What am I doing wrong?

Question

I use to be a non-believer, and I was baptized a few months ago. So right now I am trying practice a christian lifestyle. Lately, I have been going through tough times, I cant seem to turn my life around at this point. I pray about it, but I am beginning to feel hopeless. I work so I am not able to attend church regularly, I use to tithe, but now Im completely in debt. I am puzzled as to how some individuals are granted blessings, and clearly do not make the effort to acknowledge God. I just want to get my life together, but I just do not see it happening. Is there a difference between believing and actually trusting GOD?

Answer 1

Mic:6:8: He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

I will always try, but the only way to do it is to align your will with His and let Him take full control of the circumstances and realize apart from Him we can do nothing. It is Jesus and Jesus alone. Jesus + anything = nothing, but Jesus + nothing = everything.
If we try to make things happen it is us trying to do our will and not His will. We know only enough to position ourselves, not enough to bring it all together. He will let us try forever until out of frustration and depression we come to the end of ourselves. Then He will take over and make things happen.
But when we are trying we are in pride whether we realize it or not and He resists the proud, but gives Grace to the humble. Our job is to stay where He set us and make ourselves content in whatever state we are in.
Take care and may God bless you spiritually

Here is a e-mail I read recently that made alot of sense to me.


This is an absolutely incredible interview with Rick Warren, author of "Purpose Driven Life" His
wife now has cancer, and he now has "wealth" from the book sales. In the interview by Paul Bradshaw
with Rick Warren, Rick said: "People ask me, 'What is the purpose of life?'
And I respond: 'In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God
wants us to be with Him in Heaven.'

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body--but not the end of me.
I may live to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act, the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn't going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you're just coming out of one, or you're
getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.
We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that's not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in
character, in Christ likeness. This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest,
with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you go to the
mountaintop, back and forth. I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys,
I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something
good and something bad in your life. No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems. If you focus on your problems, you're going into self-centeredness, 'which is my problem, my issues, my pain.'

But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and
others. We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was
not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her. It has been very difficult for her, and yet God
has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony,
drawn her closer to Him and to people. You have to learn to deal with both the good and
the bad of life. Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance,
this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal with before. I don't think God
gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.
So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave
me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72.

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no
major purchases. Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.
Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call 'The Peace Plan' to plant churches, equip leaders,
assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation. Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to
serve God for free. We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity? Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God's purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, 'God, if I don't get anything
else done today, I want to know You more and love You better.' God didn't put me on earth just to
fulfill a to-do list. He's more interested in what I am than what I do. That's why we're called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD. Difficult moments, SEEK GOD. Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD. Painful
moments, TRUST GOD. Every moment, THANK GOD. "

Answer 2

Wrongs will also be specific among cultures and will difference over the years. Some cultures suppose that unique meals need to be ready in a unique manner and it's unsuitable to do or else. That unsuitable my have developed earlier than refrigeration was once to be had and so might not be relevant. Even so, there shall be a few who comply with the culture simply given that it labored for previous generations. For persons who believed within the necessity for racial purity a few persons it was once unsuitable to have incorporated colleges, shared eating places and loos. For persons who believed in male superiority, it was unsuitable for ladies to count on identical pay. For populations that have been death given that of ailment or demise in struggle and typical crisis, you can suppose that homosexuality was once discouraged given that it diverted sexual vigour from replica. I suspect that should you determine the ten Commandments you'll discover that each and every was once defined to deter movements that tended to have dangerous outcome for the ones societies at the moment and more commonly nonetheless does. In many circumstances, simply as you've gotten defined and to the built global of the twenty first century, those dangerous outcome seem relatively logical. In Biblical instances, just a few understood the common sense or had the knowledge. Moses was once very shrewd certainly and knew that the lengthy anguish Tribes could by no means have believed he would for my part have such knowledge but when he defined those because the phrases of God, good . . . . . .

