Getting lost in confusion

[Golden_Griff]

Hey y'all, it's Griff. I haven't been on the boards for some time now but I come to you with a prayer request.

Lately I've been facing some spiritual trials that I've been going through for some time and things are starting to get difficult. Because of so much that's going on, including my financial situation, I'm trying to find answers but yet cant seem to make sense of things.

I find myself getting confused over stuff that too many people are trying to tell me about. You have this group of people that says this thing, and you have another group that says this. And it's hard to determine who's right because like I said things don't seem to be working in my favor like I want them to either way.

People are starting to confuse me too much, so I don't want to hear from anyone but God--if anybody knows what's going on it's Him. But I went to my bible to search for the answers to questions that I had but even that doesn't seem to help (the index of topics in the back of my bible is what I was using). So it's like I can't even hear from God. And if I can't hear from Him then I don't know what to think! Because of this, I've been having uncertainties and doubts which is just trying to wreck my faith.

I heard a message last Sunday on Psalm 13 that was very encouraging...at the time. I try to think back to that but even then it seems like it does very little to help me stay encouraged and hopeful.

I just gotta know, what is going on? Am I doing something wrong? What do I need to change about myself? Who's right in their doctrines and who's not? Can I ever acheive some of those promises that God describes? Are those promises even meant for me? These are just some of the many questions that I ask myself.

~"Oh Lord, I need you to hold my hand, because I can't make it by myself..."~

[agasfas]

I can relate... Currently I'm under so much pressure trying to figure out what I really want to do with my life. I'm in college with no real direction and doubting everything; if this degree is what I really want to do and such.

So many times in my life I've gotten extremely fustrated and started to doubt God because He wouldn't provide me w/ the quick answers I wanted. Eventually when I would come to my senses. I always realize that sometimes we just need to have faith and wait- it really does build our character. As hard as it is, we need to. God has great plans for us, but they sometimes take time to develope and mature. It's kind of like picking an apple too pre-maturely-it's too tart and sour.

I guess the only advice I can tell you is to follow your heart and what you feel is the right thing to do. Keep praying and continue to have faith and patience. I'll be praying for you.

[Mave]

hmm when things get too confusing or I'm hearing way too many opinions for my good, I usually withdraw myself from the crowd and spend more quiet time with God. Even if you don't get the answers, you will get the peace of mind/heart to take one day at a time and not be distressed with the variety of opinions of the world. I'll pray for you and hope you'll find that peace and answer. *0*)//

[Nate]

Griff, you know I'm praying for you, friend. ^^

[Golden_Griff]

I can relate... Currently I'm under so much pressure trying to figure out what I really want to do with my life. I'm in college with no real direction and doubting everything]

This is my last year in college and after that I still don't know what to do with myself. I know what I WANT to do but I don't know whether I have the qualifications or abilities to do it. Neither do I know if I'll even have the opportunities for that. I've been going through the previous 3 years trying to figure out why I'm enrolled in college adding to my debt in the first place (Tuition this year is ridiculous and I got an "award" letter with a crap load of loans waiting on me).

So many times in my life I've gotten extremely fustrated and started to doubt God because He wouldn't provide me w/ the quick answers I wanted. Eventually when I would come to my senses. I always realize that sometimes we just need to have faith and wait- it really does build our character. As hard as it is, we need to. God has great plans for us, but they sometimes take time to develope and mature. It's kind of like picking an apple too pre-maturely-it's too tart and sour.

Yes, I've been wanting quick answers too. This is so odd, because this is the exact type of stuff that I've been trying to encourage someone else with. And now look at me--I can't even follow my own words. I'm just getting weary of all the waiting and the scrapping up and the barely getting by routine. I don't want to get what's at the bottom of the barrel all my life. I confess that I've been getting feelings of jealousy when I see others with so much more than me [or at least that's how I see it]. Doesn't God want ALL His children to have total life prosperity?

hmm when things get too confusing or I'm hearing way too many opinions for my good, I usually withdraw myself from the crowd and spend more quiet time with God. Even if you don't get the answers, you will get the peace of mind/heart to take one day at a time and not be distressed with the variety of opinions of the world.

Thanks Mave. I do realize that I need to spend more time reading the Word of God. (-_-]Griff, you know I'm praying for you, friend. ^^

I appreciate the concern/prayers of all of you.

[holysoldier5000]

On the topic of "Faith & Doubt" read: Ephesians 6:14-18

There are times when we find ourselves depressed. We are filled with doubts, still disturbed. Perhaps there is no good reason for us to feel this way. We may even wake up in a blue mood first thing in the morning though we went to bed very happy. There is no good reason for our depression. We do not know why this has happened. There is no explanation we can see. There is nothing wrong physically (and the physical elements of our life can have a very great bearing on our feelings) but still we feel depressed. Well, what is happening? We are experiencing what Paul calls here "the flaming darts of the evil one." These are part of the wiles of the devil, the wiliness, the stratagems of Satan.

