Despair Over the Future

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
P

pablocito

Guest
I understand where you are coming from, and I do not want to sit in judgement of your advice.
I only wanted to address my error in not reading the full post that you had responded to.
I was more appreciating the advice you gave and took it more personally than that you were responding to her posts.
I still appreciate what you advised, personally. And I am very sorry to cause so much confusion. :cautious:
I am not blaming you for anything except that I thought you might have been insincere in your response.
Yes confusion is bound to happen sometimes on a medium such as this and I am glad that we are back on track.

I also guess that I was in a very bad mood as I was somewhat impatient with another member who seemed to be stuck in a different world with doctrines very farfetched from what the bible teaches. So my negative response to you might have been influenced by this other post which had nothing to do with you. Thanks for understanding.
 
Feb 20, 2016
1,154
266
83
W


I'm a man of faith and love for my God. You have misinterpreted what I wrote to her.

She sounds very negative in what she wrote. And she's looking for answers outside of our faith and outside of God for reasons you or I may not know. Now, I don't know about you, but I've been there and let me tell you that God brought me back to Him. I suffered because I left my faith in Him. He didn't abandon me.

She's depressed. Now, I'm all for her to believe in God. But there's a blockage which hinders her from feeling God's presence in her life. The negative is speaking to her and discouraging her. So, she refuses to see God in her life and in all creation.

My advice to her is to start finding ways to make a life for herself using the gifts and talents God has given her. To act instead of being inactive without taking any initiative to better her situation. I never asked her to not follow God. She should realise that God helps those who help themselves.

This young lady is stuck in her life. So, she has to find options to better her situation.

You're right in encouraging her to finding God. What I gave her is what I would do in such a situation. Now in your eyes, that may be wrong. Not in mine.

Regardless of her current conflict with belief in Our God, she is going through a phase of depression and she needs options to try. And that's all I gave her. She needs to better her situation and she has what it takes.

She didn't want to look at her life wholistically with God like we as believers do, but she has to start somewhere. Postive cobstructive ways to live life on this earrh productively. My message was to History Princess. But you may have misinterpreted what I meant. So, I'm making it clear that this not the case.

I didn't discourage her. I understand that she is looking for a plan of action. That's what I gave her.
Sir, you don't know what plans of action I've already taken in life. All the jobs I've held, all the attempts to reach out and make friends, all the times I asked God to make his presence known in my life, all of which amounted to nothing. Sometimes people like me don't WANT "plans of action." We just want somebody out there to listen. "God helps those who help themselves?" Please, tell that to all the people Jesus healed without asking for it first.

It's judgmental people like you who drive people away from God in the first place. Just consider yourself fortunate that I'm savvy enough to know the difference. But not everyone is. Here's my "plan of action" for you: Take a lesson in empathy.
 

lonelysummer

Active member
Nov 30, 2022
127
27
28
Sir, you don't know what plans of action I've already taken in life. All the jobs I've held, all the attempts to reach out and make friends, all the times I asked God to make his presence known in my life, all of which amounted to nothing. Sometimes people like me don't WANT "plans of action." We just want somebody out there to listen. "God helps those who help themselves?" Please, tell that to all the people Jesus healed without asking for it first.

It's judgmental people like you who drive people away from God in the first place. Just consider yourself fortunate that I'm savvy enough to know the difference. But not everyone is. Here's my "plan of action" for you: Take a lesson in empathy.
Nicely stated, HistoryPrincess.
This is what always happens when you get a bunch of Christians together, each one convinced that they are "the one" who truly understands God, the Bible, and faith. "Oh, no, you can't say that, the Bible doesn't support that!"
HistoryPrincess is a wise young lady who is asking some very good questions. I respect her for that.
 

justahumanbeing

Well-known member
Mar 25, 2020
466
257
63
Sir, you don't know what plans of action I've already taken in life. All the jobs I've held, all the attempts to reach out and make friends, all the times I asked God to make his presence known in my life, all of which amounted to nothing. Sometimes people like me don't WANT "plans of action." We just want somebody out there to listen. "God helps those who help themselves?" Please, tell that to all the people Jesus healed without asking for it first.

