"...but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."
I used to be so insecure; I didn’t feel like I personally had anything to offer to anyone so I sought to be like anyone else. I spent so long trying to conform to the standards of others. Always trying to fit in and feel like I belong, being jealous of what others have or can do. To do this however, is to discredit God, to say that he didn’t do a good enough job creating me, that He should give me more. God didn’t mean for us to be the same, He created us to all be different, with diverse abilities and dissimilar purposes. Romans 12:6 says “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us.” In my pursuit of conformity I was giving up what God gave me, I was denying my God given purpose in favor of someone else. I was ineffective in my pursuits because I was trying to use abilities not given to me to fulfill a purpose that wasn’t mine.
1 Peter 4:10 says “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. We are called to use our own gifts nowhere does the bible say that we should try to use the gifts of others. This passage also makes another important point, our gifts are not for our sole benefit, they are meant to be used in the service of others as a demonstration of God’s grace. The purpose of our gifts is the same, serving others, but in different ways and different capacities.
Can I claim total victory in this area? No, no one can claim total victory; we all covet something or someone’s ability at some time or another. Realizing we are struggling and confronting our struggles is the first step, if we never realize that we need change, we will never change. Once we confront our struggle with jealousy, with desires of conformity or with coveting we can take it to God and begin to work on letting it go and giving it to God. Matthew 11:28-29 says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Jesus calls us to give our burdens to Him, He promises to take them from us and give us rest in Him. Trust in Him and no struggle will be overwhelming, no burden too heavy. In Jesus I have faith, I have hope, I have love and I have rest.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Philippians 2:3 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit..."
When God places things on my heart I write about them. I like write about it and share it, mainly because it's usually something I struggle with, in hopes of perhaps helping to encourage others dealing with the same thing. Even if only because it helps them to know they aren’t alone in their struggles.
"...but in humility consider others better than yourselves."
To be blunt, I can be extremely selfish, so often I focus on doing things my way, on having what I want. One huge example of selfishness was this last week during CRU’s Big Break in Panama City Beach. I was sick and I definitely knew it, but rather than pulling back and reducing my exposure to the other people and trying to protect them from getting ill, I put myself first. My attitude was pretty much, I paid $270 for this trip I’m wanted to enjoy it, I wanted to meet people, I wanted and I wanted. I can hear myself saying it many times when people said I should rest my voice, which I had lost due to illness. I told them I wanted to get the most out of the trip. I went there to serve God, and I did, but I also let it become very much about me, which it wasn’t and shouldn’t have been.
It is ok to want things, nowhere does the bible tell us we have should have no self-interests, but when you become so self-interested that we aren’t looking out for the interests of others. When this becomes true is when self-interests become problems. Philippians 2:4 says “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” That week I failed to live that out. I put every single person I came across at risk of illness because I wanted. I did not live by the attitude that Jesus lived out and calls us to live, Philippians 2:7-8 “but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!” He calls us to self-sacrificing humility and love for all people. Reading this scripture really broke me.
I know that I can be selfish at times, to deny it would be lying, but I always rationalized it, I’m really good at rationalizing, by saying to myself that if I serve others enough a little selfishness is ok. However, I’m pretty sure that would be selfish serving and isn’t very pleasing to God. I love to serve, and God calls us to serve each other and finds loving humble service pleasing, but serving to make ourselves feel better about our other sins is serving with the wrong heart attitude. The last part of the passage hit me hardest, to think that the Son of God came to earth, humbling Himself, giving up his seat of glory to suffer, be humiliated and die for me. It's not so much that I've never thought about it, because it's something on my mind often, it just happened to resonate strongly with me in this instance. But if Jesus can give so much for me, I can let go of my desire to have things my way and serve others with pure intentions and a heart pleasing to God. Of course, I know I can’t do it alone, as Jesus said in Matthew 19:26 “’With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” The first part is Jesus referring to man being unable to attain salvation alone, but the second part is important. With God all things are possible, not some things or most things, but all things. That is our God, and He is amazing!
"...but in humility consider others better than yourselves."
To be blunt, I can be extremely selfish, so often I focus on doing things my way, on having what I want. One huge example of selfishness was this last week during CRU’s Big Break in Panama City Beach. I was sick and I definitely knew it, but rather than pulling back and reducing my exposure to the other people and trying to protect them from getting ill, I put myself first. My attitude was pretty much, I paid $270 for this trip I’m wanted to enjoy it, I wanted to meet people, I wanted and I wanted. I can hear myself saying it many times when people said I should rest my voice, which I had lost due to illness. I told them I wanted to get the most out of the trip. I went there to serve God, and I did, but I also let it become very much about me, which it wasn’t and shouldn’t have been.
It is ok to want things, nowhere does the bible tell us we have should have no self-interests, but when you become so self-interested that we aren’t looking out for the interests of others. When this becomes true is when self-interests become problems. Philippians 2:4 says “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” That week I failed to live that out. I put every single person I came across at risk of illness because I wanted. I did not live by the attitude that Jesus lived out and calls us to live, Philippians 2:7-8 “but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--even death on a cross!” He calls us to self-sacrificing humility and love for all people. Reading this scripture really broke me.
