Could use some advice...

[howdy]

I'm fairly new to Christianity, I feel a thirst for the Word and for Truth, Wisdom, and Knowledge but I start to get lost if I stay away from the Bible or this webpage for long. Is this normal for a newbee? I felt amazing yesterday and so uplifted and changed but as the day went on it started to decline, why does that have to happen. I will read the bible everyday and pray everyday but should it be like I'm underwater searching for air? Shouldn't I be able to hold by breath for longer than 8 hours? I work 40 hours a week, I go to school full time, I have an internship and I'm a full time single mom. I feel like I need to quit my job in order to stay afloat with christianity right now. Perhaps I'm being a bit dramatic, I tend to do that, but this does get easier right? Perhaps I have too many negative influences that I hold too dear to me that are weighing me down and taking my oxygen. That's probably it isn't it. I was fine when I was alone and then I went to work with all of my non-christian friends and the more I interacted with them the more I started to slide. I tried to stay internal yeasterday to hold onto all of my feelings I just love my coworkers so much that it's hard to not interact with them. Opinions???

[howdy]

I'm sorry, I don't mean to be a complainer, boo hoo I found Jesus and it can be hard sometimes!! It's not like that, I guess this just came about because I have to write 5 essays today and I go to work in an hour and only have 2 completed. I have spent all day filling myself of the word and love of jesus and for that I am so so thankful. Why do we need to sleep? I could get so much done if I could kick this whole sleeping habit

[aspen]

Being a new Christian is like falling in love. Enjoy the ride, because like all new relationships, the euphoric feelings will not last forever and should never be used to assess the quality of your relationship with Christ.

If you feel the feelings of euphoria waning, just know that you are maturing and like all other relationships, long term emotions kick in.

Welcome to the Body of Christ!

[SpiritusSanctii]

May I ask what made you go into Christianity?

[imoss]

I understand where you are coming from, I experienced many of the same things when I first came to Christ. No I dont recommend that you give up your old friends. I do recommend that you pray for them and when you are going to see them pray for the "right" words for them if the Lord wills it. Dont push your faith on them, no worries though cause you've been transformed from within. What I found was the more i'd do to grieve the Holy Spirit within me, the more I'd feel detached. I no longer spend alot of time with my "old" friends as we dont have alot in common anymore but I do still see them. It seems when I go to a party hosted by my old friends that I do things that dont glorify the Lord and then i'm mad at myself & cry out to the Lord LORD WHY did I do that, that they might consider Christians a hypocrite or a liar. (laugh at a bad joke that you really dont find funny... say that bad word you dont say anymore) Anyway do pray for a Christian friend too someone who relates to this part of your life. My son (6 or 7 at the time) described the Holy Spirit as a brick wall that is between you and the bad things you want to do. it stops you for a second but you can decide to go over or around the wall & still sin. I took this one step farther... In my opinion every time we willingly go over that wall we break it down a little. It never disappears but soon its hardly even noticable. Everytime we honor God and stop before the wall and change our mind and decide not to sin, it builds up the wall and makes it a tich easier to do the right thing the next time. These are not professional opinions, just the opinion of a mom and her young son. They make sence to me though. Yes you can be with your friends without going over the wall, it will just be hard is all. Also, when you are new to Christ, satan wants you back. He didnt pay much attention to you before but life gets a little hard. There is a spiritual realm as well as what we see so we need to arm ourselves as outlined in Ephesians 6:14 I think. Pray for understanding & read it, its the armor of God & we are blessed for this instruction. Bless your heart as you grow in the Lord.

[howdy]

Spiritus, you asked what made me decide to go into Christianity. Well, I was a Christian many years ago and it was the happiest time in my life. I had no worries because I placed them all on God, I had no fears or uncertainties. I knew that He had a path for me and I knew that He wouldn't leave me. I was so unbelievably happy in all aspects of my life. I actually felt complete for once. Well, I made some bad decisions and I got lost. I lost years of my life that way. It's been a really hard struggle to get back, I'm still not back where I once was, all in good time though.

[howdy]

imoss, thanks for your comment. I really love the brick wall example, I'll probably never forget that. I feel as if you know exactly what I'm going through. I am involved in conversations and jokes that I shouldn't be involved in and it does wear me down after a while. I feel like I'm on such a fine line right now that I could go either way, I feel weak. I wish I could just take a week off and go off by myself somewhere, I feel like I need to be stronger if I'm going to grow and not slip back down. Thank you so much for your post, good to know that someone out there understands

[imoss]

I've found now that what i do when the take the Lords name is say a silent prayer for them that God might convict them of these words. In the jokes that we hear or the bad talk I think if they feel judged by us that is wrong. They should feel loved and prayed for but also that their joke makes us uncomfortable. My fav saying is eieiei. so I smile & kinda grimace and go EIEIEI. I always use the oportunity when they post trials on facebook or tell me about stuff to pray and ask if I can pray for them first. It gives your prayers so much more power if the recipiant has agreed or asked for prayer. I gotta tell you the first 10 years of my walk were about breaking down my love of Man & seeking the approval of man & replacing it with reliance on the Lord in EVERYTHING. They will see you as a beacon of light. Its crazy these days, bad has become good & good is bad, some will accept your faith and others will reject you because of it. Your true friends will be there regardless & those who persecute you because of your faith, seriously you can do without seeing a whole lot of. just pray for them & I will keep you in my prayers to listen to the Holy Spirit and grow in grace! Bless your heart.

[loveschild]

Thank God for your thirst of Gods word. Pray for it never to go away. You are being filled and thats a good thing. The Holy Spirit is leading you and pulling you to his word.

[VW]

pray, and ask god to fill you with the holy spirit, and believe that he will. you will enter into the richest relationship you will ever have.

[loveschild]

IMOSS who are those pretty babies?

[kujo313]

Until you can do the things in Christianity you WANT to do, turn on your favorite Praise and Worship music and ROCK!

Never a dull moment there.

[imoss]

I got the pic off the net, I'm a hab's fan (red hockey baby) & they've rivaled the leafs (blue) for 1/2 a century at least! Both canadian hockey teams. (of course lol)

[Dmurray]

Originally Posted by imoss

I got the pic off the net, I'm a hab's fan (red hockey baby) & they've rivaled the leafs (blue) for 1/2 a century at least! Both canadian hockey teams. (of course lol)

Booo HABS! Go LEafs! haha Offtopic but had to be said But this is really great.

The past 2 weeks I've been down spiritually falling into sin time and time after again and wondering, why do I do it? Everytime I did it I felt farther from God. BUt a couple of good services at church, getting back to reading the word, and talking to my Pastor really helped. I'm on my way back. I think part of it was that I got too far ahead of myself, like too self righteous I guess is how I could put it. And God was like whoa whoa what r u doing? And kind of knocked me back a little too. So I just need to learn to be led by the Spirit more, and to learn to hear his words.

God Bless.

I know how you feel Howdy, my Husband goes to a job everyday that is like your work/school with non-christian people always trying to get you to join in with their sinful activities. He tries a different aspect on them---When they start cursing, he starts singing or quoting the word. When they start telling bad jokes or stories, he tells them he can't listen to that and when they get done that he's got a joke or story for them that will knock their socks off. Well, they want to know what can be so awesome and ask. 'what is ya story/joke'? He lets them have something God would be proud of and they usually stand there lookin all bored-but you know what? They stop telling him trash and try to be a (little) more respectful around him. I call it throwing seeds at the wall, lol, maybe one of those seeds will stick in one of those little holes you see in the concrete wall.

[loveschild]

IMOSS I thought you were going to say your kids or grandbabies. Ok I see. Have fun!