It's judgmental people like you who drive people away from God in the first place. Just consider yourself fortunate that I'm savvy enough to know the difference. But not everyone is. Here's my "plan of action" for you: Take a lesson in empathy.
I expected as much. I've nothing more to say to you. Hope you feel better.
 

justahumanbeing

Well-known member
Mar 25, 2020
466
257
63
I understand fully what you are saying. (In my opinion it is the world's way, the world's wisdom)
What I am going to say is not directed to her or even to you but to those who believe in the One True God.
Faith in God transcends man's wisdom or man's psychology. Psychology is for the people of the world who do not know God. It works very well in that environment.
But to a Christian, it does not work because it is a trap pulling them into another world not of God. The devil does not come with 2 horns but as a lamb seducing you to trust in things that appear to be good and normal.
The truth can never be watered down and is based fully and only on faith. To depart from that premise is to take the bait and sink gradually into a place of no return.

There is no substitute for Christian suffering as it is mandatory for those who will enter into God's kingdom. Remember that Jesus states that those who would be rich or comfortable in this world has already got their reward (here on this earth). Recall the story of the rich man (Dives) and Lazarus.

My approach is to fight and strive, neither turning to the right or to the left from the word of God and God will surely grant you peace and harmony as sure as night follows day.
That's easy for you to look at it that way. I used to think like you years ago.

Unfortunately when you deal in a world that does not believe in God, what do you do to survive?

You pay your dues. Get educated. Find work. Find things to do what gives you happiness and a sense of purpose in life. Help people. Take up family responsibilities. Etc etc.

Our life here is pretty much making money and surviving apart from all this.

Too much of anything is bad is what I feel. Too much religion is bad also.

Life is for living. God has given us rules and a blueprint to live life in His book, The Bible.

So I understand when someone doesn't want to talk about God or religion. Because that's all we get told growing up and in the Church.

Although Jesus is the center of a Christian's life and there's no salvation apart from Him and we live life in this temporary world to get to the next. And we have faith in that. Belief that there's a life after this life. And this life prepares us for eternal life.

Still, you have to live your life. Give to Ceasar what is Caesar's. (Give the world what belongs to the world). Give to God what belongs to God. (Your soul and your belief in eternal life along with doing what God directs you to do in the Bible).

That's how I look at it.
 

justahumanbeing

Well-known member
Mar 25, 2020
466
257
63
I understand where you are coming from, and I do not want to sit in judgement of your advice.
I only wanted to address my error in not reading the full post that you had responded to.
I was more appreciating the advice you gave and took it more personally than that you were responding to her posts.
I still appreciate what you advised, personally. And I am very sorry to cause so much confusion. :cautious:
You didn't do anything wrong, don't apologise. I'm glad you were able to take something good from what I shared. And that's how I intend it. Take it or leave it. That's how advices work. I take no offense when my advice is not for someone. And too many cooks spoil the broth anyway. Ultimately we all respond to a 'call to heard', because we care.
 
P

pablocito

Guest
Sir, you don't know what plans of action I've already taken in life. All the jobs I've held, all the attempts to reach out and make friends, all the times I asked God to make his presence known in my life, all of which amounted to nothing. Sometimes people like me don't WANT "plans of action." We just want somebody out there to listen. "God helps those who help themselves?" Please, tell that to all the people Jesus healed without asking for it first.

It's judgmental people like you who drive people away from God in the first place. Just consider yourself fortunate that I'm savvy enough to know the difference. But not everyone is. Here's my "plan of action" for you: Take a lesson in empathy.

Hi HistoryPrincess,

To be honest, I believe that you are very close to the kingdom of God, from the words that you speak. But again I will have to interject and give you the lesson of one verse that I have been learning over the last few days.

Over the last few days I have tried to delete my account from this website and became very upset that such a feature was not available and was not implemented by the creators. But then I realize that it was God who brought me here and he was in charge of my life and not me, thus I came back on the site only to find that there were those, even if only a few who had a spirit of kindness, even one who I had wronged by not being merciful.

