Knowing God (choice, church, experience, bible, faith)

[whatever]

Havent posted in awhile but here we go.


I have a few emotions that may be keeping me from knowing god. A good example is anger. I go through the motions of going to church but I never feel any closer to god and I can't get rid of my anger. I could use some advise.

[YmirGF]

Hiya whatever,

I am not a psychologist, but I do have one or two tips for you.

I strongly suspect that your difficulty is closely tied to your perception of self esteem or self worth. Your username is "whatever" and that led me down that path, so I don't intend to be mean or unkind. It just seems obvious.

Depending on the severity of your anger, different approaches may be in order. Since you pinpointed anger, I would advise anger management classes. It's not a big deal, IF you deal with it. If you do this you will find that you are hardly alone wrestling with this kind of challenge.

It is my feeling that if you are happy with yourself, you should be able to perceive the good will of your version of God, and what that God means to you.

[whatever]

Thanks for the advice. The username was just something I came up with real fast to post a topic. To be honest I never thoguht I would come back.


I don't lash out with anger or hurt people because I can't control myself. I am just mad or embarrassed about faith or something. Can I get some refferences from the bible?

[spookboy0]

Love

1. Love is one of the "fruits of the Spirit."(Gal. 5:22) Use your ABC's. Act as if God has given you this fruit and bear it, flourish it, grow it in your life. Believe God is the only source for this. Don't keep running away from it. Choose to have love in your life. Not all that mushy-gushy, mwah-mwah love, but the agape love, the overall love for everything and everyone.

2. Know what love is. Love is God, because God is love (1 John 4:8). Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corin. 13:4-7).

3. Know God through love.

Originally Posted by 1 John 4:7-11

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

So much more can be said about love...

But a life without love, that's terrible!
Love is like oxygen.
Love lifts us up where we belong.
All you need is love!

Here's something: in the above quotes, replace the word "love" with "God."

[steve at JRM]

whatever, your honest assessment of your feelings and the ability to share them has touched me. It's rare to see people lay it out like that.
You are one of God's children (galatians 3:26), do the things that make your life better. When things that are good that happen to you in life, embrace those experiences (ecclesiastes 5:19,20), and don't forget to thank God for them (psalms 112:1). Your sins were forgiven when Christ died on the cross. Go forth with that confidence, and watch your emberassment subside.

[whatever]

Tahnks for the bible references i appreciate it. It will help me in my journey to know god

[michel]

Originally Posted by YmirGF

Hiya whatever,

I am not a psychologist, but I do have one or two tips for you.

I strongly suspect that your difficulty is closely tied to your perception of self esteem or self worth. Your username is "whatever" and that led me down that path, so I don't intend to be mean or unkind. It just seems obvious.

Depending on the severity of your anger, different approaches may be in order. Since you pinpointed anger, I would advise anger management classes. It's not a big deal, IF you deal with it. If you do this you will find that you are hardly alone wrestling with this kind of challenge.

It is my feeling that if you are happy with yourself, you should be able to perceive the good will of your version of God, and what that God means to you.

Neither am I (a psychologist), but I agree with you 100%.

However much you say your username was a hurried choice, it does point a finger. Some cognitive therapy might be good to pinpoint the base of the anger........even if you are sure it is stuck in Religion.

Good luck my friend, and just open your heart to God; he will always be there for you, but you must want him.

[fromthe heart]

I just have one question that you don't HAVE to answer but who are you angry at...yourself? If it's because of your lack of knowledge of the Bible may I suggest a book to you? It's called' What the Bible is all about' by Henrietta Mears...I have to tell you it was one I really do enjoy having around for me for my kids and for my grandkids...The other one that has helped me in studing the scriptures is Unger's Bible Handbook...it gives archaeology,historical background,it explains how the Bible came to us,Church history,Religions of the world,diagrams,charts, illistrations and maps...it's a concise commentary of the entire Bible and Bible archaeology.


A word about anger...anger only hurts you more on any given issue...if you hold resentment,grudges,and just plain anger in you are eaten up by it and it ends up causing you physical harm as well as mental harm. You need to asess youself as to WHY and then find ways to deal with it in a constructive way. I'll pray for you to be guided by God if that's ok by you...HE IS LOVE and love is stronger than hate so teh more love you give the more hate can't stand up to it.

I send you a big hug ...ok?

[whatever]

I can't believe I'm going to respond to this. I was thinking to myself; what should my username be? I thought to myself whatever will work. So, I named myself whatever. There is nothing to read into. So, please can we keep this topic about knowing god and not my username. Thanks

[whatever]

[quote=fromthe heart]I just have one question that you don't HAVE to answer but who are you angry at...yourself?

Most likely I had a bad childhood and it took alot for me to get over some of my issues.