I know that I can be selfish at times, to deny it would be lying, but I always rationalized it, I’m really good at rationalizing, by saying to myself that if I serve others enough a little selfishness is ok. However, I’m pretty sure that would be selfish serving and isn’t very pleasing to God. I love to serve, and God calls us to serve each other and finds loving humble service pleasing, but serving to make ourselves feel better about our other sins is serving with the wrong heart attitude. The last part of the passage hit me hardest, to think that the Son of God came to earth, humbling Himself, giving up his seat of glory to suffer, be humiliated and die for me. It's not so much that I've never thought about it, because it's something on my mind often, it just happened to resonate strongly with me in this instance. But if Jesus can give so much for me, I can let go of my desire to have things my way and serve others with pure intentions and a heart pleasing to God. Of course, I know I can’t do it alone, as Jesus said in Matthew 19:26 “’With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” The first part is Jesus referring to man being unable to attain salvation alone, but the second part is important. With God all things are possible, not some things or most things, but all things. That is our God, and He is amazing!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Fear and Shame
This is a subject I am greatly familiar with, my life used to be ruled by fear and shame and I was feeling urged to share with you. Fear and shame are two of satan’s most powerful tools against us, fear is natural, we are afraid of things that can hurt us and that’s a good thing, but when we fear things we shouldn’t we give it power over us. And when we commit an action on accident, such as a slip of the tongue, or when we do something we look back on and find completely disagreeable we experience shame, which is also healthy, it is a feeling that lets us know we’ve done something that we know is wrong and can then correct it. The problem comes when it goes too far.
Many times we do something and we fear God’s reprisal, we fear how our friend’s will react, we fear that people will reject us, that’s a big one I used to fall prey to. I was terrified people would hate me if they knew some of the secrets I kept in my heart. I wanted nothing more than to be accepted and to have a ton of friends. Shame can ruin us just as easily. When we have a certain belief or feeling or perhaps when we do something we think will make people reject us, we fall into the pit of shame. It affects us in a way that is similar to fear, we don’t want people to know and we hide it, but it is different from fear in that the feeling of shame is directed at ourselves. We hate our feeling, our belief or our action. It makes us feel less about ourselves. This makes us believe we are less deserving of love, it makes us believe that people won’t want to love us. I am so guilty of this, so often I would get pulled into the pit of shame and nothing people could tell me would make a difference. I thought people hated me or at least couldn’t like me, that people were only tolerating me because they didn’t want to be mean. I love people, I’m a social creature. It’s just how God created us, He himself is in a relationship and He created us to be in a relationship with Him. When fear and shame damage or destroy our relationships with the people around us it’s a million times harder to feel connected to God who we can’t physically see, but instead we have to have faith in His existence. When we don’t believe in ourselves and we don’t believe those around us care for us then we can’t have faith that God really loves us.
The reality of it is that sin separates us from God and keeps us from knowing him. But it doesn’t have to be that way; we have an awesome, loving God who forgave us for all of our sins through the sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:4-5 says “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” Because of God’s grace, we don’t have to live suck in our fear, stuck in our shame; He set us free by paying a cost we could never pay. The only person whose opinion should really matter to us is God, and God will never reject us for who we are or what we have done. He is a loving God, and His love is a redemptive love.
This coming part is a little of what I learned from James MacDonald about true repentance. There are 5 signs of true repentance:
1.) Godly grief over sin. This means we are focused on how our sin has affected God, not us or others. When someone is only sorry they were caught and not sorry for what they did, this is not Godly grief, it is worldly grief. 2 Corinthians 7:8-10 “yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” Only when we experience Godly grief can we begin the process of repentance.
2.) Repulsion towards sin. True desire to be free from sin and be disgusted by the sin. This is to the point where even having access to sin is painful because we desire o strongly to be free from it.
3.) Restitution towards others. It’s important to note that we cannot make things right with God if we don’t make things right with others. 2 Corinthians 7:11 “See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.” Godly sorrow fills us with a desire to see our wrongs we have committed righted.
4.) Revival towards God. You feel a new faith in God and a new passion for Him. Understanding that we can’t do anything apart from Him and seeking to never be apart from Him.
5.) Moving Forward. Not looking back and dwelling on past actions. Philippians 3:12-13 “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead” What Paul is saying here is that we can never be done with our journey, our goal will never be reached in this life, but we should strive for it, not looking back, forgetting the bygone things that will just bog us down as we try to move forward towards what God has planned for us.
These principles apply to all but one sin. Matthew 12:31-32 “And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” God is willing to take it all from us if we repent, there is only one sin that God will not forgive, and that is the rejection of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our guide and counselor, we must not reject Him.
By repenting, we receive God’s grace, which can be described in four ways:
1.) Grace redeems – Penalty of sin is gone. Colossians 1:13-14 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Cost of sin is paid.
2.) Grace Releases – Power of sin is gone. Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” Released from sin.
3.) Grace Reconciles – Prejudice of sin is gone. Ephesians 2:14-16 “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” We are made one in Christ.
4.) Grace Removes – Past sin is gone. Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” We don’t have to dwell in our sins.
