How can I regain faith ?

[Kili]

I was hit by the deterioration of a terrible bone disease that was made worse by ingesting certain foods and medication. This happened after I'd already gone through many terrible trials in my life. I had turned toward studying Christianity and thought that maybe there was some guidance from a certain place. And then my health situation both mentally and physically collapsed so brutally. This time it felt like it shattered my trust in a God. Because it felt so arbitrary and cold and mechanical. I had just turned toward Christianity when this happened. I also cried and shouted that Jesus may help me but I felt no response. How do you maintain your trust given these seemingly horrible arbitrary sequences of events happen to some of us? It just seemed to me that a loving God would have helped me up and guided me in that situation but instead there was just blind cold forces of physics.  How could I regain some trust and faith ; how do you succeed at that? 

[enoob57]

3 minutes ago, Kili said:

I was hit by the deterioration of a terrible bone disease that was made worse by ingesting certain foods and medication. This happened after I'd already gone through many terrible trials in my life. I had turned toward studying Christianity and thought that maybe there was some guidance from a certain place. And then my health situation both mentally and physically collapsed so brutally. This time it felt like it shattered my trust in a God. Because it felt so arbitrary and cold and mechanical. I had just turned toward Christianity when this happened. I also cried and shouted that Jesus may help me but I felt no response. How do you maintain your trust given these seemingly horrible arbitrary sequences of events happen to some of us? It just seemed to me that a loving God would have helped me up and guided me in that situation but instead there was just blind cold forces of physics.  How could I regain some trust and faith ; how do you succeed at that? 

Read the book of Job!

[johnthebaptist]

1 hour ago, Kili said:

I was hit by the deterioration of a terrible bone disease that was made worse by ingesting certain foods and medication. This happened after I'd already gone through many terrible trials in my life. I had turned toward studying Christianity and thought that maybe there was some guidance from a certain place. And then my health situation both mentally and physically collapsed so brutally. This time it felt like it shattered my trust in a God. Because it felt so arbitrary and cold and mechanical. I had just turned toward Christianity when this happened. I also cried and shouted that Jesus may help me but I felt no response. How do you maintain your trust given these seemingly horrible arbitrary sequences of events happen to some of us? It just seemed to me that a loving God would have helped me up and guided me in that situation but instead there was just blind cold forces of physics.  How could I regain some trust and faith ; how do you succeed at that? 

I think Paul gave us some good advice: Pray constantly (1 Thessalonians 5:17 RSV). 

Edited January 12, 2021 by johnthebaptist
Complete the Bible verse.

[HAZARD]

2 hours ago, Kili said:

I was hit by the deterioration of a terrible bone disease that was made worse by ingesting certain foods and medication. This happened after I'd already gone through many terrible trials in my life. I had turned toward studying Christianity and thought that maybe there was some guidance from a certain place. And then my health situation both mentally and physically collapsed so brutally. This time it felt like it shattered my trust in a God. Because it felt so arbitrary and cold and mechanical. I had just turned toward Christianity when this happened. I also cried and shouted that Jesus may help me but I felt no response. How do you maintain your trust given these seemingly horrible arbitrary sequences of events happen to some of us? It just seemed to me that a loving God would have helped me up and guided me in that situation but instead there was just blind cold forces of physics.  How could I regain some trust and faith ; how do you succeed at that? 

HI Kili, and welcome.

Here is what God says according to HIS WORD, about getting healing and good health. Its not my opinion, its my idea, its not my pet theory and when you read this tell me its not encouraging to read what God has to say rather than what people think?

If you are sick in body then include your request for healing in your prayer for forgiveness. God wants to heal your body and he will if you ask Him in faith, never wavering when you ask for forgiveness. Both healing and forgiveness go together in the gospel, as you will see by reading (Ps. 103:1-3; Matt. 8:16-17; 9:1-8; 13:15; James 5:14-16; 1 Peter 2:24).

You can get healed now as easily as to be forgiven of sins. Both come on the same basis of faith in the work of Christ for you on Calvary. God does not desire His children to be sick any more than you would want your children to be sick. This is clear from Matt. 7:7-11; mark 11:22-24; John 14:12-15; 15:7, 16; 16:23-26. Your life will be rich in blessings which you perhaps have been told are not for you today.

If one wants to please God in any way one must have faith; "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: We MUST BELIEVE that He is, and  that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). This is one sure way to please God. If God can make us happy and well pleased in such a simple way, why should not everyone who loves Him put forth the utmost effort to have faith in Him?

