Has Your life been better since becoming a Christian?

[gypc]

Hello emeraldgirl, I could say being humble, if we lived battered and bruised for 20 years, die and go to heaven it would be well worth it but I want you to see something different. Since the Lord came in my life I have peace. No matter what I've been through peace is in me. I can't explain it, it's just there.

Let's go over to Gal 5:1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

I'm free from bondage, a yoke of slavery that weighed heavy on me. Imagine carrying 100 pounds on your back for years and then all of a sudden it's gone. Well, you feel like you could run faster, jump higher and get more things done. That's a physical way of looking at it. Look at the spiritual side in.....

Gal 5:19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

Now, as a new creature in Christ anger doesn't keep me up all night instead I'm filled with joy. Sexual sins don't drag me around any more but instead my wife of 18 years is my playboy bunny (so to speak ). Drunkenness causes so much damage in a family, kills people on the highway and leads people to worthlessness. I grew up in home of drunkenness but my children don't have to be apart of that in our house. Hatred is all around, it might even cause some of us to be persecuted to death............ it causes grief in all kind of situations but some for reason I have a love in me that is almost unexplainable.

Ya see, no matter what happens to me I'm free even if I were in chains. Let's say that someone who gets saved has all kinds of trouble, maybe God loves the doctor or the jailer or the persecutor so much that he sent one of us to suffer so that they could see this peace and joy that is beyond words and maybe be saved. I don't know but I have peace that the Lord knows.

Peace to ya

[Guest]

I'm a lot better now that I'm a Christian. My physical health is really bad, but in a way its better. Spiritually I'm incredibly better.

The physical thing is kind of odd though, I used to have a photographic memory, but several types of psychosis, plus post traumatic stress syndrome.

After I was saved a series of strokes wiped out most all of that. I can't remember things so well, but I'm a lot saner. Caused a lot of other problems physically but I suppose it is an improvement.

Bless Your heart brother.

Praying for your healing!

Welcome to Worthy!

[AnotherTraveler]

Praise and worship are for our benefit. In acknowledging the truth that God is good and all that is good proceeds from Him, we must respond out of thankfulness, wonder, and joy that we even have that understanding.

Our choices do matter, and many of us have been delivered from our own choices by a merciful God that moved on our behalf.

Before I knew Christ, I was so out of control and nearly insane (or not nearly) that those that knew me never thought I would live to reach 21 years of age. Some of my friends did not live to see 21.

I have a wonderful wife, many children, and lots of grandchildren, and I certainly believe that I wouldn't have even lived to have all these in my life except that Jesus gave me a new life in Him.

My life really started when I became a Christian. Prior to that, the madness of sin was destroying the life that God had given me at birth.

Thank You Lord Jesus

[Openly Curious]

Dave, your post was great, as usual, and provoked a lot of thought for me. I don't really get saying God is worthy to be praised when he has caused or allowed affliction. I think you're saying that as you say it/pray it, it becomes more real to you, even if your life stinks in practical terms. I don't know...it still seems incongruent to me.

Here's what I'm thinking: There doesn't seem to be a lot of agreement as to what role practical matters have in the faith. In this thread, there are some who have said practical things are better as a Christian; they are healthier, wealthier, more at peace, etc. Others say practical matters have no part in the faith - the point is eternity. Floatingsaxe suggests it is better for the obedient. That begs the question why do obedient people sometimes have terrible practical circumstances; why do the disobedient sometimes have great practical circumstances?

Consider the Bible: practical matters are spoken of. "Do not worry about what you will wear or what you will eat...for your heavenly Father knows that you need them." "What father, if his child asks him for a fish, will give him a snake? If he asks for bread will give him a stone?" "For my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory."

If practical matters are not part of the deal, only eternity, then why do people pray for practical concerns? Really - this has been my question for a long time. If you get worse on top of bad when you have been praying and obedient, why or how would you say God is "faithful"? What is he being faithful about if praying to Him and obeying Him is bringing you worse on top of bad?

Lastly - and this is more of a P.S. - obviously, lots of practical matters are under our own control and are a result of our own decisions. If you smoke, you are more likely to get lung cancer than if you don't smoke. If you choose your spouse well, your life will be better in many practical ways; if you choose your spouse poorly, you will have more practical troubles. So, naturally, some practical matters would be better just from having a Christian life-style, compared with a hedonistic life-style. My question is more about things that are outside of our control.

Emeraldgirl,

I hate to say this but in your post here it sounds like a spoiled brat kid that is not getting what they want from their parents and is whining about it. It's like you are rebelling against your Father because He did not give you what you wanted. Your Father said "No" to something you wanted and now you are rebelling against Him. It's like a kid does when they run away from home for various reasons wanting their own way they just up and reject their Father and forefit their inheritance leaving home but their Father is still a real person.

Our Heavenly Father is worthy of all praise in the good and bad times of our lives. And your treatment towards our Heavenly Father is just plain wrong.