In summary, God loves us, His love for us and what He thinks for us is all that matters. We shouldn’t strive for the acceptance for others because God accepts us as we are and He has more love than all people alive combined, as long as we place our trust in Him. Not to say we don’t need relationships. Earthly relationships are essential for personal growth. Once you have gone to God and asked for forgiveness of your sins, the best way to deal with the fear and shame is to just make yourselves vulnerable to others. You will never get over the fear of rejection until you give someone the opportunity to reject you. They will either accept you, which is amazing when you’ve feared rejection for so long, or they will reject you which will hurt a great deal, but you are better off without shallow friends who only want to be with perfect people, because they will find themselves with no one. Being in trusting vulnerable relationships helps to keep you accountable and prevent you from sinning in the future, it also provides the groundwork for support. One loving companion with whom you can be totally vulnerable with is worth more than several hundred shallow friends. When we confess our sins to God and repent, and make ourselves vulnerable to one another, the fear of rejection and the shame of sin will hold power over us no longer. Can I say I’m never afraid of anything? No. Can I say that I never experience shame? No. But it’s ok because I know God loves me and forgives me, and I know that I am loved by my friends and I know that they will never reject me. They are natural instincts and incredibly useful when kept in check by relationships with God and fellow Christians.
I know I’m long winded, and I promise I am almost done. Some people never get to confession and vulnerability because they fear God doesn’t love them, so I just wanted to add one little story from the bible. Jesus talks about the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. The younger son wanted his inheritance, so his father gave it to him. He proceeded to run off with it and lose all of it. He sought his father’s forgiveness, not believing himself worthy of it. Luke 15:21-24 “So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.” It didn’t matter what the on had done, where he had been or that he had lost all of his inheritance, his father loved him and rejoiced at his return. This is like God’s love for us. No matter where we go, what we experience or what we do, when we seek Him, we will find Him waiting for us with open arms.
This kinda got out of my hands, it’s way more than I had originally intended to write, so if anything is unclear due to my effort to trim it as best as possible, let me know.
Many times we do something and we fear God’s reprisal, we fear how our friend’s will react, we fear that people will reject us, that’s a big one I used to fall prey to. I was terrified people would hate me if they knew some of the secrets I kept in my heart. I wanted nothing more than to be accepted and to have a ton of friends. Shame can ruin us just as easily. When we have a certain belief or feeling or perhaps when we do something we think will make people reject us, we fall into the pit of shame. It affects us in a way that is similar to fear, we don’t want people to know and we hide it, but it is different from fear in that the feeling of shame is directed at ourselves. We hate our feeling, our belief or our action. It makes us feel less about ourselves. This makes us believe we are less deserving of love, it makes us believe that people won’t want to love us. I am so guilty of this, so often I would get pulled into the pit of shame and nothing people could tell me would make a difference. I thought people hated me or at least couldn’t like me, that people were only tolerating me because they didn’t want to be mean. I love people, I’m a social creature. It’s just how God created us, He himself is in a relationship and He created us to be in a relationship with Him. When fear and shame damage or destroy our relationships with the people around us it’s a million times harder to feel connected to God who we can’t physically see, but instead we have to have faith in His existence. When we don’t believe in ourselves and we don’t believe those around us care for us then we can’t have faith that God really loves us.
The reality of it is that sin separates us from God and keeps us from knowing him. But it doesn’t have to be that way; we have an awesome, loving God who forgave us for all of our sins through the sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:4-5 says “But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” Because of God’s grace, we don’t have to live suck in our fear, stuck in our shame; He set us free by paying a cost we could never pay. The only person whose opinion should really matter to us is God, and God will never reject us for who we are or what we have done. He is a loving God, and His love is a redemptive love.
This coming part is a little of what I learned from James MacDonald about true repentance. There are 5 signs of true repentance:
1.) Godly grief over sin. This means we are focused on how our sin has affected God, not us or others. When someone is only sorry they were caught and not sorry for what they did, this is not Godly grief, it is worldly grief. 2 Corinthians 7:8-10 “yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” Only when we experience Godly grief can we begin the process of repentance.
2.) Repulsion towards sin. True desire to be free from sin and be disgusted by the sin. This is to the point where even having access to sin is painful because we desire o strongly to be free from it.
3.) Restitution towards others. It’s important to note that we cannot make things right with God if we don’t make things right with others. 2 Corinthians 7:11 “See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.” Godly sorrow fills us with a desire to see our wrongs we have committed righted.
4.) Revival towards God. You feel a new faith in God and a new passion for Him. Understanding that we can’t do anything apart from Him and seeking to never be apart from Him.
5.) Moving Forward. Not looking back and dwelling on past actions. Philippians 3:12-13 “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead” What Paul is saying here is that we can never be done with our journey, our goal will never be reached in this life, but we should strive for it, not looking back, forgetting the bygone things that will just bog us down as we try to move forward towards what God has planned for us.
These principles apply to all but one sin. Matthew 12:31-32 “And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” God is willing to take it all from us if we repent, there is only one sin that God will not forgive, and that is the rejection of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our guide and counselor, we must not reject Him.
By repenting, we receive God’s grace, which can be described in four ways:
1.) Grace redeems – Penalty of sin is gone. Colossians 1:13-14 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Cost of sin is paid.
2.) Grace Releases – Power of sin is gone. Romans 6:14 “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” Released from sin.
3.) Grace Reconciles – Prejudice of sin is gone. Ephesians 2:14-16 “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.” We are made one in Christ.
