27 replies to this topic

[CHRISTOPHER310]

We all most likely know we live in a fallen world and it will only get worst. For many of us, this reality goes beyond just the knowledge of such things, but straight into the daily struggles of living of it. For so many of us, we are alone in this fallen world, struggling to find peace and joy. We have no one there to help or support us. No real family or friends connection. It’s sad, but this is the true harsher reality of life for so many out there. Me for one. Add to this harsher reality financial struggles, health struggles ( physical / emotional ), spiritual struggles and reality can easily become way overwhelming to deal with on a daily basis. Almost impossible to survive daily, much less find peace and joy in our lives. So... How does one who stands alone with such harsh realities find peace and joy? Hope? Is hope alone enough? Church? Is church enough? How do we....? 

[Ginger]

Hi Christopher,
 
For some reason I'm just going to post and trust that our heavenly Father Knows, cares, and supplies us with His tender mercies and His  grace sufficient.  Hard to understand how it's God giving us tender mercies and grace when so much can be overwhelming to the mental capacities of us human beings.
 
Well, I can't answer your how do we and it be a reliable answer.  All that I can say that somehow it's all about God in any situation because some people suffer so badly that it's horrendous to think of let alone understand.  Whatever my daily struggles are can cause me to be self-focused and even in this God graces me and I believe that God graces each of His children moment by moment ...
 
It is very hard to understand the sufferings some of HIs children go through.  Being persecuted is a far cry from my wee difficulties by comparison.  God cares about my wee difficulties too and I don't have to beat myself up for failing to do better.
 
All I can do is pray and ask that our Father give us the Holy Spirit to help us to love Him with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our  mind and all of our strength and then somehow just let things be because GOD KNOWS and cares so much that I can't comprehend HIs ways of ministering to all of us as He deems best.....
 
Don't know how to only believe and focus on something that is higher than my mind can understand. 
 
Perhaps a piece written long ago may be of some help.  Will post it below.
 
God bless.
 
Love and prayers,
Ginger
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O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness

O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
Bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
with gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
kneel and adore him: the Lord is his Name!

Low at his feet lay thy burden of carefulness,
high on his heart he will bear it for thee,
and comfort thy sorrows, and answer thy prayerfulness,
guiding thy steps as may best for thee be.

Fear not to enter his courts in the slenderness
of the poor wealth thou wouldst reckon as thine;
for truth in its beauty, and love in its tenderness,
these are the offerings to lay on his shrine.

These, though we bring them in trembling and fearfulness,
he will accept for the Name that is dear;
mornings of joy give for evenings of tearfulness,
trust for our trembling and hope for our fear.

O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
bow down before him, his glory proclaim;
with gold of obedience, and incense of lowliness,
kneel and adore him: the Lord is his Name!


Words: John Samuel Bewley Monsell, 1863

[Kate Curry]

Chris -  Ginger's answer to you is really beautiful and true.   

 

My husband shot and killed himself in February.    I am very much alone here and so I really, really, really share your feelings of loneliness, the struggle to trust God for His provision and guidance day by day.   Lord's presence is companionable though I sometimes wonder whether I'm just talking to myself.    Whenever I'm feeling lost and lonely, I'll think of you and say a prayer for both of us (which will be often!).

[Big John]

My dear Kate,

 

I did not know about your husband.  It shocked me when I read what you said.  I am so sorry for your loss and for the sorrow and doubt that this must have caused and is causing you.  

 

I will just share a brief story, hopefully of encouragement.  My wife and I had our first child, nearly 40 years ago.  She was perfect with no problems.  But after 2 weeks, one night she seemed to be sick.  It was alarming enough that we called the doctor and he had us come in to see him even though it was after 7PM.  He took one look and sent us to the hospital.  The baby was very very sick.  It was spinal meningitis.  We stayed at the hospital thru the night with a couple of brothers and sisters from our church.  At around 1AM, I was reading the bible in the waiting room and God led me to this scripture.  Acts 14:22- confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.   

When I read this I just knew that God was speaking to me and shared it with our whole group.  Within a couple of hours our first daughter was dead.  

