So Lost...

I have never felt as lost as I do today, financial issues, personal issues, just all of it.
I'm drowning, although I keep telling myself that faith and prayer is the only thing that will work.

The problem is 'reality' and its staring me in the face, and my reality tells me God only helps those who helps themselves. Handouts is not God's way of helping, and right now, in all honesty I need a handout, because working my fingers to the bone month in and month out does not help, making plans to pay debtors and hoping by some miracle that I'll catch up somehow, is a lie from hell. I won't, not ever. Its not getting any better, and God's never exactly helped me either. Occasionally, maybe there's a little bit of rope just enough to pull you up out of drifting sand... but never enough to completely pull you out.

If God is so mighty, and if he loves His children so much... why doesn't He help?

Just today I was reminded of Matthew 7:11 - I had to get my son a suit for his school dance, and although I had very little money left, I got it for him, because I love him and I want him to be happy... where does Matt 7:11 apply now? Nowhere... absolutely nowhere. I'm angry, lost, crying for answers and some resolve.. some bloody hope .... and it makes no difference, because tomorrow when I wake up, I will still not have enough to pay my debtors, or my sons school fees, I will still worry where I will get enough to pay for my youngest son's extra classes after he failed his grade being ADD, I will still worry how I'm going to pay back the MRI scan for my husband, and worry how I'm going to pay back the money I borrowed from my brother.... because you know what....? My heavenly Father does work on handouts - He sits and watches while you learn life's lessons, He's not interested in helping, just in teaching.

Wow sounds like you have tons of burdens upon you...you know folks here will pray with you, and I hope encourage you. Maybe God will give some answers in the next few days for you

I'm not putting my hopes up ... just ... needed to tell it how I see it and how I feel....

I understand...and its hard to see that God is always faithful when things seem so wrong... but yet He is
Is your husband a believer? does he pray as well?

Sometimes God uses hard situations to draw us closer to Him. The phrase God helps those who help themselves is no where found in the Bible and really we should not even think like that as we are incapable of helping ourselves in any way when it comes to salvation. Also the phrase is a works based phrase in my opinion.....

The reality is cast all your burdens on the Lord for He cares for you. Pour out your heart to Him just as you have done here on CC and lay these burdens down at His feet. Life is hard and we do sometimes wonder where the next dollar will come from when situations are tight. I found this last year that when I was at the end of my rope and laid the burden down and left it with God that He picked it up and solved the problems for me on more than one occasion. God wants us to get to the place where we totally depend on Him. I don't know about you but I am not quite there yet and so trials keep popping up and I need God to solve that too. He wants us to totally trust and have faith in Him.

Praying that God will meet your needs and that you and your family will let go and lean, trust and give every burden to God and things will work out for the best for you and your family.

He's up and down ...

I don't know... I just feel hopeless.

I don't know clay how to help but to say God has never failed me, even when it looked pretty bad. But I tried to have a faith that said, if God is not real and faithful I don't want to be alive anyway...I want to know if God will keep His promises to me! When things got hard I put all my trust in Him...and He came through, now my faith is a faith that has been tested in the fire and I can tell you that God is faithful.

Praying for you sis, you are my friend and it is hard right now but you are here with good ppl that will stand with you so you arent alone

You're always in the shadow of the cross no matter where you're at. If you're in a season of earthly prosperity, the cross is there. If you're in a season of non-stop pain, anguish and despair, the cross is there.

You may ask, "So what? What good does that do me if God isn't helping?"

The shadow of the cross reminds us of the cross.
Looking from the shadow cast from the cross, to the cross reminds us there is a God who loves us.
Knowing there is a God who gave us a gift greater than a check, or an earthly provision gives us strength for the times we don't seem to sense an earthly provision.

The gift of the shadow of the cross is a much more significant gift than any earthly provision God will ever provide.
Yes that may seem like a trite canned christianese cliche statement.
Regardless, that is the truth.
Knowing the significance of this gift gives us strength when the earthly provisions seem eerily absent.

Sometimes the greatest gift and provision we can be given is the peace that comes from knowing we're in the shadow of the greatest provision ever given by God. We get a peace that surpasses understanding, knowing that nothing can separate us from that love.