4.) Grace Removes – Past sin is gone. Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” We don’t have to dwell in our sins.
In summary, God loves us, His love for us and what He thinks for us is all that matters. We shouldn’t strive for the acceptance for others because God accepts us as we are and He has more love than all people alive combined, as long as we place our trust in Him. Not to say we don’t need relationships. Earthly relationships are essential for personal growth. Once you have gone to God and asked for forgiveness of your sins, the best way to deal with the fear and shame is to just make yourselves vulnerable to others. You will never get over the fear of rejection until you give someone the opportunity to reject you. They will either accept you, which is amazing when you’ve feared rejection for so long, or they will reject you which will hurt a great deal, but you are better off without shallow friends who only want to be with perfect people, because they will find themselves with no one. Being in trusting vulnerable relationships helps to keep you accountable and prevent you from sinning in the future, it also provides the groundwork for support. One loving companion with whom you can be totally vulnerable with is worth more than several hundred shallow friends. When we confess our sins to God and repent, and make ourselves vulnerable to one another, the fear of rejection and the shame of sin will hold power over us no longer. Can I say I’m never afraid of anything? No. Can I say that I never experience shame? No. But it’s ok because I know God loves me and forgives me, and I know that I am loved by my friends and I know that they will never reject me. They are natural instincts and incredibly useful when kept in check by relationships with God and fellow Christians.
I know I’m long winded, and I promise I am almost done. Some people never get to confession and vulnerability because they fear God doesn’t love them, so I just wanted to add one little story from the bible. Jesus talks about the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-32. The younger son wanted his inheritance, so his father gave it to him. He proceeded to run off with it and lose all of it. He sought his father’s forgiveness, not believing himself worthy of it. Luke 15:21-24 “So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.” It didn’t matter what the on had done, where he had been or that he had lost all of his inheritance, his father loved him and rejoiced at his return. This is like God’s love for us. No matter where we go, what we experience or what we do, when we seek Him, we will find Him waiting for us with open arms.
This kinda got out of my hands, it’s way more than I had originally intended to write, so if anything is unclear due to my effort to trim it as best as possible, let me know.
A Truly Loving Commitment
"You will never knowingly suffer at my hands. I will never say anything or do anything knowingly to hurt you. I will always, in every circumstance, seek to help and support you. If you're down and I can lift you up - I'll do that. If you need something and I have it, I'll share it with you. If I need to, I'll give it to you. No matter what I find out about you, no matter what happens in the future - either good or bad - my commitment to you will never change. And there is nothing you can do about it."
This is a commitment made by the members of a church in Washington State to one another. Their church grew to 4,000 people in just 14 years. That is the power that God can show through our love for one another. I can't say that this would describe me currently, but it is my hearts desire to be able to fulfill this commitment. I just thought I would share it with anyone who wishes to read it.
This is a commitment made by the members of a church in Washington State to one another. Their church grew to 4,000 people in just 14 years. That is the power that God can show through our love for one another. I can't say that this would describe me currently, but it is my hearts desire to be able to fulfill this commitment. I just thought I would share it with anyone who wishes to read it.
If it’s broken…
Maybe you aren’t supposed to fix it. I have been struggling with an inability to let things go. If it’s broken I have to fix it. But sometimes it is possible to try too hard. Sometimes, the harder you try the more damage you do. Sometimes you can desire something so much that you actually just push it farther away. I personally push and push and push until either I’ve managed mash it back together as a shadow of what it was before or I pulverize it until all I have left is sand and a sense of failure.
I’ve been told so many times, Ryan, maybe you can’t fix it, just let it go. Yet still I try, and still I push, I’m pretty stubborn like that. But last night I was struck by an example that was directly applicable to my life, and I said this myself, “maybe we are trying to hard to get what we want out of this, trying so hard to restore a something we’ve lost that we are actually making attaining it harder”. Considering the personal trouble I have with this I was kind of surprised that I even thought about it this way. It was an eye-opener in a way.
So, if we can’t fix it, what are we supposed to do? It’s something I’m not good at, not at all. Some things can only be fixed in one way, by letting God handle it. If something is broken, and despite your best attempts you can’t seem to get anywhere, maybe it isn’t meant to be fixed, at least not by you or not right now. God has His plan, and no matter how hard we try, we can never know better than Him, we can’t do something now if He wants it done later. Maybe He has a way for you to fix it later, or maybe He will fix it through some other method.
It’s incredibly hard, I know, I’ve suffered a lot of things because of an inability to let go and let God. But learning patience and to trust in our amazing savior to do things in His way in His time is the only way we’ll be able to be at peace with some of the things in our lives. So whether it is a group trying to rekindle some lost spark, or trying to rebuild a tattered relationship with a friend, sometimes, we just need to let go.
I’ve been told so many times, Ryan, maybe you can’t fix it, just let it go. Yet still I try, and still I push, I’m pretty stubborn like that. But last night I was struck by an example that was directly applicable to my life, and I said this myself, “maybe we are trying to hard to get what we want out of this, trying so hard to restore a something we’ve lost that we are actually making attaining it harder”. Considering the personal trouble I have with this I was kind of surprised that I even thought about it this way. It was an eye-opener in a way.