The verse I am going to quote is Hosea 6:6

Hos 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

and also

Hos 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

I have come to understand that even though the context of those verses were to the people of God, Israel, who God called my people, we too are the people of God.

God gave them to us as an example of what not to do else we too will be destroyed if we follow in their footsteps.

Again you appear to have been given a lot of knowledge by God. Yes and you must have worked very hard for it. (In fact Paul in one of his Epistles, boasted that he worked harder than all the other apostles). By the way to boast that you worked hard for Christ is not a lack humility, especially when no one wants to work for him, his own people.

With our knowledge we are expected to give it back to others. We cannot save them but we can share with them, with good temperament.

Mat_10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

In these last days it is our knowledge, that God has given to us and not to raise from the dead or cast out devils. We are the only generation of people who have been given the entire word of God from Genesis to Revelation (from beginning to end). We are a chosen generation and now are the people of God. Yes, even though we are the last to receive (because as Peter and John has said - This is the last time), we have become the first and most precious.

These are a few verses of what our attitude toward giving is. The bible states it is better to give than to receive.

Rom_8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

1Co_2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Rev_21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

One last point that I want to make is that I believe that immediately after death we come directly into the presence of God. (those who are saved)

The unsaved go immediately into hell and afterwards into the lake of fire. (Again do not interpret these verses as earthly or temporal, it is a place or a state where the corrupt go and as we know from our existence here on this earth corruption causes suffering.)

There is nothing such as time in the spiritual world. Yes on this earth we have time but we cannot carry it over into the spiritual world. Time is endless, of course we cannot understand it now but we only know in part for now.

Heb_9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

Do not try and interpret this verse only one way. God is infinite and often all verses have multiple if not infinite interpretations as God is infinite and transcends both the temporal and the spiritual.


Rev_14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

Our works - our goodness, our kindness, our love

Rest from our labours - this is our entire objective here on this earth, finding rest in God's kingdom.

All of my views here are personal and I am sure that there are many others whose experience with God transcends mine as they have probably worked much harder in knowing the One True God.
 
P

pablocito

Guest
That's easy for you to look at it that way. I used to think like you years ago.

Unfortunately when you deal in a world that does not believe in God, what do you do to survive?

You pay your dues. Get educated. Find work. Find things to do what gives you happiness and a sense of purpose in life. Help people. Take up family responsibilities. Etc etc.

Our life here is pretty much making money and surviving apart from all this.

Too much of anything is bad is what I feel. Too much religion is bad also.

Life is for living. God has given us rules and a blueprint to live life in His book, The Bible.

So I understand when someone doesn't want to talk about God or religion. Because that's all we get told growing up and in the Church.

Although Jesus is the center of a Christian's life and there's no salvation apart from Him and we live life in this temporary world to get to the next. And we have faith in that. Belief that there's a life after this life. And this life prepares us for eternal life.

Still, you have to live your life. Give to Ceasar what is Caesar's. (Give the world what belongs to the world). Give to God what belongs to God. (Your soul and your belief in eternal life along with doing what God directs you to do in the Bible).

That's how I look at it.

You are very eloquent in expressing your thoughts and I cannot lead you because it is God who is leading you. Your pathway may be different at this moment in time from mine but hopefully we will all end up at the same place.

Just one thing, God is perfect in his leading and I hope you become perfect in your following him. Many go offtrack when they veer to the right or the left, but God is longsuffering and patient and often chastises us to bring us back.

The bible uses the word moderation but we must understand it's context. For example - Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

But the bible does accuse a glutton. A person who eats excessively. So in this sense moderation is necessary.


It also uses superlatives, like loving God with all our heart and with all our mind and with all our soul. A person can only do this when he has been set free by the truth. And no man can do it, if only that he wants to get into heaven or the kingdom of God.

No man knows what God has in store for another man, and thus we should not pass judgment and let God do his work. But as children of God we can and should share what God has given to us, as the bible states it is better to give than to receive.

I hope that God's grace may abound in your life as the bible states that God's grace is sufficient for all those who love and obey him.
 