They come to us in various forms. Sometimes they are evil thoughts and imaginations which intrude themselves suddenly upon our thinking, oftentimes at the most incongruous times. We may be reading the Bible, we may be bowed in prayer, we may be thinking about something else quite entirely when all of a sudden some filthy, lewd thought flashes into our mind. What is this? One of the fiery darts of the evil one! We ought to recognize it as such.

Sometimes these come as doubts, and even blasphemies, sudden feelings we experience that perhaps this Christianity is nothing after all but a big hoax, some dream which men had. Perhaps we feel that it can all be explained psychologically, or that Jesus Christ is really a humbug, a victim of self-delusion. Perhaps the world is not the way we have been taught it is, and things are not the way the Bible says. You have doubtless experienced these times. All Christians have had this sudden feeling that perhaps it is all a fantasy, imagination. Again, these fiery darts may come in the form of sudden fears, anxieties, a fleeting sensation that things are all wrong. We cannot seem to shake it. Though we try to reason ourselves out of it, we cannot.

What are these feelings? Well, whatever form they may take, they are always from the same source. They are the fiery darts of the wicked one. We are the biggest fools on earth if we do not see them in that light, and deal with them as such. And, in whatever form they may come to us, they always have two characteristics: First, they seem to arise out of our own thoughts. They seem to come right from our inner selves. We feel, "This is something I am thinking," and oftentimes it is a shocking thing. But the devil is really whispering to us. He is communicating to us. He is influencing us. Ah yes, but it does not seem like that to us. In our ignorance and innocence we blame ourselves, "How can I think a thing like this if I am a Christian? Can a Christian have such a lewd and filthy thought as this? Can I really be a Christian if I think like this. I must not be one after all." This, of course, is exactly why the devil sent his thought to you, because this is what he wants you to think. If it is a doubt (and we are always exposed to doubts, these sudden attacks upon faith, these sudden feelings that Christianity is not as sure and certain as it once seemed to us), we say to ourselves, "I must have already lost my faith or I would not think like this. What is the matter with me? How can I be a Christian and even have a thought like this?" So we try to repress the thought. We think, "There must be something wrong; we should not feel like this," and we push the thought down into our subconscious. Yes, but we know it is still there, lurking underneath, and we feel dishonest because we are not even willing to look at it. This thing takes its toll of us in physical ways as well as in mental and emotional strain and tension. We feel uncertain and confused because we are convinced that the opposite of faith is doubt. We think if we have doubts we cannot have faith and if we have faith we do not have doubts. Therefore, if we have doubts then we must not and cannot be men and women of faith. We do not see this as the lie of the devil. We think it is our own faithless thinking. This is always the first characteristic of these things. They seem to come to us out of ourselves and are identified with us in our thinking.

The second thing is that they are always an attack upon our position in Christ as the truth, our righteousness, and our peace. These things are always an insinuation of doubt about those matters -- never about anything else. They are an attack upon those areas of faith. This is always the way of the devil. Read the Bible from beginning to end and you see it all the way through. He said to Eve in the garden, "Has God said unto thee ...? Did God say that ...?" (Genesis 3:1). There is the implication of doubt. He said to Jesus, in the temptation in the wilderness, "If thou be the Son of God, then turn these stones into bread," (Matthew 4:3, Luke 4:3). If! There is always the insinuation that these things are not true. This is the way he raises doubts, creates guilt, arouses fear. These are the attacks of the evil one.

What are we to do? How are we to combat these things successfully? Well, the apostle says, "Take the shield of faith with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one." Notice that he did not say the shield of belief. We have already reminded ourselves of our belief when we recall we have put on the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and the equipment of the gospel of peace. That is our belief in what Christ is to us. But faith is more than that. This is very important to see. Faith is acting upon belief. Faith is decision, action, resolution. Faith is saying, "Yes, I believe Christ is the truth. He is my righteousness, he is my peace. Therefore this, and this, and this, must follow. Faith is working out the implications of belief. When you say "Therefore" you move from belief into faith. Faith is particularizing, if you want it put in one word. It is taking the general truth and applying it to the specific situation and saying, "If this be true, then this must follow." That is the shield of faith. Do you do that? Have you learned how to take the shield of faith when doubts come? Do you say? ...

"Christ is the truth. He is the basic revelation of things which really are. He has demonstrated it. Therefore, I cannot accept this thought that Christianity is a hoax. I cannot believe both. I cannot believe that Christ is the truth and that this thing is true, too. I have committed myself to Christ because I have been persuaded that he has demonstrated truth fully. I stand on that ground. Therefore I must reject this insinuation."

Do you reason? ...

"Christ is the truth. Therefore I cannot believe this subtle philosophy which exalts man and makes God unnecessary in human affairs. I must reject it. Since I have found Christ true, I cannot believe this sudden feeling I have of unreality. I must regard it as what Christ says it is. It is from the devil. Jesus Christ says he is a liar from the beginning. Therefore this is a lie and I reject it."