So, if we can’t fix it, what are we supposed to do? It’s something I’m not good at, not at all. Some things can only be fixed in one way, by letting God handle it. If something is broken, and despite your best attempts you can’t seem to get anywhere, maybe it isn’t meant to be fixed, at least not by you or not right now. God has His plan, and no matter how hard we try, we can never know better than Him, we can’t do something now if He wants it done later. Maybe He has a way for you to fix it later, or maybe He will fix it through some other method.
It’s incredibly hard, I know, I’ve suffered a lot of things because of an inability to let go and let God. But learning patience and to trust in our amazing savior to do things in His way in His time is the only way we’ll be able to be at peace with some of the things in our lives. So whether it is a group trying to rekindle some lost spark, or trying to rebuild a tattered relationship with a friend, sometimes, we just need to let go.
Suffering
Some days, I find myself wondering why God lets such suffering happen. Why people starve, and die alone and scared in parts of the world whose name I can’t pronounce, and even in those places not to far from home. But suddenly, with a simple phrase, I came to realize that God isn’t letting such suffering happen, we are. The phrase that came to me was so simple, and yet struck me extremely profoundly: God determines the situation, we determine the circumstance. I’ve heard speaking and preaching on this subject before, but never before was it so clear. God blesses some with little so that those of us who He blesses with much can share with them. What could be more blessing to someone starving than to receive help, and be brought out of starvation? What could be more of a blessing to someone who is sick than to be cured? God wants us to help each other; He created us to have a relationship with Him. Our wonderful, all powerful God who could have done anything He wanted created us and blessed us with free will so that we could be more than mere playthings, but instead so that we could seek Him. Since every man, woman, and child is created in his likeness, helping each other is building our relationship with Him. By helping others who are in need, we are providing our God with pleasure even though we may not even know it. He loves to see us acting in a way that honors Him and shows our devotion to Him. I love to see people helping each other; I love to help other people. Making another person life even a little better is more pleasurable to me than all the “things” in creation that I could have. This supreme pleasure is what makes me believe God loves to see us help one another. I cannot attribute the indescribable, overwhelming feeling of joy in my heart to anything else.
And yet, people still suffer, not because God hates them, or that God does not exist, but in fact through a lack of action on our part. We who have and want not are too comfortable with our live. We give a little here, we give a little there, but we never give our all. We are too afraid to leave the comfort of our “things”. I am not, and would never claim to be any different. I am far too comfortable with my life; I’ve grown far too much into the life I lead. Nor am I going to be pretentious enough to say I have an answer, that I have a solution for the problem. My only suggestion is that we let God into our hearts, minds, and bodies and let Him work through us. We let him use us to provide for those who need food, shelter, clothing; the list goes on and on.
In other words, God creates people and places them in various levels of need and it is our job as children and servants of the Lord to decide whether they stay there or we bring them up.
Like I said, I don’t have any ideas of any kind, this was just on my heart last night and I felt like sharing.
And yet, people still suffer, not because God hates them, or that God does not exist, but in fact through a lack of action on our part. We who have and want not are too comfortable with our live. We give a little here, we give a little there, but we never give our all. We are too afraid to leave the comfort of our “things”. I am not, and would never claim to be any different. I am far too comfortable with my life; I’ve grown far too much into the life I lead. Nor am I going to be pretentious enough to say I have an answer, that I have a solution for the problem. My only suggestion is that we let God into our hearts, minds, and bodies and let Him work through us. We let him use us to provide for those who need food, shelter, clothing; the list goes on and on.
In other words, God creates people and places them in various levels of need and it is our job as children and servants of the Lord to decide whether they stay there or we bring them up.
Like I said, I don’t have any ideas of any kind, this was just on my heart last night and I felt like sharing.
Initial Response to My Feelings on God's Existence
To Matt, it doesn’t matter whether there seems to be a need for God or not. As for His existence being improbable, what makes Him any less likely than our existence, I don’t even want to begin to fathom the sheer impossibility of the creation of the Earth as it is were it not created by God. It just isn’t very likely. There is nothing wrong with studying psychology, but to say that the study of psychology and human thought processes provides proof against the existence of God because peoples in the past have created gods to describe things they didn’t understand is irresponsible negligence at looking at all the possibilities. Just because it has been done in the past does not mean God can’t be real.
Another comment to Matt, the reason we don’t see miracles on large scale happening today is because the miracles of in the bible served a specific purpose. In the Old Testament, the miracles God performed were a way for Him to spread His word to the people because even Israelites, the favored children of God, strayed from Him, forgot about Him, and disobeyed him. It is human nature to rebel against figures of power over us, it is just a natural reaction to feeling like someone has control over us, especially when we feel in control and confident in ourselves. Today, God’s word is wide-spread and people continue to spread it every day, God has established His dominion on Earth and we as His children are tasked with spreading His word to those who don’t know of Him. Additionally, as a whole, we lack the faith that Israel showed when it was behaving. That faith is what prompted God to perform large scale miracles. Not because we asked him to. Only once in recorded history has God listened to the wishes of a man. In the book of Joshua, when Joshua is fighting the Amorites during Israelite conquest of the promised lands, he pray to God asking that the sun would stay in the sky so that the Israelites could defeat the Amorites as quickly as possible and God does it for him. You called the miracles that have were performed just stories, or visions/delusions of mentally unstable or ill people. But they are written in the bible, and as much as people can try to dispute it and its existence as the infallible word of God, the bible is a historical document. It has stood the test of time, time and time again things written in the bible have been proved as reality through science and historical studies. Such as the resurrection, people of great importance were historically buried in places of honor, and if I can think of anyone who deserves a place of honor it is Jesus, but never has his body been found. We know he existed, that is proven, but despite looking and looking no trace has been found. Also, the actions of the disciples and their willingness to serve God and die for him are historically based; we know they took place through places other than just the bible. One thing to note is how they managed to, from time to time, escape death even when it should have been a certainty. So either these figures were people who believed strongly and were willing to die for a fallacy, or they had witnessed the life and teachings of a man named Jesus who declared himself “I Am”.
