Serious Questions and Doubts About God's Ways

[justlookin]

Originally Posted by Jermyn Davidson

It's moments like this that I wonder the wisdom of posting under my real name and asking questions like these but I guess I won't be in any worse of a place by doing this.

1) Has anyone thought they really had a word from God for a person you cared for a lot, a word from God and you were sure it was from God, only to find out that you completely missed the mark and have caused considerable pain and confusion for numerous people?

2) Why on God's green planet would He let something like that happen-- knowing the hearts of His people, knowing the sincerity, knowing the mistake, knowing the ensuing confusion and pain that His servant would cause to so many people?

3) What's the use of living for God, extending yourself, putting yourself out, going with your brother not just 1 mile, but 10 miles, doing what you do for His Glory-- only to find yourself in need with NO ONE willing to come through for you?

4) Statement, not a question-- I don't want to give anything to anyone any more. I don't want to help anyone any more. And as for having a word for anyone-- I don't possibly know how I can trust God or myself to think that I am hearing from God anymore!!!

I'm in tears.

I'm fighting thoughts of hating God-- I don't hate Him, He knows I don't, but man there is a war in my head, and maybe even in my heart now-- I don't even know.

I just wish I I could crawl into a sea shell and disappear!
I wish I could reverse time and I would just stopped myself from even speaking that day.

The time and MONEY I spent helping that so-called brother-- I would have been better off making sure my own bills were paid ahead by three months or so!

Why help anyone when at the end of the day, I won't be able to help myself?

Where is the net to catch me now that I'm going down???


Does anyone know what in the world I'm talking about!!!!!

I surely know what you're talking about. The thing is, don't let this determine a future away from intimacy with God. You'll get naysayers adding to your misery, telling you that you can't trust God, you can only trust yourself, you've placed your confidence in something that you cant' have confidence in. Nothing could be further from the truth, you CAN trust God. Maybe you missed God in this particular circumstance, but get up, tell God how disappointed you are, it's even ok to get angry with Him, but realize it's not Him that did this to you. it was your enemy, the father of lies, the one who would rather you live in darkness than light. God cares that you're disappointed, He cares that you're struggling and well help you out of this pit you're in if you just come to Him openly and honestly, tell Him of your struggles and let Him bring you into the light again.

I've suffered deaths of loved ones, loss, disappointment, lack, sickness, ect., as has all people, including Christians, and I never enjoyed any of it. I struggled through all of it, questioned God, questioned the existence of God, the love of God, the presence of God during those times and found that God actually was present and caring during those dark nights of the soul that I thought Him absent. After living for God for many many years, I've found Him faithful in every area of my life, loving and caring in every circumstance.

My advice is to simply be honest with God. He's a big boy, He can handle it, and He will bring you through this if you let Him. Some come to these places in life and turn away and in their disappointment and anger attempt to convince others that God doesn't exist or if He exists you can't know Him and that He doesn't intervene in your life. Don't listen to them, they're speaking from a position of darkness in the evil one. They themselves need to be delivered.

And again, I know it's a very very hard place to be. I pray for you, brother. This will get better and please don't stop trying to hear God and speaking when you believe it's Him speaking to you.

[n david]

Originally Posted by justlookin

I surely know what you're talking about. The thing is, don't let this determine a future away from intimacy with God. You'll get naysayers adding to your misery, telling you that you can't trust God, you can only trust yourself, you've placed your confidence in something that you cant' have confidence in. Nothing could be further from the truth, you CAN trust God. Maybe you missed God in this particular circumstance, but get up, tell God how disappointed you are, it's even ok to get angry with Him, but realize it's not Him that did this to you. it was your enemy, the father of lies, the one who would rather you live in darkness than light. God cares that you're disappointed, He cares that you're struggling and well help you out of this pit you're in if you just come to Him openly and honestly, tell Him of your struggles and let Him bring you into the light again.

I've suffered deaths of loved ones, loss, disappointment, lack, sickness, ect., as has all people, including Christians, and I never enjoyed any of it. I struggled through all of it, questioned God, questioned the existence of God, the love of God, the presence of God during those times and found that God actually was present and caring during those dark nights of the soul that I thought Him absent. After living for God for many many years, I've found Him faithful in every area of my life, loving and caring in every circumstance.

My advice is to simply be honest with God. He's a big boy, He can handle it, and He will bring you through this if you let Him. Some come to these places in life and turn away and in their disappointment and anger attempt to convince others that God doesn't exist or if He exists you can't know Him and that He doesn't intervene in your life. Don't listen to them, they're speaking from a position of darkness in the evil one. They themselves need to be delivered.

And again, I know it's a very very hard place to be. I pray for you, brother. This will get better and please don't stop trying to hear God and speaking when you believe it's Him speaking to you.

