Looking to God instead of food--fellow Believers out there?
Replies
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French_Peasant wrote: »Just had a random thought, who here thinks God is trying to reach out to me? Hence my questions?
Are your spidey senses tingling?
In other words, do you feel a still, small voice whispering in your heart?
As I've read this thread, I've had a chill running down my spine and tears in my eyes, both for your own broken heart, and for the beauty of the testimonies you have received. A nonbeliever would dismiss it as just being overemotional or imagining things. A believer would say it is the work of the Holy Spirit. (For some context, I'm the kind of person who scoffed at the love story in Titanic, so that gives some indication of how emotional I am, ha ha).
Regardless, you have probably had hundreds of people praying for you and your sweet little baby, a tiny, innocent lamb now being cradled in the arms of the Good Shepherd, we believe.
I feel pretty torn.
I don't know what I feel tbh.
What if that's just my inner voice?
Or some very deep sort of mindfulness?
How do you even communicate anyway?
Out loud? In your head?
I always have to be careful with these things as I'm pretty vulnerable mentally, and can be convinced of almost anything.
Not that any of you are trying to lure me into anything but I have to be 100% sure.
I just keep thinking what if.
You all truly believe and you're all adults so it's not like santa and there must be something in it.
I even did something called the alpha course in college after the day was over, it was just a small group of people of different views going over the bible and getting different views on it. That and me and my friend were cooking the meals for everyone afterwards lol
It was a catholic college so can't exactly remember what we were going over.
Apart from Noah apparently being an alcoholic?
That always stuck with me for some reason because i found it rather surprising lol!
I don't know, if I decided to try, where would I begin?
As mentioned above, I agree with a good annotated version of the NIV (New International Version). In hard copy, to show you are serious about it, and so you can underline things that strike your fancy, and have the footnotes right there. Blushenvy recommended starting with John, which is also my favorite gospel, but that can also be very challenging because, although it is beautiful, it is also very philosophical (based in Greek/Platonic philosophy). I also think the book of Luke is very beautiful, and much more human and accessible. It starts off with babies, and as a mum of two and your lost baby, you know how lovely it is to read and think about them. Your story about cooking for your friends made me think of Mary and Martha in Chapter 10 of Luke. Luke also wrote the book of Acts, another one of my favorites. And I love the Psalms, and Isaiah, and 1, 2 and 3 John....well, it is hard for me to pick a favorite.
Normally I just pray in my head, or aloud with my children. I have prayed aloud, alone and in despair, and I have also prayed aloud for other people. Discernment of where a "voice" is coming from is very important, and I don't think it's something I can tell you; you have to contemplate it in your heart.2 -
What a fabulous choice of paths! I'm excited for you! Blessings on your journey!0
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Good thread and interesting back and forth. Also christian here. Anyway might I recommend that the conversation that's going on continue in one of the groups. Sooner or later this thread probably going to be locked due to forum rules. Anyway wish ya'll the best and god bless0
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Morning! I am sorry, I have such a short amount of time this morning. I agree with 4homer in that this thread will get shut down. In light of that, I have created a group where we can continue the conversation. You all are invited-
I have copy-pasted the entire conversation beginning where I asked Bex some questions.
As soon as I can, I'll get in there and answer your questions. I hope you feel better soon Bex-never fun to be under the weather!
Here is the group link: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10584128/bex/p1?new=1
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Yep. Seems someone has gotten flag happy. Even flagging ones who commented add me.
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Joined the group! See you all there!
Sorry if I ruined the thread lol!-1 -
I don't know how to paste other MFP discussions within a discussion on the app but I can highly recommend our Christian Support Group.-1
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It's all good, Bex - no worries!0
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Morning! I am sorry, I have such a short amount of time this morning. I agree with 4homer in that this thread will get shut down. In light of that, I have created a group where we can continue the conversation. You all are invited-
I have copy-pasted the entire conversation beginning where I asked Bex some questions.
As soon as I can, I'll get in there and answer your questions. I hope you feel better soon Bex-never fun to be under the weather!
Here is the group link: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10584128/bex/p1?new=1
When I click that link I get sent to a Permission not granted page...can you post the link to the Group, but not to a specific thread, please?1 -
So wonderful to see/hear so many share their faith and answer questions so delicately. Faith is a hard thing to describe especially when coupled with heartbreaking, unexplainable experiences. It looks like this thread is successfully leading others to Christ or at least making them think about their relationship with him. This is so encouraging. Keep on being the light!!!!!1
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I got the same permission screen. I found the group or think I did. Lol.