The provision given is peace, and knowing nothing can separate us from God's love.

I have been where you have been - but with different circumstances. The only thing that helped was changing my perspective. After you have poured out your heart before the Lord (and do so with your mouth so your feelings can be expressed), begin by giving thanks for what you can all the time. Thank Him for the health of your son, yourself - anyone around you. Thank him for the few dollars you have. Thank him for the fact that you can breath. Thank him that your arm does not hurt, etc.

What happens is that you are doing a very good thing in "entering his courts with praise", and you have opened many doors for him to work. What did Jesus do with just a very few fish and a loaf of bread that was not enough to go around? He only gave thanks for the little he had. And God made a miracle happen.

When you begin to give thanks for the "little", it sanctifies it and God will use it to meet your needs. You will begin to see His hand at work in your life.

I so feel for you. I had to learn how to go through these struggles. And what I'm telling you worked for me. You have nothing to lose. Last week my husband had two strokes and a heart operation. All I did was continue to thank God that He was working (even though I could not see it). That is faith and God honored that faith. All is well now. But I never stopped praising Him for what I could. I even thanked God for every kind thing done to him while he was in the hospital.

God inhabits the praises of His people. Which means that he is active in your life when you do.

I pray that you will discover the strength and power you have within you to give praise when all else seems to be falling down around you.

Mitspa said it well when he said our faith is tested in the fire. I pray that you will come out of this with testimonies of your own as to how God worked in your life.

It only takes one night with King to change the entire world and your life. You could encounter that night tomorrow or next month or whatever, but when it comes it will impact your very being. So, we should hold fast to our faith and believe change is coming if that is what we need. The moments when we feel weakest is when we should strengthen our faith the most because the Lord will see our discipline and reward us for it. When we are at our lowest, satan loves to attack us because he knows if we hold fast at this time that there is nothing he can do to break us or shake us.

Lord we pray to you, for thepottersclay, please remove every bondages, and stumbling blocks in her life. and bless her as she needs your blessing. Lord you are a merciful Lord have your mercy upon her , in Jesus name, Amen!

"If God is so mighty, and if he loves His children so much... why doesn't He help?"

what more would you ask him to do? he provided everything through his son yahshua before the world was ever created,
everything needed for life on this earth and for eternal life; all in , by, and through yahshua hamashiach(jesus messiah king savior).....

men keep messing up. men keep hurting each other and others. men keep forbidding even seeking the kingdom of heaven, and forbidding living the way yahweh says to live, because their deeds are evil and they love the darkness instead of the light. that's where the trouble is. not in what yahweh has provided and accomplished and accomplishes in yahshua.

in the few places where the ekklesia are working in christ jesus the way yahweh and his word say to, theirs is joy, and peace, and righteousness, and life abundantly and without any fear or doubt or worry.

God your words says , where does my help come from, my help comes from the lord the maker of heaven and earth (Ps 121:1-2). Your daughter yields to you and i pray that you send forth your blessing on her and her entire family . God you provide for the birds and other living things and how much more important are we than them. Everyday she has to make decisions and choice for her and her family and that affects her life , i pray that you help her to make the right decisions for your name sake .Lord you deserve all the glory ,we make this pray in the precious name of JESUS. Amen!

I'm praying.

Hello my sister........I have been at times in my life where I felt this way........and God always came through......I have seen His Work....and I can tell you this .......He is in control..........and He
will not let you fall.....no matter what things look like......no matter what people say.....He
is there working on this.......His is lining you up....... and getting things in order........our words
have power......when we speak we claim our day.....when I awake I say thank you God for making this day the best day ever.....and I always have a good day......when I wake and I say.....uuhhh I'm so tired...I just know nobody at work is gonna act right.......that too will surely happen......you have been
giving the opportunity to receive more faith....to show God you are with Him through the good and the bad........when times are good...we praise Him and say.....my God is an awesome God.......when trials come......we say.....where did God go......He doesn't hear me.....we panic ....and leave ourselfs open for attacks from the enemy....but if we stand firm and trust God has been there all along and we have nothing to fear....the devil gives up.....he runs ....can you show God you trust Him ....if you can......
amazing things will happen to you too......I'm here for you...pm me....may peace and love find you soon....jo

Thank you for all the worlds of encouragement. I appreciate it. I am honestly trying to just think more positive, but the looming circumstances and the fact that I won't be able to sign a new lease is ever so present. Please think of me in prayer.