OC

[Openly Curious]

Praise and worship are for our benefit. In acknowledging the truth that God is good and all that is good proceeds from Him, we must respond out of thankfulness, wonder, and joy that we even have that understanding.

Our choices do matter, and many of us have been delivered from our own choices by a merciful God that moved on our behalf.

Before I knew Christ, I was so out of control and nearly insane (or not nearly) that those that knew me never thought I would live to reach 21 years of age. Some of my friends did not live to see 21.

I have a wonderful wife, many children, and lots of grandchildren, and I certainly believe that I wouldn't have even lived to have all these in my life except that Jesus gave me a new life in Him.

My life really started when I became a Christian. Prior to that, the madness of sin was destroying the life that God had given me at birth.

Thank You Lord Jesus

Great testimony AnotherTraveler,

OC

[Smalcald]

The one constant is that with conversion we change. Does this change mean always better material things, sometimes yes and sometimes no.

For me it has meant in large part less material things but I worry less about material things so it evens out.

On a personal level we suffered losses after I changed. For me those would have been impossible to understand or handle without Christ. So did Christ not listen to our prayers, or was He there for us because He knew that they would happen? I prefer of course to believe the latter, but it is what it is.

[emeraldgirl]

The Lord is worthy of our praise because of who he is, not for the things he can do for us. How would you like it if your children turned their backs on you because you screwed up dinner one night, or accidentally broke your word? Maybe you saw danger in something your kids wanted to do and said no to them. How would you feel if they said if you were really their mother, you would have given them what they wanted, so they refuse to have anything to do with you anymore? I imagine that is how God feels since you turned your back on him because he didn't work things out as you thought he should.

Butero, this just goes back to the same thing in the Pain and Suffering thread. God does not accidently break his word or (proverbially) screw up dinner one night, because he is perfect. The parent-protecting-child analogy does not work because in all such instances, the analogy is about something minor. If you had the ability to protect your child, say, from them conceiving a child you knew would die, wouldn't you? Would you intentionally lead them into a path that you know will bring them harm? This is why I can't make sense of what happened to me. I believed that God specifically and intentionally led me to want another child and asked me to trust that he would work it for good. But did he specifically and intentionally lead me to want another child so he could show me that he can take them back if he wants?

That is why it doesn't make sense. It wasn't "oh, what I want, what I want...", it was, "what does God want?" And so I believed, from a lot of interesting "coincidences", that what he wanted was for me to be open to having more children. And so I was. I couldn't have been more obedient to what I believe God wanted. So, then, I guess I was wrong. Or I was right about what God wanted, but he wanted me to go where he led so he could persecute me? It's one of the two. So, rather, I was wrong.

Also, re: God is worthy of praise because of who he is, not because of what he can do for us. What other judgement can we make about who God is than to see the effect of believing in him in our lives? How else do we know "who" anybody is? If we can't draw conclusions about what God is by what we see is the effect in our lives, then what are we worshiping, except an idealized figment of our imagination? When things work out as you had prayed, do you say, "Praise God!"? Why would you say that, unless you believe that God is worthy of praise because he does wonderful things? If God is worthy of praise, no matter how the practicalities of life go, why do you pray prayers of petition?

[Floatingaxe]

We have to go to Daddy and ask Him for things, which He loves to respond to! It's a Father-Child relationship!

[systemstrike_7]

Well to be completely honest, God doesn't need our praise. His dignity is not in question here.

Think about it this way, what if you had a big house and you let a bunch of strangers come and live, eat, and sleep at no cost to them whatsoever. At first, everyone was very grateful and polite, but as time went by they became rude. They started saying horrible things about you, giving credit to the wrong person, started breaking stuff and stealing stuff. How would this make you feel? What would you do? I would personally kick them out of my house. Well this is exactly what we have done to God. We have destroyed this beautiful life He gave to us. Does he kick us out? No, he keeps giving us second chances. He sends His one and only Son to die a most horrible death so that we might get another chance at salvation. Is this not worth all the praise in the world? How arrogant have we become to start expecting things from God? I'm afraid I do it all the time. I ask God for things and when I don't get them right away I get angry. Why? Because I am a stupid, proud, ignorant human. But yet he gives me second chance after second chance. Who am I to recieve such grace? What have I done to be worthy? I can't help but love God with all my heart because of what he has done not only for me, but for humanity in general. Yes, I have messed up, and will mess up again. All of us will. But God has shown again and again that he gives second, and third, and fourth chances. Who do we praise if not him? Ourselves? I certainly hope not. If we had only ourselves to count on, we would turn this earth into hell itself.

[Guest lovinghim4ever]

I wish to say this again . . .

Of course my life is better since I became a Christian.

Before becoming a Christian - No Jesus.

After becoming a Christian - Know Jesus.

Without Jesus - No hope.

With Jesus - Know hope.

Jesus always makes things better.

ALWAYS!

Even when we don't FEEL anything.