What is your experience?

Greetings.

I won't clutter this post with a long drawn out version of my story, so for now it's sufficient to say that I have had quite a painful walk with god. I have had experiences where, undoubtedly, god was real. Some of these concern christ, some don't, and some make the nature of god appear to be, well, a little terrible.

As of recently, when I look back I see that god has led me into some of the most terrible times in my life and I have reached a bitter realization that not only have I seen and known that god has done some fairly terrible things to people in my life, but I have never seen him do anything substantially good to or for anyone.

So the reason why I am posting this thread is to give any of you an opportunity to share your story about how you have witnessed or experienced something good that god has done.

Please do not post spiritual fluff, and what I mean by that is something like... 'god gave me everything I have' or 'life itself is a miracle'. I'm looking for what is real, not for what can be conjured up depending on how you look at it.

Please excuse my frankness, I just don't have the patience to pretend.

WhatGoesUpMustComeDown said:

Greetings.

I won't clutter this post with a long drawn out version of my story, so for now it's sufficient to say that I have had quite a painful walk with god. I have had experiences where, undoubtedly, god was real. Some of these concern christ, some don't, and some make the nature of god appear to be, well, a little terrible.

As of recently, when I look back I see that god has led me into some of the most terrible times in my life and I have reached a bitter realization that not only have I seen and known that god has done some fairly terrible things to people in my life, but I have never seen him do anything substantially good to or for anyone.

So the reason why I am posting this thread is to give any of you an opportunity to share your story about how you have witnessed or experienced something good that god has done.

Please do not post spiritual fluff, and what I mean by that is something like... 'god gave me everything I have' or 'life itself is a miracle'. I'm looking for what is real, not for what can be conjured up depending on how you look at it.

Please excuse my frankness, I just don't have the patience to pretend.

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MY DEAR FRIEND,

Your honesty is refreshing!

Along the lines of your assertions, would you hold that a surgeon is cruel when he makes incisions to remove cancerous tissue?

This has been my experience with God--pain is healing and God, when He allows it, does so for this reason--ALWAYS.

It has further been my personal experience that the only times i consistently make spiritual progress in my walk with God is in the presence of trials and pain. When things are "going great" i tend to sit down (spiritually speaking) and take a break. A swift boot in the butt is often needed to get me moving again.

i notice this principle even applied to Jesus. Scripture states, "While He lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as He offered up priestly prayers to God. Because He honored God, God answered Him. Though He was God's Son, He learned trusting obedience by what He suffered, just as we do." (Hebrews 6:7-9)

ABBA'S FOOL,
ephraim

I can honestly see all of the suffering, and pain God has seen fit to direct my way has taught me and brought me much wisdom, patients, peace, and self control which i have turned into a business that was given me by the Lord ( From the hands of a man I met only once before in my life, and out of the blue decides to set me up with 10's of thousands of dollars to start my own business. all of which i have paid back.) Anyway the business continues to profit even when others have floundered. I attribute my success to the Lords guidance and protection, because of the measure faithfulness I was able to show in what He has given me, whether it be good or Bad in my eyes I have always tried to be faithful with my lot. I have learned that the good things seem to only benefit me short term. While the bad things (If I let them) will help me change and/or learn things that will benefit me long term.

I have been told that the Lord has to break those deeply, who He intends to use greatly. Being broken by the Lord is not a curse but a blessing, a great blessing.

I agree with what ephraimanesti and drich0150 have said, but to answer your question, I'll relate one recent incident in my life in which God clearly and plainly stepped in for the good.

