Anybody Ever Feel Like This?

[2nd Timothy Group]

So what should I do when I feel that way then?

Well . . . it may seem incredibly simple, but I have reprogrammed my mind by simply saying out loud the things that need to be changed. For example, I'm pretty sure that my old neighbors heard me yelling at "fear" to get out of my life, that "I don't play that game anymore!" - I used to get that nervous twinge in my stomach, you know it . . . the kind you get before you get up in front of the class and give a lame speech. Yeah, those! I used to get those maybe 300 times per day. I literally lived in fear, but really had a hard time figuring that out. So as said, I would literally just start yelling at emotions, such as fear, shame, and guilt until my brain finally woke up and realized that I wasn't going to stop.

Conquering certain feelings doesn't necessarily happen overnight. It took several months for me to really get anywhere noticeable with yelling fear out of my life . . . but I was persistent. I didn't stop, Rose! I was lucky, for it seems that for the first time in my life, I didn't give up. Now approaching my mid-fifties, I can see that retraining the mind really does work, providing that we believe it will work. And believe me; I was in a bad way for many years of my life . . . seeming to be consumed with self-hatred, hatred for myself that others wanted me to feel. For 16 combined years, I would say, I didn't want to be alive. I wouldn't say that I was suicidal, but more, I just didn't want to live if life were going to be as it was.

But God found me, and after He found me in the most profound of ways, I could see that I was going to have to take all things more seriously. Thank God He woke me up! And so my Transformation began . . . and know that it was slow. I didn't have a church home to go to, nor any friends to turn to . . . so many of my previous sins remained, but God wouldn't allow me to continue to live the way I was, so my life events began to fall into His will, and there is nothing I can do about it. Fortunately for me, the Lord has rendered my life so incredibly unmanageable (right now), that I have absolutely no option but to depend upon Him and none other. So . . . my life is controlled by the Spirit and I am learning to just go with the flow, which is easy, now having been able to conquer the harshest part of "fear."

Another thing that you can do, is read the entire Bible in a timeline, chronological order if you haven't already. When you see how the Lord has this unbelievable Plan, and should He lay that Plan before your very eyes, this Plan will be enough to convince you that it is impossible that any human could write the Bible without His direction and Holy Guidance . . . let alone many, many authors combined. For one person to lay it all out and make it fit would be nearly impossible, but for this story to remain consistent, but also across many different human writers . . . is absolutely staggering. In other words, I consider the Bible, on its own merits, enough to convince me of my Faith.

I have never been so miserable, nor have I ever lost so much . . . yet I know my God and that He Knows me. I am comforted in knowing that whatever happens to me . . . He is fully aware of it, even if includes my time of death. It's all good!

 

[April_Rose]

This is the second time that I'm reading through the whole entire Bible actually.

 

[2nd Timothy Group]

I agree with OP here. I think it's entirely wrong to imply or insinuate that OP has not earnestly sought God and honestly and openly "knocked on the door" or that she was not serious and I think there's a dangerous tendency you have there to suggest you know how God thinks and will act in relation to people knocking on that door. The Bible is VERY VERY clear on this. If you seek, you WILL find, if you knock the door WILL be opened. There are numerous verses that could be quoted but there is little point. This is so fundamental to the doctrine.




Again you are "leading the witness" here so to speak. You again make implications, assertions that OP is living in fear or shame.

I never ignore my brain nor attempt to "retrain" it or force it to believe something that it is not happy with or clear about. I believe my intelligence, rationality, and ability to think and reason are innate qualities and to deny them is to deny one's self. If there are doubts or questions or any kind of uneasiness then it is invariably because our reasoning has a conflict, invariably because something doesn't stack up right in either what I believe or what I have been taught vs the reality of the world around me. Only by listening to those warnings in the brain can we confront openly and honestly the unresolved issues and close them and move forward. To ignore or deny them or compartmentalize them is to live a lie and that will create worse problems down the line.




