For context, I’ve been using Reddit for at least 10 years and this is the first time I’ve ever posted.
First thing I want to concede is I’m aware we can’t blame our own poor decisions on god. As proverbs says, something along the lines of “ man makes mistakes and then blames god for it. “
Currently working really unfulfilling soulless job in customer service. Yes I’m aware that I should be grateful to have a job / a roof over my head which I am, however I can’t lie to myself and say I’m happy with life. Life feels so unfulfilling / soul crushing and it makes it worse because I know god is divine / supernatural yet my life is so mundane. Just been crying in my car.
I don’t have an unrealistic view of life where I expect it to be constant sunshine and rainbows but am just wondering if it’s going to be soulless and boring forever.
If I’m being completely honest, i definitely believe god exists but I wouldn’t say I have a personal relationship with god. I pray and don’t feel any guidance or communication. The only thing I feel from god is when I’m going to sin and my conscience warns me.
I know we have free will to make certain decisions but I would appreciate some guidance from god. Finding life really underwhelming and sad.
I come from a family of atheists and im the only one who believes, but recently I’ve been finding their stance very reasonable and deeply questioning my faith.
Who am I to accuse to god? but if I’m being honest it feels like a carrot being dangled in the sense of being told “ just have faith. At some point in the future it’s all going to work out. “ so I hold on and it never gets better.
My apologies if this post is negative but I’m genuinely struggling. I see all these other Christians who thank god and profess their love to him and I’m jealous, I want that but I can’t fake it. I feel like I’m outside in the rain and cold looking in at some happy cozy family eating food with the fire on.
I would appreciate some perspective and help because I do genuinely want to connect with god but I feel like my soulless sad life is cutting me off from god. People say “ he’s here with you all the time “ but why won’t he change my path then, I’d be willing to take the leap if I knew what it was.
Cba with life recently
Your not alone, I so much wanted a personal relationship with god, did all the right things faith moved you to do, but always felt very disconnected with god, or he wanted nothing to do with me. I too found atheist logic reasonable so I started watching you tube videos of pastors turned atheist and or scholarly trained people who became atheist. And one major factor I saw was Christianity is built on emotion. Not truth, not faith but pure emotion, and how especially mega churches design their traps of entertainment around working people up into emotional states. You can easily see it with christian music. So now life is so much easier now being an atheist. Never have to worry about what is wrong with me, never feeling like I am not worthy of god, never worrying if I'm doing good enough and now I know why my christian walk felt so empty, because I realized the bibkenis nothing but a business handbook in how to start and run a church and make money doing it.
That's a pretty bold take but I get where you're coming from. The emotional manipulation thing is real especially in those big churches where everything feels like a performance. Though I'd say there's probably middle ground between getting caught up in the hype and throwing it all away completely
I will say I'm got a more Deist way of thinking that there was a creator, just not the Abrahamic god creatot.
Actually truth and faith are what Christianity was build in
But today, people change it to emotions
i dont know if this is the case but it sounds like what happens when you try to live a life without love.
It can feel like this sometimes if you dont love yourself, if you dont love God and/or If you dont love your neighbor as yourself.
Like it says in 1 corinthians 13:1. Without Love your life can become empty or lifeless like a sounding brass or tinkling cymbal Paul calls it. .but its like a nothing feeling of meh constantly all the time.
Lucky for you, you have a job in customer service. So theres many opportunities for you to show love of Christ to people.
How to love the Lord: By acts of love towards others Matthew 25:35-40
So in all that you do at work, try to imagine you arent helping people or working for someone, but working for Jesus, helping Jesus. Make a conscious decision to
it might help
If you don't know and relate to God intimately and personally, then it's not surprising that you don't see and feel the way he's leading you through a difficult moment in your life. God becomes abstract, blurry, and just plain hard to see at work. Knowing that he's leading, guiding, working is a matter of faith, but you want to feel it. The way you feel God's presence often isn't much different than the way you grow close to any other person: open yourself up wide, make yourself vulnerable, and invest the time. Just sit with God and lay all of this in his hands. Ask him to not only make something great of this uninspiring mess you've got but to actually help you feel him doing that. It's precisely in the middle of lifelessness that God can really surprise you. Make sure you're open to those surprises.
