I am a new christian, and I have had hardship after hardship in my life. I am a really good person, so why do I struggle so much. Is God punishing me for some reason, Does he do that?? I don't know much about him yet. I am struggling financially right now, as we own our own business, and haven't been able to pay any bills this month. And then on top of that, the transmission is messup up in the work truck. Right when I feel like I can't take one more bit of stress, another catastrophe happens...why does God let this happen?? I do not understand. I am a very nice, honest, caring person and I would do anything to help another person out if I could. So why do thes bad things happen to me all the time, if God loves me so much?
2006-12-21 17:56:02 · 38 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
You know, I can respect those of you who do not believe in God, But That is not the question I asked...And I did not ask to be judged by any of you..so if you feel like doing that don't bother posting at all.
2006-12-21 18:05:36 · update #1
Galatians 6:9
9Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Phil 4:6
6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Joshua 1:8
8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Psalm 1:1-3
1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.
These are promises from God. We have to read our Bible daily and give God our time in prayer. Read Deutoronomy 6 (the whole chapter)The more you meditate on Gods Word and you focus, the more of His presence you will feel and be more confident and trusting in the Lord. Memorize scripture too, so you can quote it out loud to yourself when the going gets tough. Do not let satan whisper lies to you. The bible says, he is the father of all lies. He wants you back on his destructive road...do not give up. Ask for prayer from your pastor & your Christian friends.
Stay in the Word my dear sister. If you can, sign up to a bible study. God will lift you up in due time.
Christs Blessings!
2006-12-21 20:51:38 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
You have asked an excellent question. I am sorry that you're having such a difficult time. I am not trying to be offensive in any way. I hope this helps.
The best answer to your question is that hardships simply happen. God(s) are not part of the equation.
It may not be a good time for you to consider this very real possibility that if your god does exist, he/she may not really look out for you at all. Or even more likely, the fact that very bad things happen to very good people, is a very strong argument against the existence of any god at all.
This can be a big step, so try to take it slowly. But if you can successfully free yourself from god-thinking, it will help you to see things more clearly and will be one less source of stress for you. Unfortunately, it can often take years to recover from christian indoctrination. Hopefully, for you, it will not be as difficult since you are a "new xian".
If gods exist, it is clear that they are either unable to prevent evil, or they don't care what happens to us.
Many theists will answer you with a rationalization that god lets bad things happen "out of necessity", "the mystery of god", or "to ensure that we have free will". To people like you, who are suffering, all this nonsensical rationalization deserves to be considered what it is: total bullshit.
Any god (or even a person) that allows evil to happen even though he/she could prevent it, is certainly the worst form of evil I can imagine.
Hang in there. Life is worth living.
2006-12-21 18:27:28 · answer #2 · answered by HarryTikos 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
People have been trying to answer this question for thousands of years, and there really is no answer.
FWIW, here's my solution.
Everything we know about God we learn from looking at Jesus. What do we learn about power from Jesus? That true power is made manifest in suffering and weakness. God is not an omnipotent tyrant who micromanages the universe. God is a man on a cross. God is suffering love. So let's not think we know a lot about what "omnipotence" means. I don't know if God could make you prosperous, or keep your truck from breaking down. But I do know that God is with you in all of it, ready to help you turn even suffering and loss into good. So don't let hardship make you bitter. Take it for what it is: an opportunity to grow in patience and love. Get whatever good out of it that you can.
FWIW.
2006-12-21 18:10:10 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Forget you are a Christian, Hindu, Muslim or any other religion.
Whatever stress you have mentioned his not from any god, its all a mess created by a improper management. Moreover to say the truth come out of your religious circle as it never be in help to anybody. I believe strongly all the livings in the earth are some sort of chemical reaction over years and years. Hence nobody above you controls the happening. Its all how smart you are handling things around.
If your business is not doing good, then it must be a forcasting problem or analytical issue. You need to find out why this is happening with you in this business. Probably the place you are running is not good for that sort of business.
If you dont get the truck in time, then you need to pre-plan for such things in the future with alternates. Probably you can make your orders split with multiple suppliers in a less quantity to everyone. so even if a delay with one vendor you can safeguard the damages with the rest.
If money is the problem you thing, I guess everybody in the answers.yahoo.com had/has/have that similar issue. Never mind it occurs to anybody, you need only reservs build from today to save your tomorrow.
Make sure to use the time properly, all the things could be made favour to us just by using the time properly. See the Japanese and the time management that made them succeed in their fight against economical issue after WWII.
If a whole country can come out of problem you are just a single person. Keep your work planned properly and do well.
Report the success in here, so other people who believe in god will realize that they should first believe in themself to succeed in their life.