My buddy Dan, also a faithful Christian, and I had to go on a 250 mile trip to do some work up on a friend's farm last summer. In the planning for the trip, he volunteered to drive his car, an older model Suburu, because it got better gas mileage than my Jeep. When he showed up on the morning we were to leave, I looked at the car and said "Are you sure this thing will make it up there?" He said "Yah, it'll be fine." So off we went. We were about 20 miles from the completion of the trip when all of the sudden, the engine died and we coasted to a stop at a turnoff into a field. Dan's a pretty decent mechanic, but he had no immediate idea why the car had died. We popped the hood and looked around a bit, but nothing obvious stood out. After about 5 minutes of looking, the idea came to him (and this had to be God because we could have searched for hours and still not found the problem) to pull the distributor cap and look at it. Doing so, he discovered that the rotor contact had broken off. In case you don't know what that is, it is a small metal piece inside the cap that spins ultra-fast and distributes the electric spark to contacts, which in turn feed each individual spark plug. The second instance of God's intervention was that the rest of the distributor was not damaged when that piece broke off at high speed, and....we found the piece lying in the bottom of the distributor. But needless to say, we were not going to be going any farther with it broken like that. So we stood around for a few minutes, contemplating hitching on into town. I got to looking at the device, and observing how it had come apart, thought that if we could find a small enough bolt and nut, we could drill holes through the two pieces and hold the rotor together with the bolt. We had tools and gear for the job we were going to do. So we looked, and God being with us again, found a small enough bolt that we thought might do the job. We secured the two pieces together and reassembled the distributor. Getting back into the car, we said a little prayer and tried to start the car. God helped us big time here. It started! It ran a little rough, but it ran. So we said "Thank you God, now please help it get us to town," and off we went. In all, we were only "broke down" for about 15 minutes. Well, we made it into town and pulled into an Autozone parking lot, the engine really running rough by then, and were just parking when it died. "Thank you Lord, again." We went into the store with rotor in hand and asked the guy at the counter if they had that part. He looked at it and was utterly amazed at what we had done. Dan and I just looked at each other and grinned, knowing who we had on our side. Alas, they didn't have the part for that car, but he called the O'Reilly store and asked them if they had it, which they did. The O'Reilly store was 3 miles away so "God, we need your help to get us a little farther down the road." We put our rotor back in, and the engine started but died. We tried to start it again and it kept running this time, so off we went again. As we pulled into the O'Reilly store, it died again. But "Thank you once again, God." Once again, seeing the rotor, the attendant was completely baffled that it worked for us. We just said "God's been with us," and he said "Yes, He must have been." So we got the right part installed and everything was fine from then on.

God was with us alot more on that trip, working things out to our advantage, but keeping that car running was the most miraculous, and I thank Him every time I think about it. God truly is awesome!

And while I'm at it, I'll have to admit that most of the "bad" things that have happened in my life were due to decisions that I have made, and not any of God's doing. Even though I'm a child of God, he doesn't always keep me in a "protective bubble" to keep me from suffering the consequences for things I do. You have not elaborated on your particular circumstances, so I don't know what they are, but I urge you to consider that before you start calling God "terrible."

Hi WGUMCD, it is interesting that you see God's hand in the lives of those in misery, but do not see God's hand in the lives of those in good times. Second, does God promise a life of good times to those who believe? Or a life where we share in the suffering of Christ? Perhaps the idea is that come what may, our inheritance (eternal life with God) allows us endure all things with inner joy during this life. Just saying...

It's the times when everything is going great that I get complacent. It's only through the troubles I've experienced in my life that I am able to say that I'm currently a Christian. It has helped me on the road to salvation. Despite this, people only tend to focus on the negative and don't see the positive. It's all relative. How many times have you seen people who have it much worse than you in this life cheerfully enduring and giving thanks to God? I've known people like this and they make my concerns in this life seem petty. Only through the grace of God am I able to see the good in the things I've experienced, and it is only through this same grace that I am able to endure where I wouldn't have been able to before. This life is meant for repentance. I'm sure this is the opposite of what you want to hear. It's when you don't experience afflictions in your life that you should worry.

There's a story I've heard before. One day after Divine Liturgy, a Russian priest saw one of his parishioners crying and wailing in front of an icon of the Theotokos. He thought that perhaps a tragedy had struck her family and went over to ask her what was wrong.

"Oh, Father! I am further from God than I've ever been. This year, we've not had financial difficulties, no one has died, our livestock are perfectly healthy, and our crops are perfect. We've had such a good time of things that we've forgotten God."

Please take the time to read this article on the matter:
Afflictions

seashale76 said:

There's a story I've heard before. One day after Divine Liturgy, a Russian priest saw one of his parishioners crying and wailing in front of an icon of the Theotokos. He thought that perhaps a tragedy had struck her family and went over to ask her what was wrong.

"Oh, Father! I am further from God than I've ever been. This year, we've not had financial difficulties, no one has died, our livestock are perfectly healthy, and our crops are perfect. We've had such a good time of things that we've forgotten God."

Please take the time to read this article on the matter:
Afflictions

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MY SISTER,

What a cool story! That has been my experience exactly!

ephraim

So the reason why I am posting this thread is to give any of you an opportunity to share your story about how you have witnessed or experienced something good that god has done.

Please do not post spiritual fluff, and what I mean by that is something like... 'god gave me everything I have' or 'life itself is a miracle'. I'm looking for what is real, not for what can be conjured up depending on how you look at it.

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For the Christian, "God gave me everything I have" is a true description of reality. This view, for the Christian, is not "conjured up" "spiritual fluff." No, it is a fundamental truth of the Christian worldview; it is real. Why should someone who believes this truth proceed with answering your question as though it is not true? Anyway, I do have a long history with God and so can relate to you many instances where God provided for me and those close to me.