Pudge

New member
Jan 7, 2023
6
1
3
Kinda lazy to give a response but in short I have all the same problems and stuff, and you need to see a psychiatrist because I recently found out it was all due to a mental health crisis I was having and none of it was spiritual, I have schizophrenia, even feeling far from God and how you described your relationship with God could be caused by mental health, its same here. You may depression, bipolar, or schizophrenia same as me.
 

MessengerofTruth

Well-known member
Dec 21, 2022
688
434
63
Kinda lazy to give a response but in short I have all the same problems and stuff, and you need to see a psychiatrist because I recently found out it was all due to a mental health crisis I was having and none of it was spiritual, I have schizophrenia, even feeling far from God and how you described your relationship with God could be caused by mental health, its same here. You may depression, bipolar, or schizophrenia same as me.
Kinda lazy to give a response but in short I have all the same problems and stuff, and you need to see a psychiatrist because I recently found out it was all due to a mental health crisis I was having and none of it was spiritual, I have schizophrenia, even feeling far from God and how you described your relationship with God could be caused by mental health, its same here. You may depression, bipolar, or schizophrenia same as me.
The warfare that we experience is real and it is spiritual. Drugs and Psychology is man's answers for spiritual problems. You must first believe that GOD is and a rewarder of those that Diligently seek Him. This is where I have found victory!
 

MessengerofTruth

Well-known member
Dec 21, 2022
688
434
63
The warfare that we experience is real and it is spiritual. Drugs and Psychology is man's answers for spiritual problems. You must first believe that GOD is and a rewarder of those that Diligently seek Him. This is where I have found victory!
Do some research. Has any psychologist ever Cured anyone?
 
P

pablocito

Guest
Do some research. Has any psychologist ever Cured anyone?
No! In fact they lead you down a dark pathway into temporary fixes and of the using of crutches that you spend a lifetime singing your praises to, only because you do not know any better.

If I had know that there was a pot of gold just around the corner, I would not waste my time digging up the iron ore that is within arms length from me.

As you said all you need is a little bit of initiative, a mind that is not bogged down into the little things but is open to the vast universe and it is there that you will find God.
 
P

pablocito

Guest
Kinda lazy to give a response but in short I have all the same problems and stuff, and you need to see a psychiatrist because I recently found out it was all due to a mental health crisis I was having and none of it was spiritual, I have schizophrenia, even feeling far from God and how you described your relationship with God could be caused by mental health, its same here. You may depression, bipolar, or schizophrenia same as me.
Unfortunately we have to have prisons for the law breakers, patients for the doctors, etc etc.
But fortunately we have God for the sinners.

If you are not a sinner, then I guess you do not need God. What can I say? It takes all types to make this world go around.

I hope you find the right merry-go-round for yourself. And to tell the truth you will as your heart never lies.
 
Feb 20, 2016
1,154
266
83
Do some research. Has any psychologist ever Cured anyone?
Do some research yourself. Has any doctor physically cured anyone? Of course they have? For that matter, has any charlatan "faith healer" done the same? This is a practical minded thread, not one for proselytizing your brand of faith which is more akin to magic.
 
P

pablocito

Guest
Do some research yourself. Has any doctor physically cured anyone? Of course they have? For that matter, has any charlatan "faith healer" done the same? This is a practical minded thread, not one for proselytizing your brand of faith which is more akin to magic.
There is a common saying among men (not in the Christian circles) that truth is stranger than fiction.

I would assume that men came up with this common saying when they met a roadblock in life that they could not overcome or surpass.
This is not surprising as the world of the spirit is unknown to most men or rather not believed, as also was the case of the Sadducees in the bible who did not believe in the resurrection or angels.

I would say that anyone on this Christian site who does not believe in the resurrection is lost and probably on the wrong site and probably belongs on the Atheist site.

Believing in the resurrection is no different from spiritual healing or raising from the dead etc. etc. etc. Why would someone come among those who believe in these things if they themselves do not believe.

I can only surmise that they are come in as wolves among the sheep to devour them, pretending to be a sheep themselves. But by their fruits you shall know them. What comes out of their mouth, proceed from out of their minds and ultimately came from their heart.