Do you say these things? Our problem is that we have become so accustomed to believing our feelings as though they were facts. We never examine them. We never take them and look at them and ask, "It this true?" We simply say, "I feel this way. Therefore it must be true." This is why so many are constantly defeated -- because they accept their feelings as facts. We are to say:

"Christ is my righteousness. I am linked with him. I am one with him. His life is my life and my life is his life. We are married. Therefore, I cannot believe this lie that these evil thoughts are my thoughts. They are not my thoughts at all. They are thoughts which come into my mind, are insinuated there by another force. It is not my thinking at all. No, it is the devil again. I do not want these thoughts. I do not like them. I reject them. I do not want them in my thinking; therefore they are not mine. They are the devil's children, and I'll spank them and send them back where they belong!"

Using the shield of faith means refusal to feel condemned or to feel guilty:

"God loves me. He says so. He says nothing will change that. Nothing will separate us. Nothing I do or fail to do will separate us! All right, then I will believe that, and therefore I cannot believe this thought that God does not love me and want me."

You see, you cannot have both. No man can serve two masters.

"Christ is the ground of my peace. Therefore it is his responsibility to take me through everything. He is the adequate One. He has come to carry me through every situation. So I cannot, I will not, believe this fear, this sudden anxiety which grips my heart. I will not believe that it is from me. It is simply sent to shake my confidence in Christ. It is an attempt to destroy my peace. But Christ is adequate for even this and therefore I refuse to change."

This is what James calls "resisting the devil," (James 4:7b). This is the shield of faith. This is refusing the believe the lie that if you have doubts you cannot have faith. Because that is a lie. Doubt is always an attack on faith. The fact that you have doubts proves that you have faith. They are not opposites at all. Doubt is the proof of the reality of faith. Therefore re-examine the ground of your faith and reassert it, and remember that feelings are not necessarily at all.

And James says that, if you keep on resisting the devil, "he will flee from you," (James 4:7c). Think of that! He will flee from you. You do it again and again every time the thought comes back. You resist it on that basis. You refuse to give up your position. And, sooner or later, inevitably, the doubts will clear. Your feelings will change, the attacks cease, and you will be back again in the sunshine of faith and the experience of the love and joy of God.

[Golden_Griff]

[quote="holysoldier5000"]
There are times when we find ourselves depressed. We are filled with doubts, still disturbed. Perhaps there is no good reason for us to feel this way. We may even wake up in a blue mood first thing in the morning though we went to bed very happy. There is no good reason for our depression. We do not know why this has happened. There is no explanation we can see. There is nothing wrong physically (and the physical elements of our life can have a very great bearing on our feelings) but still we feel depressed. Well, what is happening? We are experiencing what Paul calls here "the flaming darts of the evil one." These are part of the wiles of the devil, the wiliness, the stratagems of Satan.

They come to us in various forms. Sometimes they are evil thoughts and imaginations which intrude themselves suddenly upon our thinking, oftentimes at the most incongruous times. We may be reading the Bible, we may be bowed in prayer, we may be thinking about something else quite entirely when all of a sudden some filthy, lewd thought flashes into our mind. What is this? One of the fiery darts of the evil one! We ought to recognize it as such.

Sometimes these come as doubts, and even blasphemies, sudden feelings we experience that perhaps this Christianity is nothing after all but a big hoax, some dream which men had. Perhaps we feel that it can all be explained psychologically, or that Jesus Christ is really a humbug, a victim of self-delusion. Perhaps the world is not the way we have been taught it is, and things are not the way the Bible says. You have doubtless experienced these times. All Christians have had this sudden feeling that perhaps it is all a fantasy, imagination. Again, these fiery darts may come in the form of sudden fears, anxieties, a fleeting sensation that things are all wrong. We cannot seem to shake it. Though we try to reason ourselves out of it, we cannot.

What are these feelings? Well, whatever form they may take, they are always from the same source. They are the fiery darts of the wicked one. We are the biggest fools on earth if we do not see them in that light, and deal with them as such. And, in whatever form they may come to us, they always have two characteristics: First, they seem to arise out of our own thoughts. They seem to come right from our inner selves. We feel, "This is something I am thinking," and oftentimes it is a shocking thing. But the devil is really whispering to us. He is communicating to us. He is influencing us. Ah yes, but it does not seem like that to us. In our ignorance and innocence we blame ourselves, "How can I think a thing like this if I am a Christian? Can a Christian have such a lewd and filthy thought as this? Can I really be a Christian if I think like this. I must not be one after all." This, of course, is exactly why the devil sent his thought to you, because this is what he wants you to think. If it is a doubt (and we are always exposed to doubts, these sudden attacks upon faith, these sudden feelings that Christianity is not as sure and certain as it once seemed to us), we say to ourselves, "I must have already lost my faith or I would not think like this. What is the matter with me? How can I be a Christian and even have a thought like this?" So we try to repress the thought. We think, "There must be something wrong]

...God bless you, because you're words are a blessing to me. That makes me feel encouraged so much more.

[Ryupower]

Great post Holy Soldier! But don't forget my seconed and third favourite verses ( real faith boosters, atleast by me):


Matt 17:20-21
So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed , you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
NKJV


and:



Luke 17:6-7

6 So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed , you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you. 7 A
NKJV


It's just the devil messing with your emotions, he's a jerk, don't listen to that FALLEN ANGEL of hell.