Growing up as a pastor's kid, I had many occasions to watch my father put his faith to the test. In the late seventies my Dad left the successful business he had built to become a pastor in rural Saskatchewan. Fully convinced God was calling him to serve as a pastor, my Dad walked away from $70,000/year to eke a living from the comparatively paltry $26,000/year the church was able to pay him. He had six children to feed, clothe, and house, so he was constantly pressed to rely on God to provide for his family beyond the small sum the church paid him. And provide God did! Over and over again! I remember Christmases in particular when we had no money for gifts or festive food and praying together as a family that God would give us some. Once, within a half-hour of our prayer, a knock at the door and a dark figure scurrying away into the snowy night heralded the arrival of God's provision. In the mailbox was a sum of money; enough to purchase some modest gifts and the ingredients for some Christmas baking. This happened several times that I can remember.

I recall wanting to go deer hunting with my Dad and his friend but realizing at the very last moment that I needed a pair of white, red, or bright orange coveralls in order to do so. I didn't have a pair, so it looked like I wouldn't be going. I was terribly disappointed. Seeing my upset, my Dad encouraged me to ask God to provide a pair of coveralls. I thought it was silly to do so, but I wanted to go and so I prayed to God for a pair of white, red, or orange coveralls. Moments later I was carrying the garbage out to the back lane behind our house. It was dark, and cold, so I was hurrying to complete my chore and almost missed the red lump partially buried in the compacted snow of the alley. The color of the lump caught my eye, however, and I stopped to investigate. To my great amazement I tugged from the snow a pair of perfectly good, red coveralls! I went hunting the next morning grateful to God for His kindness to me.

God delivered me from profound anxiety and obsessive compulsiveness that gripped me in my early twenties without my needing to resort to therapy or drugs. This was a horrible, scary period of my life, but God used it to teach me tremendous truths about my relationship with Him and to show me His power to deliver.

I could go on and will if you want. I won't say any more for the moment, however, because I want first to see how you respond. Will you dismiss my experience as "fluff" or not?

Peace.

I won't say any more for the moment, however, because I want first to see how you respond. Will you dismiss my experience as "fluff" or not?

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Yes and no. I won't say that god isn't responsible for this, but at the same time the evidence isn't quite enough.

In the bible, god is said to have given plenty of the sort of testimonies that I'm looking for. He gave dreams to abraham and others, gideon put out the fleece, etc. Apparently god does not oppose the need to be convinced.

Personally I have had plenty of good and bad experiences that I could attribute to god if I choose to, but this isn't about me trying to be a good spiritual person by praising god in the midst of my trials or about blaming him for everything - it's about weighing the facts and evidence.

As I said in my original post, god has given me reason to believe what I do... and I don't mean that in the sense that I have 'overcome' anything by choosing to believe. In fact, I cannot possibly deny it, and unfortunately for me the evidence has nothing to do with god's 'goodness'. So here lies the problem, and this is precisely why I'm looking for similar testimonies but of god's goodness which were experienced in similar ways.

WhatGoesUpMustComeDown said:

Apparently god does not oppose the need to be convinced.

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Actually the Bible teaches the opposite! (John 20:29)

That verse says nothing to the contrary ...

In fact the next two verses go on to say:

"And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."

so apparently he provided signs so that people might believe?

it's about weighing the facts and evidence.

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So in a since your wanting to Judge God or what he has done. If your want God to truly reveal Himself to you then it would be better to go about it His way rather than placing yourself in a position to Judge Him or His works. Because even if your judgment is for God it doesn't mean He will be obligated to except your efforts, and make you apart of the fold. The Goal is a relationship and you must approach Him as if you want a relationship.

Tozer said that the tools of the sculpture are cruel tools indeed.
He begins his refining with the hammer and chisel.
He reminds me that God must first hack off large chunks of unacceptable clay before he can refine me into a usable vessel.

I was an Atheist for 37 years and only after the Lord opened my eyes to my failures as a father did I finally see the proof of his existence. Since that time, I have experienced the joy of being an upright father, worthwhile husband and most importantly, usable servant.

Be blessed.

drich0150 said:

So in a since your wanting to Judge God or what he has done. If your want God to truly reveal Himself to you then it would be better to go about it His way rather than placing yourself in a position to Judge Him or His works. Because even if your judgment is for God it doesn't mean He will be obligated to except your efforts, and make you apart of the fold. The Goal is a relationship and you must approach Him as if you want a relationship.

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My friend, you have no idea of what you're talking about. You ought to be more careful before acting on your assumptions.

WhatGoesUpMustComeDown said:

My friend, you have no idea of what you're talking about. You ought to be more careful before acting on your assumptions.

it's about weighing the facts and evidence.

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Is not the first time I have taken a statement at face value and somehow misinterpeteted the meaning and lord willing it will not be the last. after all what goes up right??

precisely

well everyone, I just want to say thank you for posting your stories. I have enjoyed reading them.