An Easter challenge...
In the past year, my life has been the best ever and you all know why I think that is... because I've become a Christian.
I was talking to someone at work the other day who said "I know it sounds stupid, but when I was on the flight back from Tenerife I sort-of prayed asking for God to make me calm on the plane" (she's not a believer). Well I said that's not stupid, God listens to everyone whether they believe in Him or not. There are prayers being answered all over the place going unnoticed. I'm sure I've missed quite a few answered prayers.
Well, anyway, if there's one thing you can do for me this Easter time it's to pray: "Please God show me your presence in my life". You've got nothing to lose.
There are a couple of outcomes:
a) God isn't there and nothing will come of it
b) God is there and he will answer and your life will change to something better than you could ever imagine.
If I'm wrong about all this stuff then there's no point of course, but if I'm right, I know from just the past year, it makes a difference to my life. Just try it, please. If I'm wrong there's nothing to be scared of!
Also, if you want me to pray for you about anything (apart form the stuff I already pray about you...) then just let me know :o)
I was talking to someone at work the other day who said "I know it sounds stupid, but when I was on the flight back from Tenerife I sort-of prayed asking for God to make me calm on the plane" (she's not a believer). Well I said that's not stupid, God listens to everyone whether they believe in Him or not. There are prayers being answered all over the place going unnoticed. I'm sure I've missed quite a few answered prayers.
Well, anyway, if there's one thing you can do for me this Easter time it's to pray: "Please God show me your presence in my life". You've got nothing to lose.
There are a couple of outcomes:
a) God isn't there and nothing will come of it
b) God is there and he will answer and your life will change to something better than you could ever imagine.
If I'm wrong about all this stuff then there's no point of course, but if I'm right, I know from just the past year, it makes a difference to my life. Just try it, please. If I'm wrong there's nothing to be scared of!
Also, if you want me to pray for you about anything (apart form the stuff I already pray about you...) then just let me know :o)
Labels: Misc, My Christian life
posted by Anna and Scott at
5:36 pm
10 Comments:
Hang on, surely there are three outcomes: the one where God exists but doesn't answer? Surely he can't answer everything?
Hope I won't offend you, you know what I think on the matter, just wanted to kick off a discussion really...
By
Char, At
April 11, 2007 7:11 pm
Yes, you do have a point. God might not answer EVERY prayer or He answers but doesn't give us the answer we want.
Humans don't know what's best for them. I can pray for a husband, but that doesn't mean it's ever going to happen because it might not be in God's plan (although I pray it is!).
I can assure you of one thing though... the prayer I typed out "Please God show me you presence in my life" He will most certainly answer. I am sure of that. He wants everyone in His family and if you Ask, Seek, Knock the door will be open for you (Matthew 7:7-8). You just have to ask.
Go on I dare you!
By
Anna and Scott, At
April 12, 2007 8:35 pm
Ok, this age-old argument: if God knows what's best for everyone, how come: famine, war, torture, abduction, disease etc etc etc...
And why would not having a husband, for example, be in God's plan? Does something that small and meaningless actually matter to Him?
I'd be interested to hear your answer...
By
Char, At
April 17, 2007 9:56 am
God also gives us free will and unfortunately we often choose to do our will and not God's. Satan has power in this world too. Yes, God created Satan - he has free will as well and just so happened to go against God's will too.
About the husband thing:
Why would having a husband be in God's plan?
God might think it is best for me not to have a husband. He obviously thinks it's best for me not to have one now, otherwise I'd be married! There are benefits of being married - mutual spiritual growth, having children in a Godly environment.
God is interested in EVERY tiny little detail in our lives. Even the ones we don't think about. He wants us to have a perfect life and we have no idea of how good that could be. Nothing is meaningless to Him because he made humans to be like Him. He loves us more than we can ever imagine!
By
Anna and Scott, At
April 17, 2007 6:37 pm
He wants us all to have a perfect life? But these would conflict with each other - one person's perfect life is another person's torturous one.
I would hardly say the people in Dafur, for instance, are having a perfect life...
If he made humans to be like him, either God is a very bad person, or we'd all be omniprescient!
By
Char, At
April 18, 2007 9:59 am
This is a really interesting debate to which I cannot contribute a satisfactory answer. I can however give some background to my life if it will help to clarify why God might allow suffering:
About 18 months ago I went through a 'black hole' of depression, which was largely caused by an unjust situation at work, the details of which I won't trouble you with now. Up to that time I had been a Christian for some 10 years and much of my depression stemmed from not understanding what was going on. In that time I was asking the same questions as you: why was God allowing this suffering to happen? I appreciate that this is nowhere close to being on the scale of Darfur, Bosnia-Herzegovina or 9/11 and 7/7, but I guess it is whatever brings us down to a point where we cannot cope any more that is valid here.
As it turned out, it was the only way to get me to move on from that job, which was doing my health and well-being no good at all. Four months after the depression set in, I started work for a new firm who happened to be Christian and I have been there ever since and have felt my confidence rise ever since.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that all this came about because God knew what was better for me for that time, but first he allowed me to go through some mental and emotional pain in order that he could get me to that place where I could get to what was better. Had I not gone through this, I would have continued in my life the same way as before, possibly to destruction.
However, I don't know whether that would be of much comfort or help to the families of those who were killed in the tragedies I mentioned earlier. It would be easy for me to fall back on the fact that we live in a fallen world anyway. For me, it is about whether were we not to follow God, life in this fallen world would actually be easier than were we to be with him. I can honestly say that there is far too much about the world and its tragedies that I don't - and may never - understand, and that the only one who does is God. Therefore, knowing that he is not only there to receive our prayers for such tragic situations but that in fact he welcomes them is immensely reassuring because it means that I don't have to depend on my very limited understanding. In fact, God might even give me (and others who believe) some answer or indication as to how we might best help those affected by such situations.
I hope that this has helped a bit. I fear that you may feel this is not adequate as an answer. It just shows that my understanding and knowledge is really limited, and also why I need someone in my life who does understand it, even if he does not explain it (yet). That someone is God.
If it would help you, log on to www.biblegateway.com and look at the book of Job, a very godly man who lost it all through no obvious fault of his own, and who had to endure horrendous sufferings before God restored his life to him.
Thank you for allowing me to contribute to this debate.
By
Anonymous, At
April 18, 2007 1:50 pm
God wants us to have a perfect life, but that will not happen until the WHOLE world is perfect. I don't think St Paul had a perfect life but that did not stop him writing letters to all over South East Europe to tell people about Jesus. It was that important to him that he suffered for it. He suffered at the hands of unbelievers and people putting world views (politics, money, power) before God.
The first step to finding a perfect life is to accept Jesus as you Saviour - which is what all Christian do every day. Once you have said to God "I believe in You and what you have done for me" he helps you walk in Christ's footsteps to eventually become like him. He is a perfect man - God in human flesh. St Paul walked in Jesus's footsteps in his suffering. Jesus suffered on the cross, Paul suffered in prison.
The point is... we are not like God yet, but we will be eventually. when everyone believes in Christ or when he comes back to judge the living and the dead (which ever comes first)
By
Anna and Scott, At
April 18, 2007 7:55 pm
Have you prayed yet? What have you got to lose?
By
Anna and Scott, At
April 21, 2007 8:57 pm
God answers all our prayers, just that he will either say yes,no,later not now. The bible said that he who ask of whatever he needs/wants will get it.
By
Coel, At
May 05, 2007 11:57 am
thanks for commenting in my blog, GOD really answered my prayer.
By
Coel, At
May 08, 2007 3:05 am
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