2006-12-21 18:05:09 · answer #4 · answered by siva_kum 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
God bless you and welcome home. I can relate to what you've said; I've had hardship after hardship hit me as well. At the time I was confused and angry and frustrated; I often wondered what the heck was God trying to tell me, or why things couldn't be different.
I consider myself a new Christian as well. I was a protestant but never really knew my faith. It wasn't until I attended RCIA and became Catholic that I learned my faith and life hasn't been the same since. I learned that life will never be without struggles, a lesson I had a very hard time with. I had this image in my head about a perfect, stress-free life where everything went according to plan. If something didn't go by the plan, I went nuts. It took me a long while to realize that I'd been looking at things the wrong way. I was so busy staring at this life that I completely ignored what God was trying to tell me from day one: it's not about this life, but the next one with Him. What that did was refocus me, change my viewpoint. It helped me to understand that suffering and pain are actually okay, in the sense that they will always be here, and it was foolish and pointless to expect a perfect life. I can now deal with the stress 1000% better than I used to, it doesn't worry me so much because I know that eventually things do get better. I know that as long as I stay centered in God, I will find the solution. I don't mean to sound vague but these lessons have helped me in so many ways - it amazes me now all the things God has to teach me. I find myself thanking Him each day, even when things go bad, because I know He is always with me.
Stay close to Him, grow in your faith. Keep strong, and God bless you. Welcome home.
2006-12-21 18:12:30 · answer #5 · answered by Danny H 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Just so you know, you aren't the first new christian to ask this question. I was born into a christian family and left religion totally in my 20's. It wasn't until this past year (I'm 52 now) that I returned to the faith. I was wondering the same thing you're wondering. But it comes down to one thing: if we didn't know bad, we wouldn't know good; if we didn't know dark, we wouldn't know light; if we didn't know hate, we wouldn't know love. Sound corny? Of course. But the difference from before is very simple: we have a belief that Jesus is with us and will help us through all of it, and that things will get better. I believe that, and I think you do too.
2006-12-21 18:05:55 · answer #6 · answered by honest_funny_charlie 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not God! It's your adversary. Remember God does not tempt or test with evil. But what God's does for the good, Satan manipulates for the bad.
Take for an example Eve. The individual Satan used to get man to disobey God, was the same individual that Satan's defeater and redeemer, would be born.
Also read 1 John and the Christian growth. From a Baby, to a Young Child, to an Adult.
2006-12-21 18:01:28 · answer #7 · answered by n_007pen 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
My friend, I have heard this question many times. Others have asked why does it seem the wicked prosper while God's people struggle so much.
When we stop to think of it, we only have to suffer what....70 or 80 years and then we will have joy and happiness throughout eternity? The only happiness the wicked will ever have is that which they have here and actually I doubt they have that much happiness here either. Much of the prosperity they think they have is but an illusion.
But why do we have these problems? Jesus did not promise that everything would be perfect after we trust in Him...in fact He promised just the opposite. He promised we would...would not might suffer for HIS name's sake. Many of the things we have happen to us is intended to keep us focused on HIM for strength, comfort and our needs. If we never had a problem we would not remember that HE resolves them and we would start to thing WE can do it on our strength. His strength is made perfect in our weakness.
God provided manna to His people...daily. We are to pray for our daily bread....because all this keeps us looking to the author and finisher of our faith.
Please let us know if we can help you grow in our LORD ..
2006-12-21 18:28:08 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I myself has done no wrong in this life yet there are times I have suffered greatly but suffering is a part of life when you get it out of they way now it won't happena s much later and god is putting you through a test so stay strong and you will pass and you can guess what the reward is
2006-12-21 18:10:14 · answer #9 · answered by Mike 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Its not God who puts u into hardship but its the devil.
If you read Genesis, you'll see that God created the world and gave it to the humans. But......by committing sin they brought something unholy into God creation by opening the door for satan to carry out his work. In other words they gave satan a foothold in creation. In effect, god gave man the world and man gave it to satan That's why satan tempts Jesus by saying, all that you see is mine and I will give it to you if you worship it. He wasn't lying, the true owners had given him a legal right to take over what was theirs, through their actions.
Similarly, there may be things in your family history and your life that gives the devil a legal right to influence you. You need you close those avenues. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what those are and He will guide you. You can then confess and/or renounce where necessary. Then ask Jesus to cleanse and seal you with His blood.
When a hardship comes, ask the Lord to go through it with you. when I first accepted Jesus, it was the same for me but you know what, now I'm happy that all those trials came because I know how to face life. Good luck and God bless you.
2006-12-21 18:14:10 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