What does God mean to you all?

[aflower4God]

Hi there my dear brothers and sisters,
I know this may be a personal question but I was doing a lot of thinking about this topic and I was very curious as to what God means to you all? As in how do you see your relationship with God?
To give you all a better example of what I am asking I will tell you how I see God now.
He loves ALL OF US, he did the ULTIMATE sacrifice for us in dying for us on the Cross for our sins. So that shows that he loves us so much. I think God is looking after me, I do, but for the little things that I think I need He seems like he is busy for that. Okay here is what I mean, God is rich very rich (power), and he is working really hard to provide BUT does not seem to have the time to focus on the little things that I need. Like I was looking in the mirror at myself today and I saw how my thighs look so out of shape. I miss walking, I miss the workout that I use to get when my only friend was working part time. I get dreadfully lonely walking alone, I think this has to do with my social phobia. So I know that God could provide a place for me to live that is SAFE. Let me tell you about my earthly father, when he talked to me over 2 years ago he would say "if I had the kind of money that your only friend father has I would buy you all a home in one of the safest communities in your city". This is coming from my earthly father who cares less if I am dead or alive. GOD DOES CARE if I am dead or alive AND he is SO RICH that he could help out with a better place to live, closer to my only friend's job so that she does not have to drive an hour away to work.
So in a nut shell this is how I see God at this point in my life. He loves me more than the human brain can imagine BUT he seems too busy to help me with the little things; a guy, a good (SAFE does not have to be ritzy) place to live and a job.
So I am asking you all what does God mean to YOU (your relationship with Him)?
I am really sorry in advance if this is too much of a personal question.
God bless you all

 

[miss-a]

It is a very deep question, Flower, I'm sure I'll have more to add later.

To me God is life, the only reason I can do life. He is the reason I have been able to not only survive the impossible, but He is the reason I am beginning to thrive and I can, in spite of all the meaness, abuse, and loss I have suffered, I can believe there are great and wonderful things in my future, things I have no tangible evidence of. He has given me the faith to believe and showed me how to move forward when everything in life lookded and felt backwards. He is my loving Father who has allowed me to suffer so that I would know suffering and could help others who are suffering, so I could move beyond shallow pridefulness into the depths of Jesus' heart, and so I could look at some of the suffering and not understand its usefulness and exercise the faith to believe anyway. And He is so so so much more.

And He is not partial to me. He does not discriminate. He is my Dad and the dad of all other believers, and He offers all of His promises to all of His kids. He wil bring each and everyone of us out of the darkeness and into His marvelous light. we are all in the process. Some of the places in the process are darker than others. He will use the dark times. I'm not saying He desires darkness for us, only that He will allow it and He will lead us out of it and use it for our good. He will not allow our suffering to be wasted.

And, Flower, He will lead you out of the darkness. All I know that you can do about your living situation is that you use the time you have in that place to learn to get to know God better. He is not a mean dad. I know you know that, but you need to know it more, so that satan can no longer challenge God's character in your mind. You can use this time in this place on this day and every single day, to watch teaching videos, read your Bible, pray, eat healthy foods, exercise, rest, seek a new place to live, bring your questions to folks like the k-love pastors, and learn to believe for the day when He will change things in your life. If you'd like me to send you links again, I'd be happy to. These are the things I did when my life felt and looked like it had been authored by hell itself. You know my history. You know I've been there. And God continues to heal me and lead me out of it. His word is clear. He does not treat me any better than He does you. He has good for you. But satan is afraid you'll believe it. You must commit yourself to allowing God to heal your outlook. You are believing satan's lies. I listen to God's truth everyday. Satan vomits his lies on me everyday. But because I fill my mind up with the truth, at times by listening to 10 or more teachings a day, there is less and less room for the lies. Use the time you have to fight this. Do not ruminate on the lies anymore. Please.

Prayers,
a

 

[jay2010]

hey
i believe God does care about all those little things although sometimes it might seem he doesn't care or is too busy, but its either because he has said yes but the answer doesn't come when we want it too, or he says no but its not cos he is too busy its cos its for a higher purpose or to help us grow somehow. i believe when he says his ways and thoughts are higher than ours and although its very hard when i want things so bad and wonder why isn't he fixing things for me, i try to trust that he knows what he is doing, that in the end things will work out for the good, and that he loves me and will do things right for me. in my life i have experienced this. things are far from perfect right now, but God has never failed me and i don't believe he will ...
what God means to me personally is (as well as making me into a new person, forgiving my sins and ssaving me from hell) that he is always faithful. always will be and always has been. he's always been there, he knows me better than anyone else, i can trust him with all myfeelings (i can be angry sad upset and he can take it) he's the only one who can deal with me and all my sinful ways and still puts up with me and has promised to never leave me but to work with me and change me and help me! he gives me so much comfort because of his presence. even in the times when we don't feel his presence its the knowing that we are always his children and he is always with us.
sorry if i went on a bit. The Lord is so precious to me.x