When God Calls Your Name
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Yeah I just said in the permission box that I was part of this thread1
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French_Peasant wrote: »Just had a random thought, who here thinks God is trying to reach out to me? Hence my questions?
Are your spidey senses tingling?
In other words, do you feel a still, small voice whispering in your heart?
As I've read this thread, I've had a chill running down my spine and tears in my eyes, both for your own broken heart, and for the beauty of the testimonies you have received. A nonbeliever would dismiss it as just being overemotional or imagining things. A believer would say it is the work of the Holy Spirit. (For some context, I'm the kind of person who scoffed at the love story in Titanic, so that gives some indication of how emotional I am, ha ha).
Regardless, you have probably had hundreds of people praying for you and your sweet little baby, a tiny, innocent lamb now being cradled in the arms of the Good Shepherd, we believe.
I feel pretty torn.
I don't know what I feel tbh.
What if that's just my inner voice?
Or some very deep sort of mindfulness?
How do you even communicate anyway?
Out loud? In your head?
I always have to be careful with these things as I'm pretty vulnerable mentally, and can be convinced of almost anything.
Not that any of you are trying to lure me into anything but I have to be 100% sure.
I just keep thinking what if.
You all truly believe and you're all adults so it's not like santa and there must be something in it.
I even did something called the alpha course in college after the day was over, it was just a small group of people of different views going over the bible and getting different views on it. That and me and my friend were cooking the meals for everyone afterwards lol
It was a catholic college so can't exactly remember what we were going over.
Apart from Noah apparently being an alcoholic?
That always stuck with me for some reason because i found it rather surprising lol!
I don't know, if I decided to try, where would I begin?
That voice will continue. I was questioning at first like you. I wanted to hear God's,voice and I was afraid I was imagining it or talking to myself. I'd be driving and say.."Father..please talk to me..." in my head I'd hear what do you need child? Trust yourself. "Be still..be quiet, and listen to what comes into your head." I pray constantly for things I worry about, for people,I love..and many times I just say..take care of this Father the way you want it to be. The peace I have from believing brings such joy and contentment..being grateful..seeing how things,happen...I used to say wow that was,luck...its,not being lucky..it''s God!4 -
I have to say, I checked in late last night and I just started to cry. God You are so good!
I also have to say the flag happiness is cracking me up a little bit
Bex953172, I have to agree with these guys/gals in that there's no question the He is stirring up your heart. Not just you, but on every one of us who are in here with you.
But I am glad you're questioning.
I approved those of you who want to join the group-I didn't know whether to make it private or not. For now, just send a request and I'll approve you soon as I see it.
Hopefully, we won't get the boot here, but in case we do the thread is "Bex" and the group is:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/122053-when-god-calls-your-name
I'm pulling part of you're quote just to keep this easier to read:
okay so, I guess people are all different, our thought processes are different and that means the way we deal with things are different. Regardless of whether you are a believer or not.
I don't know how one can still have faith in god after a bad thing, as a non believer I don't know what the answer to that is.
Can you give an example of something being ugly and horrific and him turning it beautiful?
---->Yes! Absolutely, I'll give you a couple-
My favorite true life story is that of a man I knew from my early teens. This man's testimony is nothing short of extraordinary, you absolutely will not be able to put the book down.
The Emancipation of Robert Sadler
There's also Corrie Ten-Boom's story in The Hiding Place
You can also google "hymns written from tragedies". That alone would keep you reading for a long time.
There are so many, but let's make it personal-
Personally, from my own life one example would be about Sexual Abuse.
To make a long story short, men hurt me and I hated them for it. Deep, seething, raging hatred. But at the same time I loved my Jesus.
One day I sat down to read my Bible, and I opened it straight to this~ (Matthew 6:14-15) For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Yep, I know those are hard words to read in the light of what I just said, but the Lord just put His finger on my heart and said "Let's deal with this". I just broke in two. I gave Him all that hurt, all that hatred and anger-everything. I didn't want to hold on to it any more. It had felt like a ton of bricks hanging heavy around my neck for way too long.
See, there is a kind of healing that exists and it can only come from God Himself. When He heals you, you are no longer the same. You can't be. How could you be?
When He put His finger on the thing in my heart that needed healing-it was healed. Completely.
I can tell you that I am able to not only be in the same room with these men today, but to put my arms around them and tell them I love them. And MEAN IT!!! There's no anger, no hatred, no guilt, no shame left-nothing but total freedom and peace.
Fast forward a bit...
I'm at my youth group one night and God was moving-people were asking for prayer all over the place.
I ended up going to pray for a girl who was asking for prayer. I'd never seen her before, don't know her name, didn't know a thing about her.
She didn't tell me what she needed other than prayer.