Appreciate your response. The big difference between a relationship with a person and god though is that it doesn’t need to be based on faith because I know they’re actually there, I can have a definitive conversation with them where with god it’s all cryptic. People say “ just have faith “ why do I need to have faith that he’s going to guide me and help me, why isn’t jt that he just does? It feels like I’m being led on
You feel that conviction meaning the Holy Spirit is pushing you towards God. I understand that you got questions and reservations, but the best part is you come to Christ as you are. You can come and also if you read the Bible see how Jesus had compassion for others, but also called out the religious elite on their hypocrisy. If you are interested to be a follower of Christ there is a video that will help you out.
Matthew 11:27-30 Rest in God's Love 27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44DUULoHI6U
Read your Bible, and pray! He is his word - it is the truth, and it has everything you need right there.
Prayer is a relationship - it’s talking with God. You can find out who you’re talking to, what he’s about, and why he does what he does, all in the Bible!
He is always next to you, never leaving you.
I prayed a lot earlier, it felt good to vent / get my feelings out but I didn’t have god telling me anything back
Well - I won’t say, do it harder - he’ll be louder when answering. It doesn’t work like that - but don’t lose faith! God often speaks gently and through circumstances, impressions, quiet - through peace and through scripture.
I promise you this much: God heard you. God is acting now, unseen or seen. Continue in your faith - continue with the knowledge that God died on the cross for you out of his love for you. I know you might not hear him now, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to say anything.
Please - read John 14, and Matthew 11:25-30!!
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.” 1 John 5:14
“Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24
First off, I’m glad you posted this. Nothing you said is unreasonable or disrespectful it’s just honest.
One thing to know is that no matter what happens or has happened, no matter if you achieve everything this world has to offer or if you completely fail, you will still be able to have something greater than anything in this infinite universe, that being, being one with Christ and seeing God in His fullness + eternal life. Regardless of which season you are in, this will be true since you accepted God, and have faith.
The faith you have is sufficient remember, you don’t need “more” as faith is not really a measured thing. More faith won’t bring anything greater than what you already have right now, that being salvation.
And remember that, daily. You are saved. You have something amazing to look forward to man. Something greater than being a trillionaire or anything else that is possible in this universe. Every day that you wake up, you technically have good news, you could, God forbid, lose your limbs and your senses and you would still have good news, you could even lose your life and still have good news man, isn’t that wild.
I suggest you try to read the scripture to deepen your appreciation for this gift, always focus on what you have before moving to what you want.
In regards to closeness with God in this life… I think reading scripture and praying could help. I don’t just say that to say that, but I say this because scripture teaches us that God is inside of us. We Christians are temples of the Holy Spirit, It is there with you everyday, it doesn’t get any closer lol. I mean remember you are married to Jesus Christ. So you are already close to God. To get firm guidance again prayer (come to God with these things. And see, have faith that you will get guidance.)
I study to know who God is, what He wants. What He likes, etc. So in my mind I have some knowledge, and with that knowledge I come to God honestly as a sinner, and personally my conscience always lets me know what needs to be done. Usually it’s the hardest possible thing, the thing I don’t want to do.
An example ministry, going up to people and preaching.
The narrow and hard path is usually the path of God.
Remember you are the creation of God made to image Him, and you are one with the perfect image of God, being Christ, hence you can walk down that path.
I know this was maybe vague but I hope I helped. If you have other things you want to know or share please do. Many people feel like this.
For anyone that sees this comment, can you let me know if following god is genuinely worth it and why? I don’t say this from a transactional perspective of getting something from god like a genie but can you let me know how it improves life
Hi, I hope you're feeling better. I just re-read your post where you stated that you'd been crying in your car.
I don't know if this will help, but the biggest benefit I receive from knowing God is finally knowing the truth, and no longer being a slave to the world and all its false/biased perspectives (i.e., you must do this, feel this, buy this, etc. to be a "success"). When we fall out of fellowship with God, all of the world's pressure-cooker nonstop flow of ideas about all the things we must be and do can really mess up our thoughts and emotions. To be truly well, we need the right perspective (the Spirit of truth) that only comes from God. And maybe that is what you are seeking, because you really do come across as a deeply soulful, sincere person, who just happens to be going through a rough patch.
