Whys it so tough to always turn to Jesus first

[sunshineforJesus]

Today I was feeling really lonely and kept turning
to my friends online to talk tne of my dear friends
pointed out that I need to turn to Jesus,and draw so close to him
he is so real I wont ever feel alone.I know she is right and do feel convicted to do so.
Im just wondering why its so tough to remember to go to God first before talking to others about things bothering you.

 

[sunshineforJesus]

Any advice anyone?

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

I think sometimes we just got so distracted with the world that we forget to turn to Him first. Often times I'll be struggling with something and be like "Oh, I should just turn to Jesus and pray about this instead!"

 

[Doug Melven]

Before we were born-again we had trained ourselves to go to others for help or deal with things ourselves.
We didn't train ourselves to seek God first.
Now that we are born-again that old training is still with us. It has become our default choice.
Now we need to intentionally train ourselves to

 

[carolina16]

Today I was feeling really lonely and kept turning
to my friends online to talk tne of my dear friends
pointed out that I need to turn to Jesus,and draw so close to him
he is so real I wont ever feel alone.I know she is right and do feel convicted to do so.
Im just wondering why its so tough to remember to go to God first before talking to others about things bothering you.

Because
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The heart doesn´t want to go where God goes.

 

[GandalfTheWise]

Any advice anyone?

Often, negative things we are feeling (loneliness, anger, frustration, pain, etc.) are due to something amiss inside of us that needs to change. We often react to immediately reduce the negative feelings as much as possible so we feel less bad. Something triggers the negative feeling and we react to reduce it. Some times we have certain reactions that start turning into bad habits or addictions that we do without thinking.

It's sometimes a matter of spending some time meditating about it and asking God what needs to change inside of us. We can try on our own to stir up positive feelings, but positive spiritual change usually comes as a result of spiritual transformation and not our attempts to convince ourselves to change.

For example, the truth is that we are never alone. It is that we sometimes doubt God is always there. Strictly speaking, doubt is actually a belief in the lie that God has some reason not to be there. If we believe a lie that God might be mad or disgusted with us and not want to be with us or whatever it might be, we might start to feel anxious and alone because we actually believe that God has reason not to be there and our feelings reflect that. We can tell ourselves over and over that God is always there, but it is when the Holy Spirit makes the truth come alive in our hearts (and dispels the lie that God has some reason not to be there) that we truly feel that God is always there. It is a far different thing to tell ourselves something to try to convince ourselves than when the Holy Spirit makes it come alive inside of us.

 

[sunshineforJesus]

Before we were born-again we had trained ourselves to go to others for help or deal with things ourselves.
We didn't train ourselves to seek God first.
Now that we are born-again that old training is still with us. It has become our default choice.
Now we need to intentionally train ourselves to

That makes so much sense,So How do you train yourself to? Ive been saved for yrs and still have trouble with that.

 

[sunshineforJesus]

I think sometimes we just got so distracted with the world that we forget to turn to Him first. Often times I'll be struggling with something and be like "Oh, I should just turn to Jesus and pray about this instead!"

You hit the nail on the head,The world is an huge distraction to me.

 

[Doug Melven]

That makes so much sense,So How do you train yourself to? Ive been saved for yrs and still have trouble with that.

Train yourself to go to Him first is the same as training yourself to do anything else.

You train yourself to do certain things every morning. There was a time when you didn't automatically do those things. But the longer you did it became habit.
So make it a point to turn to Him first. And the more you do so, it will become habit.

 

[sunshineforJesus]

Thanks so much Doug,I will try to remember that and work on it.

 

[Sal Robinson]

I'm not a big fan of people saying "turn to Jesus" as though the cure to lonliness is found only in a spiritual relationship jesus that is exclusive of human interation....Jesus makes it clear that human relationships with other christians is apart of his relationship with us>>>


I think a person saying just turn to Jesus is being negligent of their responsibly to be a friend and to fulfill Jesus' most important commandment,"Love one another as I have loved you".


I point the finger at you friend, because Jesus wants to use and work through them, not work exclusively from them....


the cause of your loneliness is that I think many churches have a poor understanding of the cure to lonliness.

 

[Doug Melven]

I'm a big fan of people saying "turn to Jesus" as though the cure to lonliness is found only in a spiritual relationship jesus that is exclusive of human interation....Jesus makes it clear that human relationships with other christians is apart of his relationship with us>>>


I think a person saying just turn to Jesus is being negligent of their responsibly to be a friend and to fulfill Jesus' most important commandment,"Love one another as I have loved you".


I point the finger at you friend, because Jesus wants to use and work through them, not work exclusively from them....


the cause of your loneliness is that I think many churches have a poor understanding of the cure to lonliness.