Hi Potter, in times like these we feel down and humiliated and we either get closer to God or we blame God. I know, I was there before. The problem with blaming God is we feel so guilty afterwards that it usually takes a long time to recover that relationship.

The word teaches us that we will not be tested with circumstances God feel we can’t handle… so the greater the tribulation the more blessed we should feel because we know God trust us that much. I know it hurts, and I trust God to answer this desperate call from one of His children. Don’t lose hope and keep the faith.

Let me share my wife’s testimony with you and maybe it will comfort you in this time of need. We made an offer to purchase a house a few years ago. While walking through the house my wife prayed and said to God that if it is our house the people should accept our offer but God should also protect us and provide us with future finance to change things around the house. That evening the estate agent phoned us and told us that our offer was the lowest amount and that the owners accepted a higher offer. My wife was sad and angry with God and sulked for a day or two. After about two days she repented and asked God for forgiveness and said to God that she is calm and knows that there is a reason why we didn’t get the house. The same day the estate agent phoned my wife and told her that due to circumstances the owners will accept our offer and we purchased the property. By the grace of God we purchased the house and never had one incident of crime, and God provided us with funding to build what she wished for.

God’s time is normally not our time. We get so caught up in our circumstances that we lose focus on our source, which is not the banks or our employers. We must trust God.

Abba Father thank you for grace and understanding today. Lord we pray your blessing over our sister in Christ and we ask that you will calm her down in this storm of circumstances she is in. Lord we confess this morning that you are YHWH Yireh – God our provider, and we will focus on you and not the circumstances we find ourselves in. Thank you Lord for your protection, Amen

It's no wonder you feel wore out Sis! You're a helper, a weaker vessel, your husband should be the spiritual leader in the house. This alone is one of main causes of your fatigue, when the husband is in backslide, it is a very hard burden for the wife to bear the whole house on her back. When you are put into spiritual leadership position and when it's just you pulling the spiritual yoke, he is not in prayer for the whole household as he should, of course it is harder on you, you feel exhausted, lose hope, feel that your faith is plummeting. You can get strengthened but you need to make at least a bit of time in God's presence and listen to/meditate on His Word and do prayer warfare on his behalf until God establishes your husband where he should be. This whole situation might easily be purposed not to make your life hard, but because God wants YOUR HUSBAND to sincerely and without reserves turn to God and finally commit his life to Him...

Try to find at least a little time to spend with God, at least in bed for short morning and evening prayer, it will help you and lift you up throughout your day. Write some favorite verses that mean to you and lift your spirit up and put them on prominent places in the house, at your desk, at the mirror and so forth. Praying that you are encouraged in this situation and know His presence. Praying for you and him both to draw nearer to God. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God... there are free audiobooks from the Bible on Youtube... play them as you do chores, put them into your mp3 player while on the go if you dont have the time to sit down and listen. Psalms are especially good to lift up a crushed spirit.

Believe me I know at least part of what you feel... scrambling financially for several years. Actually, since I came to Jesus, I almost instantly became poor. I wont get into details because I'm not speaking this to complain or invalidate your distress but to comfort you so you know this post comes from someone who is in the same boat. Still we have roof above our heads. God did work here amazingly in many ways and has His purposes throughout this whole struggle. I've seen some of God's plan with this, but not yet to the full. Sometimes we dont see God's purpose with a trial until the trial is over. Trust Him that He has good reasons Sis... God is so good and His character is so loving, wise and honest... He would never do things to hurt us... never, ever.

Here's a short one for you I hope it encourages you. It's some of my favorite sayings on hope. <3
http://christianchat.com/blogs/soulweaver/7176-hope-does-not-disappoint.html