But we don't have to endure such unbearable difficulties on our own. Christ says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Nothing about you is soulless and sad from God's absolute perspective. I hope you will come to know it. Take care and may God bless you abundantly.
Being a Christian is not a ticket to an easier life now. Jesus said we would be persecuted. He preached that the kingdom of God when brought to earth as in heaven would be the solution to all of mans ills. Gods promise to us for this time is that he will give us the strngth to endure our trials and that he would reveal his future purposes to us.
“ I don’t have an unrealistic view of life where I expect it to be constant sunshine and rainbows but am just wondering if it’s going to be soulless and boring forever. “
Absolutely not. When Gods appointed time comes, he will destroy the wicked and give his loyal ones a peaceful home. This includes ending Satans affects on mankind which include sickness and death. Those will be gone too. Revelation21:3,4 Psalm37:29 Since we're on a Christian page, you recognize that our lives now will be a trial. The pressure on true Christians is great, so much so that Jesus asked the Father to watch over us. John17:15 We can find a measure of contentment knowing that we are pleasing our Father. Our reward will be great.
Salvation is received the moment a person believes the gospel of Christ, because the Scriptures teach that we are saved by grace through faith and not of works (Ephesians 2:8–9). God saves the sinner who simply believes that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again (1 Corinthians 15:1–4), and He promises eternal life to all who believe on the Son (John 3:16). The moment you trust Christ, God justifies you freely (Romans 3:24), forgives all your sins (Colossians 2:13), seals you with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13), and gives you everlasting life, not temporary life (John 5:24). Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish (John 10:28), which means salvation cannot be lost, because it depends on Christ’s finished work, not your performance. Works do not save you, works do not keep you saved, and works do not prove salvation. Christ alone is the Savior, not our behavior. The gospel is simple: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved (Acts 16:31).
Biblical repentance is not the impossible demand that you must stop sinning to be saved, but the change of mind, metanoia, in which you finally see sin the way God sees it, evil, destructive, and condemning, and in that realization you turn from unbelief to belief in Christ as your only Savior. This is why it is far clearer and far more accurate to say I repent of my view of sin, because that expresses the true meaning of repentance in Scripture, a heart that agrees with God about sin and therefore turns to Christ, while the phrase I repent of my sins is often misunderstood as a promise to stop sinning or clean yourself up, which confuses people and pushes them toward a works based understanding that the Bible does not teach. Once you turn to Christ in this way, trusting His finished work instead of your own efforts, God seals you permanently with the Holy Spirit as Ephesians chapter one verse thirteen and chapter four verse thirty teach, meaning your salvation is fully secured, completed, and guaranteed until the day of redemption. Salvation is not maintained by your performance, but by God’s promise. This does not mean a believer becomes sinless, because the flesh still desires sin and Christians can fall, stumble, and even enjoy sin for a season, yet they cannot live comfortably in rebellion because the same Spirit who sealed them now lives in them and will not allow them to remain in sin without conviction. Hebrews says God chastens every child He receives in chapter twelve verses six through eight, so if a true believer drifts into sin, God will discipline, correct, and break their peace until they are restored, not to punish them in wrath, but as a loving Father shaping His child. Salvation is never lost, but sin will never be enjoyable for long in the life of someone who truly belongs to Christ, because God Himself ensures their growth, their correction, and their preservation in the faith.
Try building God’s kingdom in your calls. Bring your soul to soulless work. Be one of those customer service reps that makes people feel good, or less bad than they would have, because they sense God in you, whether they know it or not. You said you hold on and it never gets better. Stop waiting. Start making.
Ask yourself this, if the Lord is with us then who is against us?
The devil.
Always remember there is a devil who is against us and then there is you who is tempted by sin. I myself am tempted Alot and even fall Alot as well. But I always ask the Lord for forgiveness and do my best to resist temptation as much as possible. I plan on starting to pray it away.