Every person's faith and relationship with their God is surely unique and personal. Establishing a faith in God on the basis that others have one or that others claim to have had visitations or other "special treatment" is not the way IMO. Either there is a personal connection or there is not. If there isn't then we need to reassess what we thought we knew, what the Bible says, and work out why. Either we are doing something wrong or what we thought was the truth is in fact wrong.




Definitely this.

Thanks for chewing me out! May the Lord Bless you richly.

 

[2nd Timothy Group]

This is the second time that I'm reading through the whole entire Bible actually.

Nice! For the first fifty years of my life, I hadn't ever read the entire Old Testament, yet I used to call myself a "master" of certain doctrines. I was pretty pathetic. Now . . . I'm happy with the position that God has clearly given me, and it's simple: "I do not require you." And it's True.

 

[April_Rose]

Thanks for chewing me out! May the Lord Bless you richly.

Umm,.. I wasn't under the impression that that's what they were doing.

 

[2nd Timothy Group]

Umm,.. I wasn't under the impression that that's what they were doing.

That's cool, but if they were, that's fine with me. I'm ok.

 

[April_Rose]

That's cool, but if they were, that's fine with me. I'm ok.

Why did this song pop into my head all of a sudden when I read that comment? Boy,.. that girl has lung power.

 

[2nd Timothy Group]

Why did this song pop into my head all of a sudden when I read that comment? Boy,.. that girl has lung power.

I could sing like that for about five seconds. lol

 

[2nd Timothy Group]

Why did this song pop into my head all of a sudden when I read that comment? Boy,.. that girl has lung power.

By the way . . . I totally believe in you.

 

[Tone]

been feeling like if I start to doubt even just a little bit God's still going to condemn me no matter what.

He won't condemn you, though He may ask you "Why?".


Matthew 14
"30But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and took hold of Peter. “You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?”


Love ya sis., shabbat shalom!

 

[April_Rose]

I could sing like that for about five seconds. lol

The only way I could sing like that is if somebody kicked me in the privates. XD

 

[2nd Timothy Group]

The only way I could sing like that is if somebody kicked me in the privates. XD

Bwahahaha . . . pretty much.

 

[Rudometkin]

Scripture speaks of doubt like it is opposite of faith. Beware of sugar-coated articles trying to make people feel better about their unbelief. Consider these Scriptures, then live on continuously looking unto Christ. Rest in Christ.

Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Matthew 7:21
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

John 6:40
For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.

Mark 9:24
And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

Romans 14:23
And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because [he eateth] not of faith: for whatsoever [is] not of faith is sin.

Hebrews 12:2
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Look unto Jesus.

 

[ThePuffyBlob]

Anybody Ever Feel Like This?

What if He isn't real?" "I can't see Him or touch Him and I've never been to Heaven so what if this life is all there is?"

i do but not the same way as you do what if God is real but the bible is not i know this thing is called "doubt" and i know almost all of the people doubt

 

[quietthinker]

Yes I skimmed it but it was sort of long to read and I have trouble reading and understanding a lot of words.

Read Gideons thread A_R....make the effort. There's a very high chance it'll answer your doubts and fears and questions. Soooo, get your finger out and don't make excuses.

 

[Michael1985]

As much as I love Jesus Christ and long to serve Him the rest of my days here on earth and want to spend eternity with Him I still have these same thoughts sometimes. "What if He isn't real?" "I can't see Him or touch Him and I've never been to Heaven so what if this life is all there is?" "What if He sees me doubting Him and I can't be with Him in Heaven then?" These thoughts bother me and upset me so much that I finally saw this article and I felt a little bit better. Anyways, anybody else here ever feel like you won't have enough faith to get into Heaven? Cause I already know that if I wasn't saved, I wouldn't be so worried about my salvation, but I have nearly made myself sick about this before when I have these worrisome thoughts. Sometimes I'm even afraid of losing my faith.




