lot of Bible reading for me!)
Do you know about the armour of God? Read the letter of Ephesians 6:11

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. (11) Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (12) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (13) Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. (14) Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; (15) And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; (16) Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. (17) And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: (18) Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; [

I pray you be filled with the Holy Spirit and stay strong against Satan by putting on this armour. When you resist him, he will flee from you. Jesus has authority over Satan and that means you have authority as well. Pray in the name of Jesus.

If you have not previously been baptized I would suggest you ask at your church to be baptized..if you already have, just affirm that you have been baptized into Christ, you buried your old self with Jesus work on the cross, He rose again and you rose again to new life.

 

[heymikey80]

Welcome, brother. It's an attempt of your old life to reassert itself. Yes, it does hurt your progress; but it doesn't change God's intent to work in you.

He's already saved you by His grace -- that is, God's unmerited favor.

God saved you without you doing anything for Him. He's also going to do things for you, changing you from the inside out. And you will change, because He is doing it. You're His child, now.

So your old way of life is clinging to this old thinking of, "If I don't keep doing things for Him, He's gonna drop me." It isn't so. it doesn't work this way. God's saved you by grace -- Ep 2:8.

It's a radically new way of doing things. God saves you, and so you will change because He's inside you to make the change.

But you'll need to latch in on this new way of things working. I mean, you'll be doing this way of working all the time with God ... wouldn't it be best to live it out as soon as you can figure it out?

 

[Palermo]

thank you all my brothers and sisters,first of all thank you for your prayers,im not baptized yet,still getting lessons to be baptized.i just wonder if such things have some relation to my mood,because i especially feel such things at nights,i try to pray to father for increasing and improving my faith and help me to avoid such bad thoughs but i cant concentrate and feel myself alone,my prayers doesnt being answered,than i feel that i have betrayed to father and it just makes me cry but this situation changes so quickly that i can glorify and thank god for his grace but half hours later i feel im doubbtful,next day,i glorify again but it changes again
i hope god will show mercy to me and save me from the attacks of satan

 

[heymikey80]

This may be useful in a little bit. It's a sarcastic little song, but the video is tremendous.

YouTube - A New Law

 

[RINO 72]

Hey Palermo, keep your head up.Faith in Jesus Christ is the most important choice anyone will ever make and you have chosen eternal life.So let me ask, have you had an born again experience (John 3:3)? I was talking to my friend just last night and he has always considered himself a Christian but didnt believe he had to be "Born Again". He thought that was just some Southern Baptist thing (I'm from Texas). So I whipped out my trusty Bible app and read John 3 to him.It really opened his eyes and I do believe he will be going to church with me tomorrow.

 

[childofGod31]

Hi brothers,i want to ask you something,im a new convert,i have converted to christianity 2 months ago.but for 1 week,i have suspicion-like feelings about existence of god or his ability to hear our prayers.but i believe in existence of god,i believe that jesus christ is his son and died for our sins and ressurrected,ok,but i feel something bad,i cant stop myself thinking ''what if...?'' i begun to feel that my prayers doesnt being heared or answered for 1 week,i believe but such bad thoughts hurts my soul and makes me very sad and makes me feel guilty a lot i want your advices as well as your ideas about why i begun to feel such things.i think its that evil tries to torture my soul via making me feel so bad what do you think about it ? is it evils work ? is it because im a former atheist and have a 2 year atheist life before today ? what is it ? i need your advices and prayers i feel myself so bad :'(

I just wanted to express one thought.

The way to keep the faith strong is to feed the belief by feeding it the information that AGREES with the belief. Hence the Bible verse: Faith comes from hearing.
The more you hear on the subject of your belief, confirming to you that what you believe is true, the stronger your faith will become.

 

[Palermo]

I just wanted to express one thought.

When a person believes something to which he has no proof, that person's rational mind WILL at some point kick in and point out to the person the fact that there ARE other possibilities. That what he believes is not the only one reasonable conclusion. Our mind/brain is like a computer and it's related to logic and thinking. And logically, it would only make sense for our brain to keep considering our possibilities when we don't have proof for something.

That's where the doubts come from.

The way to keep the faith strong is to feed the belief by feeding it the information that AGREES with the belief. Hence the Bible verse: Faith comes from hearing.
The more you hear on the subject of your belief, confirming to you that what you believe is true, the stronger your faith will become.

But your rational mind will still sometimes kick in and make you consider other possibilities. That's just the way we are programmed.

yes,i agree with u because i dont feel such bad thoughs and totally love,believe and dedicate myself to god while reading bible and glorfying the god with other brothers and sisters in church,but i have such doubts when im alone for a long period (such as nights and weekends) and when im doubt,i think that im commiting sin and god may be upset and sad for me when im in doubt,and when i dont pleasure the god,im being very sad
u told that my rational mind will still sometimces kick in and make me consider other possibilities,is it a normal thing or a sign that im actually not a child of god ? i feel myself very well and happy now and dont want to doubt again cuz it really tortures my soul and feels me guilty

 

[heron]

Good advice... good evidence that we all go through this, and have found some actions that help.

I remind myself that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

If we expect ourselves to have faith out of the blue, it is like expecting ourselves to believe the theory of relativity works, without reading about it. When we read, it makes more sense. We tie in other things that relate, and statements get reinforced.

We sometimes want to be intuitive -- trust that gravity works and believe that gravity will always work for us. But for the things that are less simple than gravity -- like understanding why God loves us when we don't deserve it -- we need to read up on it continually, to reinforce our understanding.