D
Meh, not quite as dire and melodramatic as the title, but it got your attention, didn't it? And it is a real question, just not as horrible as it sounds. (Or maybe it is.)
I just read someone say that when they were a new believer the first thing they did was study the Bible constantly. And then they were "attacked." (Paraphrased to protect the innocent.) I think they meant Satan started niggling their mind to try and draw them away from God. (Yes, I see my nouns aren't matching the possessive forms, but I'm trying not to point fingers at the person who got me thinking. Not even hinting at gender.)
Which made me remember when I was first a believer. Same kind of thing happened to me, but I never considered it an attack from Satan. More of circumstances unfolding, and me being me, it did pull me away from God quickly.
In my case, I became a believer three months before Mom died. (This was in 1972, so it's not something to go off and feel sorry about anymore. It's old history.) Now eight months before that, Mom had taken the remaining kids with her when she left Dad. (Oldest brother was already away for college, and my two youngest siblings came from a different mom, so that means Mom took three of us away from Dad.) And she took us across country to live with her mom (Gram) until she could create a new life for us.
But, two weeks later, she was diagnosed with a cancer that would kill her quickly. (No one knows if she knew she had cancer before the move and that was her impetus to move then. Her family has told me this often enough. She refused to tell anyone if the two things were connected.)
So, when she died, we were left with a choice -- move back with Dad or fight to stay with family we had moved to. Mom's two brothers lived nearby, and they were both married with kids, so we landed in a network of family intentionally, and they were willing to fight to keep us with them, if that's what we wanted. But my younger brother was five, so he had no choice but to go back with Dad, and I'm younger brother's godmother, so I promised to raise him if anything would happen to Mom, so I didn't feel like I had any choice but to move back with Dad.
It was messy, and all the Christian family I had come to know in those short three months were left behind with no church to go to (but the Catholic Church I was raised in), and Dad lived in a subdivision far from the town, I was barely 16, so didn't have a car to go anywhere, so I was left with nothing but God and my Bible.
And frankly, lots of the believers who taught me what the Bible said had prayed Mom would be miraculously healed, (some actually laid hands on her and prayed when she was in the hospital, so everything I was taught I believed), so what I was left with was the false "truth" that God out-and-out lied to me. (They were the ones who told me if I believe it will happen. I did. It didn't. I was a wreck with no one to fix that massive mistake.)
Until someone said they were attacked shortly after being a believer, I just thought that's how life goes. Its 44 years later, and I really did work out those friends were wrong vs. God lied, so I did get beyond the backsliding I zipped into quickly.
But I'm really asking. Were you "attacked" shortly after you became a believer? Is that a thing? Is it a common thing? What's your story? Yea, nah, and go for the details if you want. I am interested.
I just read someone say that when they were a new believer the first thing they did was study the Bible constantly. And then they were "attacked." (Paraphrased to protect the innocent.) I think they meant Satan started niggling their mind to try and draw them away from God. (Yes, I see my nouns aren't matching the possessive forms, but I'm trying not to point fingers at the person who got me thinking. Not even hinting at gender.)
Which made me remember when I was first a believer. Same kind of thing happened to me, but I never considered it an attack from Satan. More of circumstances unfolding, and me being me, it did pull me away from God quickly.
In my case, I became a believer three months before Mom died. (This was in 1972, so it's not something to go off and feel sorry about anymore. It's old history.) Now eight months before that, Mom had taken the remaining kids with her when she left Dad. (Oldest brother was already away for college, and my two youngest siblings came from a different mom, so that means Mom took three of us away from Dad.) And she took us across country to live with her mom (Gram) until she could create a new life for us.
But, two weeks later, she was diagnosed with a cancer that would kill her quickly. (No one knows if she knew she had cancer before the move and that was her impetus to move then. Her family has told me this often enough. She refused to tell anyone if the two things were connected.)
So, when she died, we were left with a choice -- move back with Dad or fight to stay with family we had moved to. Mom's two brothers lived nearby, and they were both married with kids, so we landed in a network of family intentionally, and they were willing to fight to keep us with them, if that's what we wanted. But my younger brother was five, so he had no choice but to go back with Dad, and I'm younger brother's godmother, so I promised to raise him if anything would happen to Mom, so I didn't feel like I had any choice but to move back with Dad.
It was messy, and all the Christian family I had come to know in those short three months were left behind with no church to go to (but the Catholic Church I was raised in), and Dad lived in a subdivision far from the town, I was barely 16, so didn't have a car to go anywhere, so I was left with nothing but God and my Bible.
And frankly, lots of the believers who taught me what the Bible said had prayed Mom would be miraculously healed, (some actually laid hands on her and prayed when she was in the hospital, so everything I was taught I believed), so what I was left with was the false "truth" that God out-and-out lied to me. (They were the ones who told me if I believe it will happen. I did. It didn't. I was a wreck with no one to fix that massive mistake.)
Until someone said they were attacked shortly after being a believer, I just thought that's how life goes. Its 44 years later, and I really did work out those friends were wrong vs. God lied, so I did get beyond the backsliding I zipped into quickly.
But I'm really asking. Were you "attacked" shortly after you became a believer? Is that a thing? Is it a common thing? What's your story? Yea, nah, and go for the details if you want. I am interested.