Also, as for what you said “Plus, I don't think humans are so important that we have a god who created us and all these things for us, thinking our species is that important is quite selfish of us, is it not?” is not really a valid argument against His existence but, to answer it anyway, perhaps it could seem a little selfish when you look at it, but it does not provide proof for or against the existence of God. Believing in God’s existence does not inherently make one selfish, the fact that God created us as companions to love him cannot be placed on our shoulders removing the possibility of being perceived as selfish.
Belief in the nonexistence of God requires the same faith, as it is placing faith in an idea. In the same way that I believe that God exists and say it to you, you believe God does not exist and say it to me. Ultimately it is one’s own choice to decide where he lays his faith, does one choose to believe in God, or does one choose to believe God does not exist. I cannot tell you what your final choice should be. I can only say that I have made my choice, and I believe it is the correct choice. I will continue to try everything in my power to help anyone understand why I believe in God and maybe doing that will influence someone to make their choice. I can only hope to make a difference; I cannot force a difference to be made.
To Sean, so maybe what’s good for the group is good for the whole, but I don’t see the squirrels around campus running off to other places attempting to increase the living standards of their fellow impoverished squirrels. Going to an impoverished country to show God’s love to people who are in trouble and having a hard time just living by serving them and helping them does not generate any sort of immediate or direct benefit to, say, a missionary from America. Yet thousands of people travel to poor starving countries every year and continue to work to raise the life standards of the people in those countries despite the fact that it increases the hazards to their own life and lowers their standards of living, which makes no sense if everything is all about increasing the viability.
Also to Sean, to your point about suffering not necessarily being beneficial, I don’t believe God ever places more of a burden on someone than they have the means to deal with. Unfortunately many people don’t make full use of the things that God has provided for us, the people in our lives, our own inner strength provided by God, and even prayer as a direct line to God who wants to help us but wants us to seek Him, to love Him. In addition to the fact that only experiencing good would make it hard to appreciate it, the bible shows that, especially for the Israelites in the old testament, when things are good we as humans tend to stray from God. I’m not trying to say that God punishes us to keep us seeking Him. Not at all, In fact as I said, He would love to keep us safe, to protect us from all the harm. But we will never grow and learn that way. And your comment about mental disorders being just plain suffering, God has a special place in his heart for children, and because mentally handicapped individuals are child-like he cares about them even more. You say that it causes suffering for all those involved; yes people tend to experience feelings of sorrow and a sort of shared pain. I know, my step-brother is mentally handicapped and I have worked with many handicapped individuals in the past, but if you look beyond what we see, a life we consider incomplete, unlived, perhaps they have life better than people who display complete control over their mental faculties. One thing I’ve seen is that they take great pleasure even from simplest of things. To say they can’t have a complete life is to take something away from them. Unfortunately sometimes we force individuals who would perhaps be better off released to be in heaven with God to stay here on Earth because we feel that keeping them alive is more merciful than allowing them to pass on. That is a somewhat touchy subject I understand, but I believe everything has a purpose and all things are just a means to the fruition of God’s plans.
Additionally, you say don’t believe in God because I think I can prove He exists, but I believe in God because I believe He exists, and I want to let other people I know He exists and that He loves us and wants us to love Him. It would be a fallacy for me to sit quietly in my belief in God while people around me struggle and suffer without knowing or understanding the love of God. If you believed that, say, leprechauns exist, would you not try and prove to others that they exist? Saying there is no empirical evidence for the existence of God and therefore it cannot be proved goes against human thought. Perhaps there is no physical proof of God’s existence, which I beg to differ on considering I believe he created the universe and everything in it, but that’s another topic entirely; you cannot simply say QED He does not exist. The concept of gravity is very abstract, I’ve heard it used as an example before and the usual response is that we can see it working and therefore isn’t the same thing. But just because we see it happening does not mean it is a tangle thing we can touch and see as it works. It just happens, we can describe it and quantitatively describe it, but it’s still an intangible thing. I believe God moves and works in every aspect of our lives, and though I can’t see it or quantitatively describe it, I still believe that so many things in our lives are example of His work.
To any others interested in commenting or disputing I would love to hear your comments, I will try to respond to them as knowledgeably as I can.