I am firm a believer because he always answers my prayers, it may not be in my timing, because we get answers in the Lord's timing. He still answers them.
No lie, My life sucks just as much as yours does if not worse, but I feel a lot better and more at peace than you do. I am even doing something about changing it w/gods help and I'm getting there.
I strongly suggest reading the Bible (new testament). And most importantly talking to God and asking him for help. When you start to follow God like really follow him, he preserves your soul and protects your mentality when you tell him that you wish to seek refuge. But unfortunately, it's not a one time prayer. Whenever you feel bad or attacked, go to him and ask for refuge via prayer
Invest in God, fully. See where it leads to. You won't be disappointed. He is a spiritual being that becomes a part of your support system who protects you from negative energy and negative external circumstances. You are not protected right now. Learn what is a sin, ask for forgiveness and build your relationship with God. I use to be in your position until I invested fully into God. My life changed for the better.
How did your life change may I ask? I’m getting worried because people are giving me the impression it’s always going to suck but I’ll have god throughout my side in the suck. It doesn’t make sense as to why he wouldn’t make things better. I understand life can’t be all sunshine and rainbows but the ratio feels out of whack, feels like way more negative than positive
You're almost right. We'll always have periods of hardships in life and you'll have god on your side throughout the sucky phases as well as the good phases.
My life changed for the better because now throughout the shitty phases in life with God,- it hardly effects me at all.
Before, without God, I was exhausted, overwhelmed, suicidal and felt really alone during the shitty phases.
Now during shitty phases with God, I feel energized, optimistic, supported and determined to resolve whatever issue that is causing my life to be in a shitty phase.
God won't simply snap his fingers and change things for you while you sit on the couch after a few prayers here and there. You have to take action to change things while asking God for help to change things in ur life.
But also, it depends too. So He can't change your physical circumstances for you while you do nothing. However, he can take your pain away if you ask him via prayer and you don't have to take any additional "steps" at all to feel better.
For example, if I wanted to make more money so I can buy a decent house, I have to take the necessary steps to do that while asking God (nicely) to give that to me via prayer. -That's a physical circumstance.
However, if I'm having a panick attack, feel absolutely miserable, just simply in Alot of pain... God will magically make it disappear if I ask him to take the pain away via prayer. I don't have to smoke weed, I don't have to meditate, I don't have to do anything else besides tell him that I seek refuge from him, that I wish for the pain to go away. -That is a spiritual (internal) circumstance, that the Lord can manipulate right away.
The reason why his power is limited like that, is because we live in two different worlds.
God is in the spirit plane and we are in a physical, living plane where the devil and his demons like to spend most of their time. That part, I'm still trying to understand why the devil has access to the world but he does. But with God on your side, the devil's Spiritual attacks will always be blocked via prayer.
I know it's not ideal but it's absolutely better than nothing. It is definitely worth an investment to develop a relationship with God.
& Honestly, that's mostly what it is. A relationship. And just like with all relationships, you have to get to know God. Spend time with God (aka reading the bible & prayer). Talk to him like you would talk to a really good friend/family member that you respect and are loyal to and feel as though you can go to with any issues That's on your mind. Meeting the Lord's needs by being kind and even generous to others. And most importantly, resisting sin and asking forgiveness when you do sin, while working towards changing not to sin as best as you can. When this happens, where you both are meeting each other's needs, your bond and love develops for God. I know, it sounds strange. But that's how it works. Of course, a spiritual relationship is slightly different. You have to have a great amount level of respect, kindness and worship towards God. Taking God for granted and getting mad at him is a no go. I hope I explained this okay and most importantly hope that you at least try to explore a relationship with God, as it is Alot better having him in your life than not at all. 🙏💖
I hear you.
You hear him?
You should stop focusing on your feelings and focus on the ways God speaks to us
God speaks to us in different ways
Through His outward voice
In our head
Through His word (Bible)
Through the Holy Spirit
Through other people (in person or online)
Through circumstances
Through signs
God speaks, but do you pay attention? Or do you try to look out for the He talks? Do you read The Bible?
Or maybe you heard Him, but ignored because you didn't like it or it made you uncomfortable