[Luke]

Brother I am sorry for what you are going through and though I do not know (nor need to know) all the details of your situation I do know how it feels to put yourself out and no one seem to notice. I do know how it feels to pray and pray for help and yet every thing seems to stay the same. I understand the feeling of confusion that results from being forced to question weather or not you actually heard from God and the fear of not knowing how to proceed. I have not walked your path but I have walked mine and there have been times when I was so low that I would beg God to just let me die because nothing made sense and it truly felt like them rug had been pulled out from underneath me and I was so low that I never saw any hope of getting back up. I can vividly remember multiple times asking God why He allowed certain things to happen. Through that time I came to realize that God is big enough to handle my questions and anger as well as my situation. Looking back I can see how God was there through it all giving me strength accepting my questions quelling my anger and pain never forsakeing me and always loving me. A verse that was a true blessing to me then and still now is:

..Isa 53:4.. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

Wish I had some answers as to why but I never got all of those for my situation either but it did work out in a way that was better than what I could have ever dreamed. Trust God He has never made a mistake nor has He ever forsaken anyone and He is not about to start with you.

As to weather you heard from God or not sometimes we can't go by immediate results but look at the big picture or wait for it to come to pass in God's time. One of my previous past told of a church service he had been in where a man stood up said and said loudly macaroni and cheese then sat back down because he felt like God wanted him to say that. After then service an older woman approached him and told him that she had been praying for her backsliden son that very morning and said she had told God that if He was even listening to please show her somehow and there in church when the man had stood and said macaroni and cheese God answered her prayer because that was her sons favorite food. To others it seemed silly but to her it was an answer to prayer.

Trust God he can handle your questions and even your hurts and anger just hold on to him. I will be praying for you.

[ILG]

1) Has anyone thought they really had a word from God for a person you cared for a lot, a word from God and you were sure it was from God, only to find out that you completely missed the mark and have caused considerable pain and confusion for numerous people?

Yes.

2) Why on God's green planet would He let something like that happen-- knowing the hearts of His people, knowing the sincerity, knowing the mistake, knowing the ensuing confusion and pain that His servant would cause to so many people?

I don't know. I've wondered that myself.

3) What's the use of living for God, extending yourself, putting yourself out, going with your brother not just 1 mile, but 10 miles, doing what you do for His Glory-- only to find yourself in need with NO ONE willing to come through for you?

Well, that's one reason why I left the UPC in the first place. All the promises were empty. I gave and they took.

4) Statement, not a question-- I don't want to give anything to anyone any more. I don't want to help anyone any more. And as for having a word for anyone-- I don't possibly know how I can trust God or myself to think that I am hearing from God anymore!!!

Jermyn, I understand. And lots of other people do too. And some do, but they won't admit it. There comes a time when I think you just have to do what's best for yourself and believe that God wants that for you. Is God good? Does He want you to suffer? No! So, many things you have been told must have just been people's understandings about God and not really what He is truly about. For me, I decided it was time for me to seek after what I believed about God rather than what people told me about Him. So, I left and I don't regret it.

Don't despair. You did what you thought was right. Don't beat your self up. The real God is out there. Maybe He's just not what we have been told. Anyway, I hope this helps. It's hard to see you go through this.

[jediwill83]

Not really in the condition to be giving spiritual encouragement....but I can do this *BIIIIIIG HUG* hang in there bro.

[KeptByTheWord]

The issues you are facing are simply the enemy's tactics to deter you from looking to Jesus as the supplier and burden sharer of whatever situation you have found yourself in.

The greatest hurt we will experience in life will be in the house of friends, in the place where you thought you were safe, and where there are those you trust. Read Psalms, and the words of David as Athithophel, one of his best friends, and his own son turned against him, and sought his life. Even Jesus, in his greatest, and darkest hour of need experienced the sorrow of seeing even his closest friends turn against him, and leave him.

So, you are not alone. This is not something new under the sun. Simply know this. The Lord Jesus can take this trial that you are going through, and use it to birth something new, and greater in your life, than you can even see right now. I've seen it many times in my own life, to know that when the storms of life come, and disappointments, sadness, failures, mistakes of our own making.... that even in the midst of these things, the Lord is able to rebuild, and remake something new out of the ashes of the old, into something better, far better than what you can see now.

So, just read the Word. Read the stories of those who were betrayed, and hurt by those who they thought were friends.

And look to Jesus, trusting Him to carry you through this storm as well, until the day comes when you can look back, and see how the very thing that hurt you so deeply, was actually working in your favor.

I will be praying for you.

[Praxeas]

Originally Posted by ILG

Yes.

I don't know. I've wondered that myself.

Well, that's one reason why I left the UPC in the first place. All the promises were empty. I gave and they took.


Jermyn, I understand. And lots of other people do too. And some do, but they won't admit it. There comes a time when I think you just have to do what's best for yourself and believe that God wants that for you. Is God good? Does He want you to suffer? No! So, many things you have been told must have just been people's understandings about God and not really what He is truly about. For me, I decided it was time for me to seek after what I believed about God rather than what people told me about Him. So, I left and I don't regret it.

Don't despair. You did what you thought was right. Don't beat your self up. The real God is out there. Maybe He's just not what we have been told. Anyway, I hope this helps. It's hard to see you go through this.

How did this become about the UPC? It's amazing how any thread can be turned into UPC bashing

[houston]

I have found that the voice of God usually isn 't...

[ILG]

Originally Posted by Praxeas

How did this become about the UPC? It's amazing how any thread can be turned into UPC bashing

Um. I was just giving my perspective. Amazing how any statement about leaving can be turned into a reason to bring up UPC bashing.