 

[third11]

God, to me is creator of all humans and everything else. God is authority. God is the final say. God is not a puppet master that we can go to and gives us our hearts desire. I don't know how God decides who does and doesn't get healed, who does and doesn't have an easy life, who wins and who looses, etc. I think God can fix ALL, but doesn't. I don't think God is protector of all the bad things that can happen to us. I don't know why God doesn't protect the most vulnerable from evil acts. I don't understand when people say God is there for us all, when, God really isn't. God lets us make mistakes and lets us wallow in our misery. People call this God's time. I believe in a God who is distant and unreachable. I am grateful for the many blessings God has allowed in my life, but, I don't look to God for miracles. I worship a God who wants me to suffer and find joy in doing so, but, I don't. I worship a God who wants me to hate this life, but doing so makes me feel dead inside. I worship a God who doesn't want me to be happy with anything in this life and not love those closest to me and doing so gives me deep sadness. I worship and believe in a God who wants me to love death, but, I don't.

My faith tells me that God and Jesus are the same. And, for the most part, my belief is Trinidadian. Yet, I feel so different when it comes to Jesus. Jesus is all about love for me. Jesus is my best friend and is always there for me. I cry to Jesus. I find comfort in Jesus. Jesus is the one who holds me at night and makes the darkness bearable. Jesus is my brother. Jesus is mercy.

My favorite christian artist is Third Day. They sing what is in my heart.

I've never known a human father's love and many tell me this is why I feel about God as I do. I don't know who my earthly father is. My grandfather raised me. He was distant. He loved me, he took care of my basic needs, but, I was a burden to him.

Your question is a good question. Helps me to put down what I am afraid to say in person, what I hide inside.

t

 

[Criada]

He is.... everything - all I have, all that keeps me going... the source of strength, grace, mercy and forgiveness. He is the one who picks me up again and again when I fall, the one who comes seeking me when I wander off the path, the one who holds me and keeps me even when I struggle and rebel.
He is the one who gave me life, physically and spiritually, the one who saved my life when I tried to throw it away, the one who preserves me every day from my own folly, the one who I can trust to bring me to where he wants me even when the journey is difficult, the one who supplies all my needs, who disciplines we when I go wrong, who comforts me when I grieve, who is with me when I'm lonely, who listens when I pray, who guides me when I listen to his voice, and forgives me when I don't.

Sometimes I can't see him, or feel him, or know his presence, but he is there in the wilderness, and brings me through the dry times.
He is the loving parent I never knew, he heals my hurts and makes me whole...

So much more, but my words can never be enough to describe all he is, to me and to every one of his children..

 

[plumsink]

God is absolutely, unconquerably, supernally, good, true, beautiful and loving.


I copied a bit from my blog on this very question. Here it is:

What is God, to us? While a lot of people will deny this, God is everything that makes existence in this place remotely meaningful. God is not limited to being that, he is not only that which gives us meaning, but without God you might as well exchange the Sun for a black hole. God is all meaning, all good, all truth, all real beauty (beauty in itself not beauty of appearance), all love. God is that which endows meaning to existence, without which we are merely absurd monsters, or machines without a valid function. A reality without God would be a reality that morally ought not to exist. It would be suffering without purpose, a cosmic mistake.

God is radiantly, absolutely, superlatively without shadow, without evil, without lies, without wrath. God is perfectly absolutely good. God does not get mad, God does not hate, God does not judge, God does not strike anyone down or cause any bad to happen to any being. We do that, not God.


On this earth, all creatures desire power. In a sense, all creatures try to make themselves their own god. Plants try to outgrow other plants to gain solar power from the Sun. Animals eat plants or other animals, gaining their power for themselves. People eat animals and plants for biological power and split atoms and dirty the air with coal for electrical power. Darwin's "struggle for the survival of the fittest" is real, that is the way this world works. In other words, this world is set up in a way opposite to the way that God operates. God gives and doesn't take back. God creates. God loves. God even relinquished His power over our lives and lets us choose for ourselves, even if we choose evil, even if we choose to hate Him.

Who is God to me? God is everything. I am nothing, this world is nothing, God is everything. God is the only light in a well of darkness. God is hope in a world of darkness. Everything that I love, I only love it because it is a broken mirror of God and reminds me of God. My dearest wish is that I could forget even that I am, if I could thereby see only God. God is the Beloved of my heart.