Bible Q&A: What's the Difference Between Doubt and Unbelief? | Unlocking the Bible

I'm like this all the time. Despite identifying as a believer, I also have a signficant agnostic side who even goes so far as to be offended when anyone of any religious persuasion or lack thereof claims to "know" that their faith or non-faith is correct. There's a difference between faith or belief and something that can be considered objective fact, and I'm sorry, but the mere depth and sincercity of one's conviction does not magically transform the former into the latter. I'm often reminded of a news story from about fifteen years ago when CNN sent Anderson Cooper down to Miami to cover Fidel Castro's resignation. Viewers could hear an older woman wailing in the background. "He's dead! I know he's dead because...I think he's dead!" I think, therefore I know. It doesn't work that way logically, and at the end of the day, that is all any one of us has as to what faith and what eternity or not we face regardless of being Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or believing in the Flying Spaghetti Monster or no faith at all.

As for how it affects me personally, I'd just rather err on the side of having faith rather than none at all. The non-believer if wrong is damned for eternity if wrong regardless of what faith ends up being correct. I still though have plenty of doubt, and have long ago accepted the uncomfortable possibility that this may be all there is, even though the notion scares me as much as it does for you.

 

[April_Rose]

I'm like this all the time. Despite identifying as a believer, I also have a signficant agnostic side who even goes so far as to be offended when anyone of any religious persuasion or lack thereof claims to "know" that their faith or non-faith is correct. There's a difference between faith or belief and something that can be considered objective fact, and I'm sorry, but the mere depth and sincercity of one's conviction does not magically transform the former into the latter. I'm often reminded of a news story from about fifteen years ago when CNN sent Anderson Cooper down to Miami to cover Fidel Castro's resignation. Viewers could hear an older woman wailing in the background. "He's dead! I know he's dead because...I think he's dead!" I think, therefore I know. It doesn't work that way logically, and at the end of the day, that is all any one of us has as to what faith and what eternity or not we face regardless of being Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or believing in the Flying Spaghetti Monster or no faith at all.

As for how it affects me personally, I'd just rather err on the side of having faith rather than none at all. The non-believer if wrong is damned for eternity if wrong regardless of what faith ends up being correct. I still though have plenty of doubt, and have long ago accepted the uncomfortable possibility that this may be all there is, even though the notion scares me as much as it does for you.

I guess there is a difference between saying "I believe but I do not know" versus "I do not believe and I don't wish to know" as belief is the only thing that is required for guaranteed eternal salvation.

 

[DNB]

He has made Himself real to me before but yet still I doubt and probably because of the fact that I've been exposed to things like the big bang theory in school and that's where the doubts in the back of my mind come from. Now, deep down I do not believe for a second that everything in the world today was made from one big old fart in the universe and that everything came from nothing because that sounds absolutely absurd.

Also, if we evolved out of chimpanzees then why isn't that still happening? However, I do believe that Adam and Eve could have looked more like cavemen and we've evolved since then and God caused the big bang, but surprisingly enough there are people who believe that it happened by itself. At least I know I have more faith in Christ than to believe all that nonsense.

Don't make it into a physical or material issue, AR. The conviction of what God has ordained in Jesus Christ is derived from understanding the wisdom behind it. If you argue from a secular point of view, you will always get mesmerized by esoteric arguments that deviate from the real and veritable issue at hand - the spirit of man. There is a spiritual warfare at hand that is clearly demonstrated by the anthropology of humans - man has always acted throughout history, contrary and in defiance to his God-given capacity for intelligence. Jesus Christ addresses this self-evident axiom.

Man is created in God's image, and there is not a biologist or physicist in the world that can prove otherwise. No other creature on earth has the moral or spiritual, faculties or dimension to their constitution, as man does. You'll never see a Buddhist cat or Hindu dog, or a camel with a burka on its head. The notion of sin and repentance defies all materialistic and secular views of the beginnings and purpose of the universe.

Point is AR, your faith lies in hope of salvation, keep it at that level. Don't get caught up in shallow and misguided discussions on our biological make-up, or the earth's. These arguments will always stray into an area that God has decided to not divulge entirely, and therefore will dishearten even the once most faithful.