But the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart and told me to share my story with her. As I shared my story and began to pray for her, she began to just weep.
She told me then, that she had been raped.
See, God knew exactly what that girl needed at that moment in time. He stepped into her life and took the bad stuff that had happened in mine, and used it to set her free. That's how God works. That's just one tiny way He makes things beautiful.
I have zero regrets about what happened to me. What I have now in it's place is precious beyond any possible description I could give you.5 -
More quotes from Bex953172:
I don't think he does heal a wounded heart as such,
--->>>Read the book I mentioned above about Robert Sadler-it's so crazy good!
maybe someone turning to God could change their life but have they not ultimately made that choice to look?
---->> That's just it, we aren't the ones changing our lives. While we may be able to work on some things, God sees the condition of the heart-that's something that He alone can change. That's always what He's after-
(1 Samuel 16:7) "Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart"
Does God fall onto people's laps? (Not literally obviously lol)
---->>> You mean does He just show up after never noticing you before? No, He's always know every little detail about you. You have never escaped His notice. I mentioned those blessings in your life that you didn't even know were blessings. The Bible says He blesses believers and unbelievers alike. We have countless blessings every day to be thankful for, yet we don't even realize that's what's going on.
Aren't humans on their own capable of achieving such feats without the help of God, are we really that vulnerable?
--->>> He created us with strengths and weaknesses, gifts and talents, thoughts and all kinds of amazing bells and whistles. But again, only He can deal with the condition of our heart.
(On a different topic can God stop my 3yo repeating mummmy 2000 times a day )
--->>> I would never! You'd miss the noise the second it disappeared
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Me:
You bravely entered into this conversation asking questions.
So my second question to you is "Why"?
Bex:
Do you mean why I asked these questions?
I saw how you all believe that god could help you on this journey of your weight loss and I wondered how this could be, and it got me thinking about it all tbh.
We can achieve anything as human beings and not with a higher being, can't we?
When did we lose faith in ourselves?
---->>> It wasn't a matter of losing faith in myself. It was a matter of putting faith in myself to death and placing it in the God who actually deserves it. I am not weak-I'm bending my knee to my King. I'm not trying to lose weight because I just want to feel better about myself-no, I want God to change my heart to be more like His own. I want to honor Him.
But I waited a while because the first time I commented I got accused of being offensive and the last thing I want to do is offend anyone.
I respect all your opinions and if you believe in God that's not a problem to me, people
Believe in all sorts don't they really.
--->>> I am sorry for this. Not all believers are in the same place in our walk with Jesus-we don't know everything all at once. I think a lot of Christians feel like they have to defend God and might take questions personally, when it's really an awesome opportunity for us to just share Jesus with you.
It's been rather refreshing reading about it all.
--->>>Good!
Do you believe in Satan if you believe in God?
--->>> I do-though I strongly believe the Church(believers) give him too much credit and God not enough.
I feel pretty torn.
I don't know what I feel tbh.
What if that's just my inner voice?
Or some very deep sort of mindfulness?
--->>> Just keep seeking. The Bible is clear that if we look for Him with all our heart, we will find Him.
Following Jesus is far from easy. You hear all the time that salvation is free. Sure it is, to a point-it's freely given and must be freely received-but following Jesus costs us everything. Even He said you need to count the cost before you make that decision. I can promise you He is worth it though!
How do you even communicate anyway?
Out loud? In your head?
--->>>Just talk to Him in your head or out loud-doesn't matter. I'm very ADD, so I started writing prayers down. It helps me stay focused and gives me a way to look back and see the prayers as He answers them.
Seriously-just talk to Him.
I always have to be careful with these things as I'm pretty vulnerable mentally, and can be convinced of almost anything.
Not that any of you are trying to lure me into anything but I have to be 100% sure.
--->>>I'm not interested in luring you into anything. I want you to look and search it out for yourself. Like I said-even Jesus said count the cost. He meant it.
I just keep thinking what if.
You all truly believe and you're all adults so it's not like santa and there must be something in it.
--->>>Yes...what if? That is the most amazing question I think anyone could ever ask.
I even did something called the alpha course in college after the day was over, it was just a small group of people of different views going over the bible and getting different views on it. That and me and my friend were cooking the meals for everyone afterwards lol
It was a catholic college so can't exactly remember what we were going over.
Apart from Noah apparently being an alcoholic?
That always stuck with me for some reason because i found it rather surprising lol!
--->>>He wasn't always-his heart wandered away somewhere. God also dealt with him for it(his heart wandering), but that's another story for another day.
I don't know, if I decided to try, where would I begin?
