Questioning my faith

I'm sorry to hear about your divorce and the pain and trouble that came afterward. I can only imagine how hard that is. I'm with you in the porn struggle; I do know what that is like.

In my opinion, this forum isn't a good place to have a real discussion about questions about faith. It's fine for something kind of light and on the surface, but I really suggest you look around your church, your family and your friends, and see who you respect and trust, and talk about these things there. I'm glad to help if I can, but as I said, I think this isn't a good forum for that.

 

I'm agnostic theist but if I were to think like a Christian, I would suggest that you continue praying to God, get in contact with other believers... try talking to believers who have gone through divorce, porn addiction and the other stuff you've gone through. Or talk to your pastor... maybe you're under spiritual attack and you don't know it. Or maybe the best way to deal with your issues is by focusing on others by volunteering at church or something. Or maybe you can read the Psalms and remember God's promises for your life.

 

You will feel so much more free once you leave this absurd, oppressing and harmful religion behind.

 

You don't have to so disrespectful. Just allow the guy to have his beliefs.

 

He is challenging those believes. I am only encouraging the OP to keep on doing that.

 

Well said. Very good advice.

 

There are less disrespectful ways to say that someone should challenge their beliefs other than saying that their religion is absurd, oppressing and harmful... that's cynicism not skepticism. Just allow the guy to have his beliefs.

 

I'm no going to try to convince you of anything regarding your faith because that's strictly between you and God. However I will put in my 2 cents from my own experiences of going through trials and tribulations,

Analyze all the things that happened in your life that caused you to go through your losses. What caused your divorce? Was it God who forced you and your wife to divorce, was it God who made you addicted to porn? was it God who brought on this suffering? In most case scenario's if you analyze the depth of the questions, you'll realize that most of our suffering is self-inflicted.

The second thing you have to do is self reflect on what are the steps you need to take to change the state you are in. Have you ever heard the phrase "God only helps those who learn to help themselves", This means that there needs to be a conscious effort on your part to change your life. God isn't a magic genie who will make all things better on a whim. The main question you really have to ask is what is your main goal in life. What is it your living for? Is it something that has deep meaning to you, or is it simply to indulge in your bodily desires until the day you die. Find out what your goal and purpose in life is and build your entire life and behaviors around reaching this goal.

Sadness and suffering only comes when we don't know what our goal is or when we lose sight of our goal.

I hope you reflect on my words a bit and not push them off to hastily.

God doesn't hate you my friend. He wants to fill your heart with happiness and joy, you just have to learn how to listen to him and he'll show you how.

 

I enjoy being relatively free from belief. Belief is pretending that you know when you don't know. It is an insecure position.

 

Considering Religious people constantly want to infere in anyone's life, impose their laws on others, insist that their religion gives them the right to discriminate, looking at millennia of oppression from religion, I believe it is ok for atheists to be a bit disrespectful.

 

I would echo the advice above to seek help from people you know in real life, like your pastor or a close family member, rather than here.

However, I would also say that it's really important to learn the lesson that life is not about you and that God owes you nothing.

Practice gratitude. Start each day by writing down three things you are grateful for. You will never run out of them, I assure you. We take SO much of what God does for us for granted, and even some of the things in our lives that seem bad end up being a blessing we never expected. I've had that happen to me countless times. Something seems totally terrible, and then a few months later I'm thanking God for it, because I didn't see the full picture yet at the time, but now I do, and I realize that He was right.

Also, maybe read the book of Job. If nothing else, it might make you feel better about your own situation.

But the main take-away I would say that's important is knowing that God doesn't owe you anything. I understand you're frustrated and in pain right now, and it's totally okay to cry out to God and get mad at him and yell and whine and let out all your feelings. He knows exactly how you feel anyway, so there's no point in hiding it. Just tell Him.

But, at the end of the day, you literally would not exist without God. You wouldn't have eyes to see the beauty of a sunset, legs to walk the earth, ears to hear the birds sing, a mouth to taste the sweetness of sugar, a nose to smell the grass after a fresh rain. So to say that God hates you and act like He does nothing for you because you aren't getting what you want right now is a bit like a child throwing a tantrum for not getting a fifth cookie after dinner. God's already given you a crap ton of cookies to enjoy, so maybe before you start getting angry at Him for the things He isn't giving you, take some time to be grateful for the things He already has given you and done for you.

 

Don't lose hope. I was questioning my beliefs around the time I started nofap. I decided religion wasn't right for me, but you have to do what's right for you. If you would like to talk feel free to PM me. I wish you the best of luck.

 

no offense, but please practice what you preach

 

Your conclusion does not follow. He doesn't hate you, and he does exist. As castielle said, read the book of Job. "But that never happened". A year is not "never". Talk to your pastor about it.

 

He's always willing to take you back, like the prodigal son. It's OK to have doubts. God doesn't expect you to go through life with no problems and everything falling into place. The prophet Jeremiah went through a lot of suffering; he wrote the book of Lamentations, which is a very depressing book. When you read it, you can almost hear, in the background, a violin playing the world's saddest song.

God has used suffering in my life for a greater purpose. I suffer from psychosis, which is a mental illness in which the sufferer loses contact with reality. I hear voices telling me to kill myself or to kill others. Many times I have asked the Lord to relieve me of this, but He has always said no. He's using my illness as a means to draw me closer to Him. It may be that my illness is making me closer to God than I would be if I was mentally healthy.

All that happens to a follower of Christ has some goodness in it. Just repent of your unbelief and you will find God moving you into a higher dimension of faith. That's how He has always responded to me, so the same thing can happen for you.