Another comment to Matt, the reason we don’t see miracles on large scale happening today is because the miracles of in the bible served a specific purpose. In the Old Testament, the miracles God performed were a way for Him to spread His word to the people because even Israelites, the favored children of God, strayed from Him, forgot about Him, and disobeyed him. It is human nature to rebel against figures of power over us, it is just a natural reaction to feeling like someone has control over us, especially when we feel in control and confident in ourselves. Today, God’s word is wide-spread and people continue to spread it every day, God has established His dominion on Earth and we as His children are tasked with spreading His word to those who don’t know of Him. Additionally, as a whole, we lack the faith that Israel showed when it was behaving. That faith is what prompted God to perform large scale miracles. Not because we asked him to. Only once in recorded history has God listened to the wishes of a man. In the book of Joshua, when Joshua is fighting the Amorites during Israelite conquest of the promised lands, he pray to God asking that the sun would stay in the sky so that the Israelites could defeat the Amorites as quickly as possible and God does it for him. You called the miracles that have were performed just stories, or visions/delusions of mentally unstable or ill people. But they are written in the bible, and as much as people can try to dispute it and its existence as the infallible word of God, the bible is a historical document. It has stood the test of time, time and time again things written in the bible have been proved as reality through science and historical studies. Such as the resurrection, people of great importance were historically buried in places of honor, and if I can think of anyone who deserves a place of honor it is Jesus, but never has his body been found. We know he existed, that is proven, but despite looking and looking no trace has been found. Also, the actions of the disciples and their willingness to serve God and die for him are historically based; we know they took place through places other than just the bible. One thing to note is how they managed to, from time to time, escape death even when it should have been a certainty. So either these figures were people who believed strongly and were willing to die for a fallacy, or they had witnessed the life and teachings of a man named Jesus who declared himself “I Am”.
Also, as for what you said “Plus, I don't think humans are so important that we have a god who created us and all these things for us, thinking our species is that important is quite selfish of us, is it not?” is not really a valid argument against His existence but, to answer it anyway, perhaps it could seem a little selfish when you look at it, but it does not provide proof for or against the existence of God. Believing in God’s existence does not inherently make one selfish, the fact that God created us as companions to love him cannot be placed on our shoulders removing the possibility of being perceived as selfish.
Belief in the nonexistence of God requires the same faith, as it is placing faith in an idea. In the same way that I believe that God exists and say it to you, you believe God does not exist and say it to me. Ultimately it is one’s own choice to decide where he lays his faith, does one choose to believe in God, or does one choose to believe God does not exist. I cannot tell you what your final choice should be. I can only say that I have made my choice, and I believe it is the correct choice. I will continue to try everything in my power to help anyone understand why I believe in God and maybe doing that will influence someone to make their choice. I can only hope to make a difference; I cannot force a difference to be made.
To Sean, so maybe what’s good for the group is good for the whole, but I don’t see the squirrels around campus running off to other places attempting to increase the living standards of their fellow impoverished squirrels. Going to an impoverished country to show God’s love to people who are in trouble and having a hard time just living by serving them and helping them does not generate any sort of immediate or direct benefit to, say, a missionary from America. Yet thousands of people travel to poor starving countries every year and continue to work to raise the life standards of the people in those countries despite the fact that it increases the hazards to their own life and lowers their standards of living, which makes no sense if everything is all about increasing the viability.
Also to Sean, to your point about suffering not necessarily being beneficial, I don’t believe God ever places more of a burden on someone than they have the means to deal with. Unfortunately many people don’t make full use of the things that God has provided for us, the people in our lives, our own inner strength provided by God, and even prayer as a direct line to God who wants to help us but wants us to seek Him, to love Him. In addition to the fact that only experiencing good would make it hard to appreciate it, the bible shows that, especially for the Israelites in the old testament, when things are good we as humans tend to stray from God. I’m not trying to say that God punishes us to keep us seeking Him. Not at all, In fact as I said, He would love to keep us safe, to protect us from all the harm. But we will never grow and learn that way. And your comment about mental disorders being just plain suffering, God has a special place in his heart for children, and because mentally handicapped individuals are child-like he cares about them even more. You say that it causes suffering for all those involved; yes people tend to experience feelings of sorrow and a sort of shared pain. I know, my step-brother is mentally handicapped and I have worked with many handicapped individuals in the past, but if you look beyond what we see, a life we consider incomplete, unlived, perhaps they have life better than people who display complete control over their mental faculties. One thing I’ve seen is that they take great pleasure even from simplest of things. To say they can’t have a complete life is to take something away from them. Unfortunately sometimes we force individuals who would perhaps be better off released to be in heaven with God to stay here on Earth because we feel that keeping them alive is more merciful than allowing them to pass on. That is a somewhat touchy subject I understand, but I believe everything has a purpose and all things are just a means to the fruition of God’s plans.
Additionally, you say don’t believe in God because I think I can prove He exists, but I believe in God because I believe He exists, and I want to let other people I know He exists and that He loves us and wants us to love Him. It would be a fallacy for me to sit quietly in my belief in God while people around me struggle and suffer without knowing or understanding the love of God. If you believed that, say, leprechauns exist, would you not try and prove to others that they exist? Saying there is no empirical evidence for the existence of God and therefore it cannot be proved goes against human thought. Perhaps there is no physical proof of God’s existence, which I beg to differ on considering I believe he created the universe and everything in it, but that’s another topic entirely; you cannot simply say QED He does not exist. The concept of gravity is very abstract, I’ve heard it used as an example before and the usual response is that we can see it working and therefore isn’t the same thing. But just because we see it happening does not mean it is a tangle thing we can touch and see as it works. It just happens, we can describe it and quantitatively describe it, but it’s still an intangible thing. I believe God moves and works in every aspect of our lives, and though I can’t see it or quantitatively describe it, I still believe that so many things in our lives are example of His work.