Turning to Jesus for loneliness should be our priority.
If we are looking to other people for fulfilment we will be disappointed.
But, when we make Him our priority He will give us what we need in other people.

Nobody is saying to turn to Jesus and leave everybody else out. We are just saying to turn to Jesus first.

 

[Sal Robinson]

Turning to Jesus for loneliness should be our priority.
If we are looking to other people for fulfilment we will be disappointed.
But, when we make Him our priority He will give us what we need in other people.

Nobody is saying to turn to Jesus and leave everybody else out. We are just saying to turn to Jesus first.

I never said we look to other people for fulfillment......but Jesus himself self said "Love one another as I have loved you"......and that where two or more are gathered, there I am.... I was saying that our relationship with other believers is apart of our relationship with Jesus, they are not two mutually exclusive things........



I was saying that you can't just point people to Jesus without playing your part....after all we're called to be his hands and feet.

 

[Sal Robinson]

Turning to Jesus for loneliness should be our priority.
If we are looking to other people for fulfilment we will be disappointed.
But, when we make Him our priority He will give us what we need in other people.

Nobody is saying to turn to Jesus and leave everybody else out. We are just saying to turn to Jesus first.

"when we make Him our priority He will give us what we need in other people."I really liked what ou said here Doug.....So much truth

 

[sunshineforJesus]

Turning to Jesus for loneliness should be our priority.
If we are looking to other people for fulfilment we will be disappointed.
But, when we make Him our priority He will give us what we need in other people.

Nobody is saying to turn to Jesus and leave everybody else out. We are just saying to turn to Jesus first.

Exactly,I am sure that's what my friends point was,and wasnt saying it to be condemning at all,just to help

 

[sunshineforJesus]

PS sorry to make this a debate lol.

 

[Joy]

Today I was feeling really lonely and kept turning
to my friends online to talk tne of my dear friends
pointed out that I need to turn to Jesus,and draw so close to him
he is so real I wont ever feel alone.I know she is right and do feel convicted to do so.
Im just wondering why its so tough to remember to go to God first before talking to others about things bothering you.

Hi sunshineforJesus

Thank you so much for posting this thread. I also value the repsonses which are challenging but so appropriate to my own situation.

Please be assured you are not alone, I do this as well. We know in our heads that we should go to God first but what is going on in our hearts is totally different.

I'm praying for us both.

 

[Joy]

Often, negative things we are feeling (loneliness, anger, frustration, pain, etc.) are due to something amiss inside of us that needs to change. We often react to immediately reduce the negative feelings as much as possible so we feel less bad. Something triggers the negative feeling and we react to reduce it. Some times we have certain reactions that start turning into bad habits or addictions that we do without thinking.

It's sometimes a matter of spending some time meditating about it and asking God what needs to change inside of us. We can try on our own to stir up positive feelings, but positive spiritual change usually comes as a result of spiritual transformation and not our attempts to convince ourselves to change.

For example, the truth is that we are never alone. It is that we sometimes doubt God is always there. Strictly speaking, doubt is actually a belief in the lie that God has some reason not to be there. If we believe a lie that God might be mad or disgusted with us and not want to be with us or whatever it might be, we might start to feel anxious and alone because we actually believe that God has reason not to be there and our feelings reflect that. We can tell ourselves over and over that God is always there, but it is when the Holy Spirit makes the truth come alive in our hearts (and dispels the lie that God has some reason not to be there) that we truly feel that God is always there. It is a far different thing to tell ourselves something to try to convince ourselves than when the Holy Spirit makes it come alive inside of us.

Thank you GandalfTheWise fo what you shared I know the negative things I feel need to change and found your post really helpful.

 

[sunshineforJesus]

Hi sunshineforJesus

Thank you so much for posting this thread. I also value the repsonses which are challenging but so appropriate to my own situation.

Please be assured you are not alone, I do this as well. We know in our heads that we should go to God first but what is going on in our hearts is totally different.

I'm praying for us both.

Thanks so much Molly and God bless you.

 

[Grand_Commander_Zhou_Ziyu]

While my own experiences may not represent everyone's, but I believe it is often the belief in our hearts and minds that we are capable of achieving something without Christ due to over-confidence in our own abilities that often stems from a false sense of self-esteem (often due to doubt over God's presence), whether we admit it or not. We're all guilty of it as we're mortal in this life and imperfect. There's also the fear that Christ's will may conflict with ours and we'll be upset / punished, there's temptation, there's a failure to restrain ourselves, or we're just so caught in the heat of the moment. I'm sure we've all went through at least some of this, if not all of this at one point or another.