You are my God
I seek after no other
My whole being is full of longing
I thirst for you in a dry and desert land
where there is no water.

I have seen you in the high place
and have seen Your glory
Compared to the Beloved, life is nothing

In the restless nights I remember You.
As I toss and turn I think of You.
Because You are the heart of my heart
I sing in the shadow of Your wings


To answer your question, why does God not help you with the little things you want? You are thinking as men think, not as God thinks. All the things in this world are dust in the wind: what endures is your soul. If you have safety, it will be lost; if you have a guy he will one day be parted from you; if you have a job it will one day be gone. All the things in this world are dust in the wind, and God does not want you to love the dust. God does not want you to love the world, because the world is evil. God wants you to recognize that all these things you want, are only broken and darkened mirrors for the One thing - God. God wants you to find Him.

Unfortunately, by nature we love the things of the world and don't love God. In fact, without God's intervention none of us would love God. This is true: the fact that any of us love God at all is because He enabled us to, and that enabling very often requires that our desires for things in this world are frustrated. That requires that our plans to be our own god, are frustrated.

You think that God is rich, as the world understands rich, and He has just somehow not gotten the message that you are in need. Why then was Jesus born with the livestock to the family of a poor carpenter? You don't think Joseph's family was ever in need? Why wasn't he born in a palace? God is trying to tell us something here.

We human beings desire power and riches, so we imagine God as rich and powerful. The riches and power of this world, though, are nothing. They are dreams, they are less than nothing. Look at the ruins of Egypt and Rome: those nations once strode the world like giants. They are all in ruins now, their emperors have come to nothing.

God is not trying to make you comfortable, God is trying to save you.

God is trying to bring you to the only destination that will ever really help you. God is trying to bring you to Himself.

Don't ask God for worldly things, just don't. Stop. Ask God to help you love Him and follow His ways, because that is a prayer that will be answered. You are in fact seeking death, because the way of the world is death. Should God answer such a prayer?

God wants you to seek life. He is Life.


Peace dear heart

 

[third11]

I don't seek "little things."

I seek answers to how a loving God allows young innocent children to be rapped and beaten and killed. I want to know how a loving God allows poverty that goes beyond what a reasonable person can take. I want to know why God cures some and not others. If I have been healed, well, I must have done something good--I must be good, I have found favor with God. But, those who are not cured, well, they must be bad, right? I want to know why God allows a child to be conceived to deadbeats that will not care for the child.

I want to know why suffering is the only way to know God.

I want to know why all I am living for IS death.

 

[plumsink]

I don't seek "little things."

I seek answers to how a loving God allows young innocent children to be rapped and beaten and killed. I want to know how a loving God allows poverty that goes beyond what a reasonable person can take. I want to know why God cures some and not others. If I have been healed, well, I must have done something good--I must be good, I have found favor with God. But, those who are not cured, well, they must be bad, right? I want to know why God allows a child to be conceived to deadbeats that will not care for the child.

I want to know why suffering is the only way to know God.

God does not force us. In order for a soul to exist at all, it must be free. To be free, is to be free to choose wrongly. God does not prevent it, cannot prevent it if we are to exist at all.

Why does God allow a world full of suffering? Because the existence of something very precious necessitated that it exist. What is that thing that is so precious, God allowed the terror of the world to exist? Us. Souls. We are that thing.

The world exists because we chose wrong. We chose rebellion, to be our own gods to ourselves. We still choose it, which is why every step back in the direction of God is lined with pain. If we were to get every worldly thing we want, this would push us more in the direction of evil. We would be more and more lost; further and further from God. Finding God is like being weaned off a terrible drug. It hurts. At the other end though, is wholeness.

I want to know why all I am living for IS death.

There is probably not a person here who hasn't wished at some point that they were simply whisked off to heaven; that this life would end. But this is really a selfish if understandable wish. God can reach us right now, and we can do God's work right now. You can live for God and be alive too. You can't serve both God and worldly lusts, though. You cannot love both God and Mammon.

God can make life in this world far deeper and more significant than we could imagine - but your heart cannot belong both to God and to the World.

 

[third11]

God IS.

I am just in a bad way right now.

 

[Mr. Runningfish]

He is my Father. I seem to talk to Him more than I talk to anyone. Sometimes waking up in the middle of the night to talk to Him. He's the only Father I have. Someone here, I don't remember who, suggested I picture Him wrapping His arms around me when I'm feeling quite down. I do, and peace usually follows not too long after.

I'm trying to please Him, to be right by Him, to follow the path He has for me. I'm not a good son, but it takes a load off knowing that He forgives me anytime I ask for it. What a peace that gives!