Not one of us would be pleased if our friends would constantly make us a liar every time we opened our mouths and say something. Not one of us would feel like doing anything for those who did this. The same is true with God. We should learn not to insult Him by questioning and doubting every promise He makes. How can we expect to get answers to prayer as long as we continue in such an attitude? How can we have the nerve to continually come to God and ask Him for something and then tell Him by our acts and innermost feeling that we do not believe Him and cannot trust Him to the extent that He demands. Is it any wonder that we get so few prayers answered by such a procedure? The greatest miracle of all is that He ever answers us once. God is under no obligation to answer if we do not have IMPLICIT FAITH IN HIM for what we ask.

Faith is simple. It is believing God without waver, without doubting, and without questioning what He says He will do. It is taking God at His Word and believing that what He has promised He will do, He is able to perform. It is believing not only that He is able, but He will do it. It is the quality of counting those things that be not as though they were (Romans 7:17). Faith is also the absolute conviction that what God has promised and what we have asked according to His Word is done already. It is the substance of things hoped for and the first payment on things that we desire from God (Hebrews 11:1-3)

The way to get faith is by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). The way to use faith is to take God at His Word and count Him faithful in granting what is asked in the Name of Jesus. Ask and then believe it is done. Thank God for it as if it were already done. Expect the complete answer whether you see it at once or not. Forget symptoms, feelings, impossibilities, or anything to the contrary and it shall be done regardless of how impossible it may be outwardly. Faith laughs at impossibilities and cries, "IT IS DONE." It leaves all results and all answers with God as being God's part, and it assumes that it is done. Our part then is to co-operate with faith and not hinder its working by doubting and questioning the how and when of the answer.

If a Christian will truly exercise faith that he knows is necessary, there will be no question as to the answer. One can get healing, health, success in business or in any undertaking, prosperity, happiness, or anything that would cause one to be victorious in any phase of life. Not my idea, not my pet theory, just the simple truth straight from God’s Holy Word.

(Matthew 17:20; 12:22; Mark 11:22-24; John 15:7, 16: Romans 8:32; Hebrews 11:6; James 1:5-8).

[Willa]

Sometimes when in extreme pain we need others to pray for us.  Pain can torment us till we can't think straight.  This can also stress us and unbalance our brain chemicals so that we enter a deep depression.  This makes it even harder to believe.   God sometimes tests us to see how deep and how real our faith is.  There are many times I have asked God why.   However this one fact has always remained.  I know that God loves me because He sent Jesus to die in my place for my sin.   

[Who me]

On 1/11/2021 at 11:18 PM, Kili said:

then my health situation both mentally and physically collapsed so brutally. This time it felt like it shattered my trust in a God.

I am sorry that your health has collapsed, we rarely recognise the link between physical and mental health.

May I encourage you to talk with your doctor, nurses etc to get the most out of your treatment.

 

Christianity is often presented as something we do for God, that we have faith, we seek him, that we have influence when the truth is that it is God who teaches out to us. Faith in Jesus is a gift from God so we cannot brag about how holy we are.

 

All I can do is to encourage you to seek God, through reading the Bible and prayer, if you are in hospital ask to speak to its Chaplin, otherwise try using christianityexplored web site to find a church in your area and email it's minister.

 

Otherwise post questions, requests for prayer here, people will respond.

 

 

[missmuffet]

On 1/11/2021 at 3:18 PM, Kili said:

I was hit by the deterioration of a terrible bone disease that was made worse by ingesting certain foods and medication. This happened after I'd already gone through many terrible trials in my life. I had turned toward studying Christianity and thought that maybe there was some guidance from a certain place. And then my health situation both mentally and physically collapsed so brutally. This time it felt like it shattered my trust in a God. Because it felt so arbitrary and cold and mechanical. I had just turned toward Christianity when this happened. I also cried and shouted that Jesus may help me but I felt no response. How do you maintain your trust given these seemingly horrible arbitrary sequences of events happen to some of us? It just seemed to me that a loving God would have helped me up and guided me in that situation but instead there was just blind cold forces of physics.  How could I regain some trust and faith ; how do you succeed at that? 

Have you genuinely given your life, your heart and your mind to Christ? Then you need to work on your faith and your trust. 