Answer 3

There are christians that tithe, but are still in debt, there are books int he christian book store on how to find financial freedom, if you cannot find a cell group that focuses on getting out of debt, at least that sounds to me like that would be your problems. If you pay titheing you should reap blessing, so maybe you just need to tithe and trust God as well, maybe you will just barely make it, but the point is you are making it, maybe money will come out of nowhere, or maybe you will see that you are barely making it, inspite of paying the tithing, whereas you were barely making it and not paying tithing, get it??? I payed tithing,b ut my car kepted overheating and I just could not keep paying all this money out on my car (I was a single parent) and a person in my church said God had told her to give me some money and it paid the bill to repair the car and then a person paid my bill so I could go out and eat with friends.

Answer 4

Belief and trust are much the same. You need to realize that the Bible also says we will be tested. So keep your strength up and keep believing. I have never been able to drive, so getting to church is rare for me. I have an ancestor I have read about that would walk five miles to Church, then back; about 200 years ago.
We have these computers. Look for sermons or free Bible studies on the Internet so you can do them when you are home. Try to stay away from the King James Bible, it is hard to understand and King James ordered lies in it; because he was Catholic and did not want people reading the Bible. Five other English translations had been made and were being smuggled in. So King James tried this to stop them.

Answer 5

You are simply trying too hard, my friend. If you don't have the money to tithe, don't worry about it. God wants your heart and soul, not your money. You cannot buy your salvation or earn it in any way. Just live your life the best you can, pray, and trust God to guide your steps in life. Go to church when you can, if you want to, which I think is a good idea. But remember, God is always with you wherever you go. He is in your heart.

Answer 6

You did not mention about how you became a Christian. According to Romans 10 you must believe that Jesus Christ arose from the dead and you must confess Him as your Lord. Upon your confession of Christ as your Lord you become saved and the Spirit of God comes into your spirit and lives within your spirit to teach you and guide you into the truth. At that point you are a baby in Christ who has just been born into the spiritual world. The begins a growing process and just like in the physical realm you can not really see it happening except over a period of time. What a am saying here is be patient, feed every day on the word of God, obey its instruction, pray constantly and seek to live your life according to the principles of righteousness that you find in the word of God. It will happen!

Answer 7

The very second you become a believer, our enemy attacks with a vengance because you have left his camp and joined the other one. He does not want you there and will do everything to make you give up your Christian walk. Being a Christian is not easy, we have to fight that enemy and gain control - resist the devil and he will flee - because we do have authority over him and his army. Faith is like a muscle that has to be exercised in order to grow strong. You are in the beginnings of your workout. Just stay focused and you'll eventually know that God has everything covered in your life and the hard times are the working of the muscle to strengthen it.

Answer 8

Hon, you should not be concerned about what other blessing people receive. It's a one-on-one relationship with God. When you accept Christ as your Saviour, you are not guaranteed automatic "financial" freedom. God understands your heart and He knows your "needs". Be patient and work as hard as you can and in time everything will fall into place like it should. Don't get discouraged.

Answer 9

Belief and trust go hand in hand.

Also, following God and practicing a Christian lifestyle does not guarantee that you will have no struggles in your life. To the contrary, it generally means you will have more struggles in your life. But it also means that God is there giving you the strength and showing you the way through your problems.

Also consider whether you are in the church God wants you to be in. Try other denominations and see if their styles fit your spirituality better.

Answer 10

Screw tithing, pay your debts first. Deal with your money problems because the Church is not going to help you in this are they.
If you are having ongoing money trouble get financial counseling. It is usually made available free by your local government.
If you are having emotional troubles there is counseling for that too. Professional trained counseling, with solid advice.
Not pray and wish counseling.

Remember always that God helps those who help themselves.

Answer 11

It could be a test, maybe you were right before. regardless, no deity is going to make you poor, and no deity is going to make you rich. It all depends on what denomination you are following. Some Christians believe that poverty allows a stronger spirit, while Calvinists see material wealth as a sign that they are Gods chosen people.