Everyone here has offered amazing suggestions-take them up on them. And start reading the Bible-someone mentioned Luke which is an awesome place to start. See who Jesus was and what He did for people.
And just start talking to Him. Tell Him whatever is on your heart.
Any of us would be happy to help you along the way if you like.
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One more thought to Bex: When I was struggling with all of my emotions over my parents' illnesses and eventual deaths, a friend of mine at church suggested that I write a letter to God just pouring out everything I felt, so I did. I put all of the anger and sadness and negative emotions I was feeling into a very long letter to God. It drained me. I felt exhausted for several days. And then, a few days later, at the suggestion of my friend, I burned the letter. It was a symbolic way to let go of all those feelings and receive healing, and it really helped me. Maybe you're not ready to do this yet, but just keep it in mind. Hugs to you!3
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P.S. I applied for membership to the group, so hope to see everyone there shortly!3
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Wow. I have read this thread from beginning to end, and I have found it mesmerizing.
First, I would like to say to blushenvy, you have done a beautiful job trying to explain questions that don't have easy, clear answers. It's obvious that God is working in your life and transforming you, through the good and the bad. Others have given beautiful responses, too.
Second, I would like to say to Bex953172 that I'm so very, very sorry that you lost your child. I can't imagine the pain you've been through. Reading your questions and comments, I see so much of myself in you, from years ago when I, too, questioned God's existence, and how He could allow bad things to happen to good people. Over a period of 20 years, I watched not one, but both of my parents suffer through the horrible disease of Alzheimer's. I watched my mother slowly lose her memory and function, I watched my father watch my mother decline and saw how hard that was for him, and then I watched my father slowly decline with the disease. I'm not trying to "compete" with your suffering, I'm just saying I can relate.
I was very angry with God and ultimately lost my faith, which wasn't very strong to begin with from growing up in a religion that basically just told you what to believe. I floundered in life, I was depressed, and felt like I was just going through the motions. But somewhere deep in my heart, a tiny hope remained that maybe God would show Himself to me and allow me to rebuild my faith. My husband and I started going to church, a church where they welcomed people from all walks of life, people who had questions about God and their faith, and the church worked hard to help people work through those questions. I think my biggest struggle with believing is that I thought I had to have all of my questions answered if I was going to believe, but I discovered that God is bigger and more powerful than I can imagine, and there aren't always easy or obvious answers. I tried walking the path of a Christian along with others, even though I felt like a fraud. But I kept asking God to reveal Himself to me. Eventually I saw what God was doing in other people's lives, and felt God working in my own life, and I decided to take the leap of faith to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Sometimes I still struggle with my faith, but God says all you need is faith the size of a mustard seed, so I have hung on, and God has done amazing things in my life.
I truly understand your anger with God and why it seems so cruel that He allowed your baby to die. I don't have any perfect words to explain this, but I will say this. In order to allow humans to truly have faith in God, He had to give them free choice, free choice as to whether believe in Him or not, free choice as to whether to follow Him or to lead a life away from. Giving free choice to the world allowed room for people to sin and to do bad things, and this brought much suffering into the world. I can't say why you've been through your ordeal, but I do know that free choice is necessary to allow humans the freedom to follow God or not. Accepting God doesn't give you a life free from loss and pain, but it allows God to be there with you, guiding you through it, and perhaps you'll be a stronger, kinder, and more compassionate person because of your suffering.
Sorry to make this so long, but I just want to give you a few words of advice. First, pray to God. Tell Him how angry you are, scream at Him, be honest about how you feel. He can take it. He wants an honest relationship with you. Then ask Him to lead you and to show Himself to you. Second, I encourage you to read an Application Bible. It has footnotes at the bottom that help explain some of the confusing parts of the Bible and helps you to apply it to your everyday life. Third, consider reading a book called "Letters from a Skeptic" by Greg Boyd. The book examines a lot of the questions I asked and that you are now asking. It's a little wordy at times, but it truly made a difference in my faith journey, especially the last few chapters. It took me almost a decade to work out my issues. It probably won't be easy, or quick, but I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that accepting God is WORTH IT.
I hope you can relate at least a little bit to my testimony and that it might help you a bit. Big hugs to you!
Wow I nearly missed this post!
Of course your not trying to compete, I know awful things happen to others and it broke my heart to hear about your parents.
I'm so so sorry.
I'm starting to understand a lot more about it.
You've all helped a lot it's been very insightful.
Still unsure on how I feel about it all.
Just had a random thought, who here thinks God is trying to reach out to me? Hence my questions?
I'm a Muslim, not a Christian, so maybe not quite welcome here... And yet even I think this. 7
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