I would recommend that those who call themselves children of God, albeit young and immature, flee from these types of people; do not entertain their conversation, as you possible could become dog meat for their consumption.
 

lonelysummer

Active member
Nov 30, 2022
127
27
28
It makes me very sad to see some here dismiss an individual's battle with mental illness as just an attack from the devil. I guess that's easy to say if you've never struggled with your mental health.
Sure, there are bad psychiatrists out there, just as there are bad people in any field. If I take my car to a mechanic to be fixed, and he just makes it worse, I'm not gonna go back to that mechanic.
Some of this paranoia around mental health professionals sounds suspiciously similar to those who frown upon medical professionals.
My pastor is also a licensed therapist, and I guarantee you, he is not a wolf in sheep's clothing. He helps many people with their struggles. I wish my ex-gf had been willing to talk to him. He might have been able to help her; instead, she just chose to hide away in her bedroom and shut the rest of the world out. I feel so sad when I think of her. But all I can do is pray for her. But sometimes it does not feel like praying is enough.
 

shittim

Senior Member
Dec 16, 2016
13,802
7,785
113
I am sure they don't mean to dismiss the problem, knowing it is spiritual gives the direction we must go to defeat the attack.
 
P

pablocito

Guest
It makes me very sad to see some here dismiss an individual's battle with mental illness as just an attack from the devil. I guess that's easy to say if you've never struggled with your mental health.
Sure, there are bad psychiatrists out there, just as there are bad people in any field. If I take my car to a mechanic to be fixed, and he just makes it worse, I'm not gonna go back to that mechanic.
Some of this paranoia around mental health professionals sounds suspiciously similar to those who frown upon medical professionals.
My pastor is also a licensed therapist, and I guarantee you, he is not a wolf in sheep's clothing. He helps many people with their struggles. I wish my ex-gf had been willing to talk to him. He might have been able to help her; instead, she just chose to hide away in her bedroom and shut the rest of the world out. I feel so sad when I think of her. But all I can do is pray for her. But sometimes it does not feel like praying is enough.
I am not against psychiatrists or against anyone or anything.

I believe that you misunderstand the essence of Christianity. Of course your brand of Christianity, I am not against and would not dare disparage as that is what you were given.

But my brand of Christianity is mine and I own it and am very vocal about it because God's light that he has given to me was not meant to be hid under a bushel but to be declared upon a mountain. That is the way that I glorify God.

Albeit my belief will certainly conflict with other's and if that happens, I will have to stand up for what I believe similar to how I think you should stand up for what you believe.

Jesus told his disciples (Apostles) that they would have to be as wise as a serpent but at the same time as harmless as a dove. This is a very difficult thing to do but by God's grace we do it.

The bible has called on us, if at all possible to live peaceably with all men. But that does not mean compromising our faith.

The essence of Christianity for me in these last days is "to come out of them". I cannot empathize with the world's system or compromise my belief in God for it. God is a consuming fire.

Heb 12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
Heb 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.

1Jn_2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Jesus was despised and rejected of men, likewise so are we to be in this world.

1Jn_4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Finally again I have to emphasize that you have to come out of them (the world).

2Co_6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Rev 18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

As pertaining to the specifics of mental shortcomings of a person, God is sufficient.
Some look to the world's remedies while others look to God's remedies.

If you look to the world, then your god is the world.
If you look to God then your God is the creator of the world, both the invisible and visible things, including all of mankind.

I call him Father and he has told me to look to him for everything.
Mat_6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him.

Heb_11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
 
Feb 20, 2016
1,154
266
83
I am sure they don't mean to dismiss the problem, knowing it is spiritual gives the direction we must go to defeat the attack.
Not everything is spiritual though. We don't mock somebody when they go to see a doctor for joint problems. Then again those "Christian Science" nuts probably would.
 

shittim

Senior Member
Dec 16, 2016
13,802
7,785
113
Sickness, disease, lack, accidents, are never from above, neither are there "coincidences" in a world where the Father knows the end from the beginning.

Jesus never sent anyone to the Dr. and there is zero evidence Luke ever practiced after receiving Holy Spirit anointing, they all practiced the healing gift as Jesus imparted to them and had received Himself.
blessings