Christians???

Question

I am just curious as to how you can put all your faith in a God you cannot see. I am not trying to be rude at all so please dont take offense to the question. I used to love God, but over the last few months I have not been able to keep my love and faith in him as I feel I have nothing to base it on. I have not see or felt his presence and there are so many bad things in this world. why would a God create sinners and force the people he should love to endure pain and suffering? I just dont understand it.

my question is asking You personally...I have studied other religions in the past. I am asking about your faith in God, not a general faith in God. and I'm not asking for an explanation on Gods ways...I asking how you put your faith into a God that allows bad things to happen. please read the question.

Answer 1

Well, it is true, you can not see god. you can not feel him, and you can not hear him.

But just like it says "without faith I am nothing"

even if you are having problems in your life, that does not mean that god does not love you, I do not belive that god sits up in heaven watching us all and says to himself, "lets see how I can make so and so squirm".

God did not creat sinners, we became them, and then he gave his son as a sacrifice that through his son we could go back into a state that we could enter his presence. Nothing any of us says or does can ever pay our way into heaven, that is why it is called grace. it is something undeserved that is given.

I dont know if this is actualy an answer to your question... I think I might have gone on a tangent.


Back on topic. yes there are bad things in this world but there are also good things, the feeling when you see the one you love, your children. Even the enjoyment you get from the smaller things in life.

I am not trying to preach to you on any of this and say you are a bad person for doubting god, or questioning your faith. far from it. I questioned my own faith heavily for a long time, still do on occasion but I still have faith in a god I can not see, hear or touch.

I wish you the best of luck and I hope that things look up for you as it sounds like you might be having a dificult period in your life.


edit, just read your additional details.


I wish I could understand gods ways. My father died about 2 hours we had a blowout fight. the last words I spoke to him where in anger. Was that god taking soneone away from my mother as a punishment to me for something? When I loose a job because someone lied about me did God inspire that persons actions? I dont think so.

Just like God alowed Lot to be tormented by the devil, god may alow things to happen in our lives but he does not necisarily cause them.

Answer 2

Faith is belief in the things we cannot see. Can you see the air you breath? How do you know it is there? How do you know it will be there the next time you take a breath? Because you have faith that it will be there. You can not see the air, but you can see the trees sway when it moves. You cannot see God , but you can see what He created and if you ever study science and how miraculous the balance of everything is you will come to realize that there is no way all this (including the very body you live in) could be so in sync without a superior being to have created it. When you pray to God in faith and see that prayer answered this builds your faith even more. God created this world and man (Adam and Eve) made a choice that brought pain and suffering (including death). God, in His great mercy, planned a way for man to be redeemed. He sent His only begotten Son as a sacrificial lamb to pay the price for Man's sin so that we (if we believe and have faith in Jesus) will not have to suffer eternally. God does love us. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

Answer 3

i was in your position a couple years ago. I found it hard to understand and accept just what was written. What I realized is that somethings in this world really cannot be explained by just reading about things. For example. Love, how can you love a person after knowing them only a couple of minutes? I say this with mothers in mind. Mothers love their children from the minute they are born... most of them anyway. How can you love a man or woman knowing that there is so much temptation in teh world? Faith and trust? where does it come from? We can't explain faith and trust in a person by reading it because it isn't something that can be written and understood completely by someone else. With that in mind, you can understand why christians believe in God. Now as for your question about why bad things happen...... well... unfortunately... sometimes, a bad thing is the only thing that sets everything back on track. For some, loss is the only way to become fulfilled. Sounds weird and makes no sense, I know, but it took me a while to understand it also. Maybe its because when we lose something we try and find something to make us feel better or to replace what we lost. God, or faith in general does both.

Answer 4

I once was very different from what I am now. It would take too long to list my malfunctions. I came to a crossroads in my life and I felt God reach out to me. I did and as Frost says "it made all the difference." I know God is real and I know he is good.