[BK1110]

God bless you Kili, I'm so sorry to hear of your incredible struggles. I hope God touches your heart and mind and brings to you healing, but above all else, true comforting faith in Him, and His divine plan!

enoob57's advice about reading Job is spot on. May I also offer this? This is the first video in a short series about the book of Job. I first watched this series last year while my father was being wracked by both physical (cancer) and mental (depression) disease. He still has both, and is a shell of himself right now. It was a great comfort and a growing moment for me to go through this series. I think it might help you as well! The other videos in this series can be found in the side bar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmMy__o9gtU&list=PLAcB0f-21Xj0MTWuh7NKKploqNgpbJsY2&index=159&t=1s

[Uber Genius]

Kiki, my heart goes out to you and your great struggle with your health. I'm praying that God send an otherworldly peace to comfort you. I do not know how God administers this world but do know he loves us richly. Having experienced a disease in my early thirties that caused me to go blind twice, have my joints swell to twice their size crippling me, having my disease send me to the hospital over 6 times, and being in pain for decades I have some experience of suffering. To add to these challenges I had a wife that suffered from mental illness and was always falsely accusing me of abusing her (when she knew she was the abuser), or committing adultery. Further in my career of sales I have had money stolen from me four times totaling over $500,000. After 20 years of marital abuse, 10 years of career abuse, and 13 years of physical illness I gave up. I rejected God.

For 6 years I remained in that state of rejecting God as Lord of my life. There wasn't a prayer I could pray that he hadn't already said no to 100 times. My discipleship, misnistry to the poor, and prisoners, international outreach $100s of thousand of dollars to misnistry was clearly not meaningful to him so I stopped going to church, and stopped praying, stopped ministering, stopped giving. 

Then one day he showed up. I was in the middle of defending myself from false accusations by my wife (so like just about every day of my marriage). I had gone to get a drink of water and cam back into the living room to continue fighting. My wife had gone into the kitchen and for a moment I was alone in the room. I sat down in a chair and it was like a car dropped through the ceiling and landed on me. I was instantly crushed nad my shoulders were pinned to my knees. I wasn't unable to move or speak. My wife came into the room, screamed and started to dial 911. I was able to speak two words, "It's God." 

Panting loudly, and unable to lift my shoulders from my knees I saw a picture of a great tree, the tree was 500 feet tall. It symbolized me. GOd put his finger out and the tree toppled and crashed to the ground. I saw a God's faces from the side and he turned away from me in disgust. "Your arrogance and self-reliance are like satan's." I knew I was about to be killed. My whole body shook violently for a few moments. And then peace. I was able to lift my shoulder s from my knees. That was six and a half years ago. God has taught me about his overwhelming goodness. He has taught me how pain and suffering help us focus on reliance on him. 

After my experience God inspired me to write down the things in my life that were examples where he had acted to bring good on my life. As I remembered them one by one the list grew. I asked God why I had forgotten all of them... hos answer would change my worldview. He said Satan steals the memories of God's goodness in their lives. If they ask his help he restores those memories. I put a list and thanked God for everything on that list once a day for a month then once a week for three months, and now monthly. I think about the riches God has given me and it is easy for me to praise him, endure suffering, and share God's goodness with those whom are hurting or afraid.

i encourage you to start that list. And will pray that God grant you courage and endurance and an other world sense of his prescence!

[Sower]

On 1/11/2021 at 5:18 PM, Kili said:

I was hit by the deterioration of a terrible bone disease that was made worse by ingesting certain foods and medication. This happened after I'd already gone through many terrible trials in my life. I had turned toward studying Christianity and thought that maybe there was some guidance from a certain place. And then my health situation both mentally and physically collapsed so brutally. This time it felt like it shattered my trust in a God. Because it felt so arbitrary and cold and mechanical. I had just turned toward Christianity when this happened. I also cried and shouted that Jesus may help me but I felt no response. How do you maintain your trust given these seemingly horrible arbitrary sequences of events happen to some of us? It just seemed to me that a loving God would have helped me up and guided me in that situation but instead there was just blind cold forces of physics.  How could I regain some trust and faith ; how do you succeed at that? 

Hi Kili.
I noticed you quote Buddhist teachings, concerning your thinking and reincarnation. 
And that you had "turned toward Christianity" What does that entail.
Are you a born again believer in Jesus Christ? Have you been saved?
The God of the bible hears the prayers of His children, those who are born again, of His spirit.
God also hears the prayers of those that are seeking Him, and believing in His son Jesus.
Salvation is by grace, through faith, a free gift from God that is not obtained by your works.
This faith you need comes by hearing the word of God in the bible. The words in the bible are light, truth.
This light (truth) will chase out the darkness (untruth) and you will change your thinking, which is called repenting.
The more light/truth, from the word, the faith increases. You can then cry out to God for salvation mercy.
Read what Hazard wrote above to learn what a child of God receives. If you are not a child of God yet, you can be.
The choice is yours to choose, and God would that you be saved. And God knows the needs of His children.