To any others interested in commenting or disputing I would love to hear your comments, I will try to respond to them as knowledgeably as I can.
My feelings on the existence of God, at almost 2am...
I've heard a lot lately about how people don't believe in God because there is no proof, or that bad things happen so God can't exist because He is supposed to be all powerful and all loving and he doesn't stop pain from happening. I honestly believe anyone who says there is no proof of God has their eyes closed. I see God in every person I meet. Every smile I see, every tear that falls, every feeling of love and care I feel. I know God is there when I am given the chance to comfort, when I'm given the chance to serve. God could fulfill all of our needs and yet I love the fact that God lets us do things for ourselves. I see God in the wonders of the world around me.
I do not believe that existence as it is here on Earth was some random accident where exactly the right specifications for life just managed to all fall together so as to allow life here on Earth. I do not honestly believe that there is a simple biological explanation for true love. Lust is a strong attraction based in biological signals that occur when we see something we find attractive, but the kind of love that creates a lasting relationship where two people get married and are together for their entire lives is built on something so much deeper. Love is of God, because he loves us we have the capacity to love. One thing I like to say is what would be the point of so many of the emotions we have if our only purpose was to ensure the continuance of our biological line. Not to say we don't feel some imperative to reproduce that is driven by biological signals. But love would have no place as love should be. Nor would the sincere compassion that people should and do feel for each other. Some people get hurt and so they fail to develop the group compassion but for the most part all people care for other people. All people may not care about every other person but caring for so many people makes no sense if we served no other purpose than to reproduce.
As for bad things happening, God has the power to keep us from harm, and His original plan for us did not include any kind of pain, but because we are human and imperfect we messed up, and we hurt God, he wanted us to love Him, and we scorned Him by ignoring Him and eating of the tree of knowledge, we allowed the serpent to corrupt us. God could step in at any time and stop all pain, but why doesn't he? A lot of people who dispute God's existence ask that question. They wonder why He allows us to be hurt and experience loss. If you never experienced anything bad would you have any idea that you were experiencing good?
Imagine for a moment that you are a parent, such as God is our father, you have a child who you love with all your heart and you are teaching them how to ride a bike. Now, you are holding the bike up and it is in your power to keep them from falling from the bike. Now, you can go on holding the bike forever, keeping them from getting hurt. But what are they learning, will they ever ride the bike for themselves? No. So, what do you do, do you go on holding on the the bike forever? Or do you let them go and watch them fall and get hurt despite the fact that it tears at your heart to see it happen? I would love to hold onto the bike forever, to keep my child close and unharmed, but I know I'm keeping them from growing and learning if I do so, and so I release the bike with much reluctance and when they fall I help them up, comfort them, and help them try again. I guess in short I'm just trying to say that God is there, He loves you, and he wants you to love Him.
I do not believe that existence as it is here on Earth was some random accident where exactly the right specifications for life just managed to all fall together so as to allow life here on Earth. I do not honestly believe that there is a simple biological explanation for true love. Lust is a strong attraction based in biological signals that occur when we see something we find attractive, but the kind of love that creates a lasting relationship where two people get married and are together for their entire lives is built on something so much deeper. Love is of God, because he loves us we have the capacity to love. One thing I like to say is what would be the point of so many of the emotions we have if our only purpose was to ensure the continuance of our biological line. Not to say we don't feel some imperative to reproduce that is driven by biological signals. But love would have no place as love should be. Nor would the sincere compassion that people should and do feel for each other. Some people get hurt and so they fail to develop the group compassion but for the most part all people care for other people. All people may not care about every other person but caring for so many people makes no sense if we served no other purpose than to reproduce.
As for bad things happening, God has the power to keep us from harm, and His original plan for us did not include any kind of pain, but because we are human and imperfect we messed up, and we hurt God, he wanted us to love Him, and we scorned Him by ignoring Him and eating of the tree of knowledge, we allowed the serpent to corrupt us. God could step in at any time and stop all pain, but why doesn't he? A lot of people who dispute God's existence ask that question. They wonder why He allows us to be hurt and experience loss. If you never experienced anything bad would you have any idea that you were experiencing good?
Imagine for a moment that you are a parent, such as God is our father, you have a child who you love with all your heart and you are teaching them how to ride a bike. Now, you are holding the bike up and it is in your power to keep them from falling from the bike. Now, you can go on holding the bike forever, keeping them from getting hurt. But what are they learning, will they ever ride the bike for themselves? No. So, what do you do, do you go on holding on the the bike forever? Or do you let them go and watch them fall and get hurt despite the fact that it tears at your heart to see it happen? I would love to hold onto the bike forever, to keep my child close and unharmed, but I know I'm keeping them from growing and learning if I do so, and so I release the bike with much reluctance and when they fall I help them up, comfort them, and help them try again. I guess in short I'm just trying to say that God is there, He loves you, and he wants you to love Him.
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