He did not create sin. He created choice and man chose disobedience and sin. To mister Epicurus. He must not have had children. If I did everything for my children where would they be when they grow up? I lead, guide, and council. I even sit back and watch while they put themselves in the position to receive a course of pain school. The only differences are that God is perfect and he lets us die. This may sound horrible, but you need perspective. All of us are going to die some day. But, once dead we can eternally live.

Answer 5

God does not tell us to have blind faith in Him; He always gives us a reason for our faith.

I do need to see Jesus to know that He is God. He left His perfect Word in which He talks specifically about people like us, . . . Blessed are those who believe who have NOT seen.

God did not create sinners. God created man and gave him choice. He told him up front what the consequences of each choice was. Man, to his folly, chose poorly to go off and do his own thing.

We live in an imperfect world, and sometimes -- most times, there is great pain involved. This is not because God hates us or forces us to endure pain and hardship; this is so that we gain empathy for others.

When you've had a root canal, and a few years down the road your friend has to have one, you can legitimately understand and empathise with her because you've been there yourself.

Haven't you ever noticed that the majority of people that come into your life are people who have had similar problems to yours that you've now outgrown? And now you have real answers and real advice to offer them and not just something pat that sounds good while you're secretly hoping they'll go away because you don't know what else to say?

As far as not feeling God's presence, you must remember, dear, that God did not speak to Abraham for 20 years. Even God Himself tells us to "seek Me while I may be found." This is because God, as He teaches us about Him, withdraws for a time to make us hunger for Him more. It might seem harsh, honey, but you know what, this is the life WE chose for us, it is not the life that HE chose for us.

The enemy of this world would have you believe that there is no good in this world and it is God's fault -- thereby proving the existence of God because it's His fault. So understand that the devil is a liar, and his whole goal is to keep YOU from knowing God, because he knows that God will save you from all of this.

Keep trucking, and keep calling out to God. Ask Him to bring people into your life who will reaffirm your faith. If you will be faithful to ask; He will be faithful to do.

Sincerely,

Rebecca

Answer 6

From the very beginning God have us free will. Satan, aka Lucifer, was at one time the angel of all angels, however, he got conceded and thought he was better than God and was cast from heaven. God gave Adam dominion of everything in the Garden of Eden, with the condition that he not eat from the tree of knowledge. Adam disobeyed and misfortune fell upon him as well. In life we all have choices we must make. Sometimes we make good choices. Sometimes we make bad choices. Sometimes it is the choices of others that cause us to have misfortunes. That's just the way life goes. Life isn't perfect becaue man isn't perfect. You will find that in life there must always be balance. You can't have hot without cold, happiness without sadness or good without evil. All we can do is live our lives and try to be the best people that we can be and pray for another. To ask why would God create sinners is to ask why God would create us, because WE ARE ALL SINNERS. Even the holiest, holiest of Christians is a sinner. To be without sin is to be perfect and no one, including you nor me are perfect. However, faith is not about seeing it is about believing. When a person gambles they place their bet in hope that a desirable outcome will come to pass. Each bet that is placed exhibits faith. Sometimes the person placing the bet may win. Sometimes they may lose. Each day when you get in your car and drive to where ever it is you need to go, you probably don't worry about getting in an accident or getting killed by a drunk driver. Although there is a chance of these terrible things happening, you put them in the back of your mind and proceed to your destination without any fear of harm or danger coming to you. That is what faith is all about, believing and trusting that everything is going to be alright. As a Christian that is the kind of faith I place in God everyday. Before confessing Jesus Christ as my Lord and personal Saviour years ago my life was a shambles. I was unemployed, not by choice, in an out of one meaningless relationship after another and just plain unhappy. In fact, if it wasn't for the generosity of my parents, there is a chance I would have been homeless. You say we as Christians can't see God but I see Him everyday. Not in a literal sense but rather in the way my life has changed since becoming saved. I have been blessed with good health, a wonderful wife whom I love with all my heart, a great job, a nice home, a car and an SUV. However, more importantly, my life has been spiritually enriched and I am happier than I have ever been in my life. When I wake up in the morning and I am able to get out of bed by my own strength that is all the proof I need that God is real. I see God when I see my wife smile, or the sun shine, or a child playing. God is everywhere. Sometimes all we have to do is just open our eyes. I will keep you in my prayers. Peace and God bless.

Answer 7

It once occurred to me that during the days chronicled in the Old Testament, God appeared to people and spoke to them all the time, almost to the point of micromanaging their lives: do this; don't do that; eat this; don't eat that; fight these people; leave those other people alone; build an ark; part the sea; always butting in; never keeping quiet. Then one day He clammed up and hasn't been heard from again. Not a word.

Since then many generations of people have been born, lived, and died. Those who believed in Him, and they were legion, and still are, did so on faith.

You yourself bear witness to the fact that belief based on faith is much more difficult to achieve than belief based on observation of tangible evidence. Those who succeed in achieving it should arguably receive more credit from God for having done so than those who believed only because they saw and heard for themselves.

In a real sense, if God still hung around as He did in the distant past, there could be no such thing as faith. True faith requires the ability to believe in the absence of physical, tangible evidence; and because it does, it must be much more precious to God than belief based on scientific observation. How could it not be?

Answer 8

I had a hard time putting faith in god to. But I found truth in that he touches each person differently on what ever level of faith they have in very little ways. look I don't want to push but may be pray and ask him why then look for the answer.

as to why god create sinners the answer is he didn't Adam and Eve did by there disobedience. As to why pain, to help his children grow in faith.

Answer 9

Why does He allow suffering? That is because He wants us to have free will. He could force us to all be good and perfect. Then nothing bad would happen, but we would also have no choices. He wants us to choose to love Him, not to be forced into it. By giving us free will to love Him, we also have free will to make bad choices. These bad choices can cause pain and suffering. He tells us that we can ask for wisdom (see James 1:5 KJV). I would say the closest answer we have to suffering is to ask for wisdom and help making the right choices. We also need to ask him to help us not only get through the hard times, but learn from them. I personally had a tough childhood, but now I wouldn't trade it for anything. Why? Because time and time again, I have been able to use my past experience to help someone in need. And in my helping that someone, we became closer friends. If I could have seen the good that would come out of my childhood troubles, maybe I would have been able to endure them with more joy. Now I am able to endure troubles that come my way with more joy than in the past, because I know God can use anything for good (Romans 8:28 KJV).

Another thing that helps me is to look at our relationship with God like that of a parent and child. A parent doesn't enjoy disciplining their child, but they know they have to do it to help the child learn to be good. Also, a parent wants to give a child everything they want, but they know that they can't do that. If they did buy them everything on the shelf at the toy store, it would ruin the child and make the child unthankful among other things. I think God is this way with us. It hurts Him to see us suffer, just like it hurts a parent to see their child suffer from bad decisions. They can only advise though, they cannot force their child to make the right decisions.

When suffering, sadness, and the trials of this world get to me, I try to think heavenward. I try to think about the fact that one day all pain will be over. I have chosen to accept the Lord and try to live by His rules. I choose to go live in Heaven one day and give up all the bad things of this world!

I am sorry to have typed so much. I guess the short answer is that God created sinners so that we would have a chance to choose and not be forced. As far as the pain and suffering, I believe that it is very hard for us to see the big picture. When we are in our eternal home, this life will be but a speck in time. So you see our pain and suffering only really lasts for a short time and it is here for a reason. The reason is so that we can have a choice to choose a loving God and an eternal home with Him in heaven.

Answer 10

Thank you for your very sincere and polite question. You are asking questions that most of us have asked at one time or another. Here are a few points that might help you:
1) Don't depend on your feelings but rely on God's word.
2) Spend time in prayer each day and read your Bible
3) When in prayer, as Him to increase your faith (this is Biblical)
4) Pray specifically so you can recognize His answer
5) Commit your all your ways to Him and He will direct your steps

Now, for you question about why He created sinners. He didn't. He created us with the freedom of choice. But we messed up..but He loved us so much, that He made a way for us to be forgiven.

I sincerely hope this helps you.
God Bless