 

This experience so encouraged me for so many more difficult times in my life.  The circumstances were terrible but Gods grace and strength saw us thru.  

 

I can't imagine what you have been going thru.  But I know he will bring you thru.

 

Big John

[Kate Curry]

He is bringing me through, John, and has been bringing me through.    I cannot even imagine losing your little baby girl.   I am so sorry.   I'm touched that the Lord began comforting you even before she was gone.   Death is not the same when you believe Jesus.   You know you will see her again, and you know where she is and Who she's with.    I was able to see a counselor a couple of times and he said the Lord knows when people are broken which eased my spirit about my husband's death.   Thank you very much for your words.  K

[Ginger]

So very thankful for your sharing Kate and John.
 
Many years ago my husband became a paraplegic.  We were basically newly weds.  Was thinking of what each of you have dealt with and deal with.  For some reason went to a blank document and just started putting words.
May I share them here and have a humble heart..... God bless you Kate and God bless you John for sharing.
 
Love and prayers.
In Him,
Ginger
_____________________________________________________________________

O Dear LORD,

O Lord how I have failed Thee
You are perfect and divine
Your grace has sustained me
Your love is sublime.

In your care so many survive
The sufferings of this life
Hoping and praying
Surrendering the best we can.

Hoping and waiting
Wanting to understand
How YOU ARE Almighty
Our grief you did bear.

Making and being
Our hope for the
Never ending future
For us you did pay.

You died for us to
Live eternally
We will know you perfectly
One glorious day.

Keep us safe in You Lord
Please grant us to sing
Hallelujah for your caring
For your bearing all pain.

You save us and keep us
Come what may
In our vain imaginations
You still our pain.

Your grace is sufficient
Your love is fathomless
You alone keep us safe
It is for you that we pine.

You are our blessed hope
Your are our protection
You carefully keep us
Your Salvation we do share.

Thank you Lord God Almighty,

Your child
 

 

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[CHRISTOPHER310]

I’m not trying to be rude here, but to clarify some things. My name is [not] Chris. It’s Christopher, thus my screen name as such. Also, I do [not] have any issues with trusting God. I have and do fully trust God. It’s people I don’t trust anymore. After a life time of being screwed with ( hurt by ) people that where suppose to be my closes family and friends, I find myself alone in the world with no true family or friends who care, still having people trying to use / abuse me for their own needs and wants, and struggling to really find my place I belong and wanted within my own faith. So this is me in a short clarification. If I cam across rude, I am sorry. Not my intent. Just wanted to clarify things to prevent any misunderstandings in my post.

[Ginger]

Dear Kate,

 

Your sharing gives me so much.   Thank you for being kind and caring.  I'm so very sorry that you have had to deal with the suicide of you husband.  I'm asking for God to help me to pray for you because on my own I could not know where to begin to even imagine what you've been going through.  Sometimes it is very hard for me to not get a terrible attitude toward some people and to have a more tender heart toward other people.  So I ask for a Spirit of prayer and a clean heart to pray from. 

 

Only God KNOWS how to comfort you and sustain you and your note shares in a few words more than anything I've tried to share.

 

God bless you and grant you His peace day by day.....

 

Thank you so much for sharing and for caring. 

 

May God comfort you moment by moment day by day.

 

Ginger

[Ginger]

CHRISTOPHER, as you have capitalized the letters in you name so do I.
 
It is difficult to understand your posting to people on a forum that you are not going to trust or care about.

Will you share what is motivating you to post and what or how you believe we can do to be of help to you?
 
Being told in advance that you trust God and do not trust people it's rather difficult to know what to write so it seems all we can do is pray and trust that God will meet your need as He deems best.
 
We can care about you and some of us do care whether or not  you can believe we can hope that our prayers  will not fall to the ground because God Himself cares for each and every one of us. 

 

It was easy for you to post about your name and it is very difficult to have the sufferings of a sister in Christ be so less important that you being called Chris.  So I hope to be mindful of God's tender kindnesses and ask for His mercy and to forgive me for what He knows is in my thoughts about being unkind to anyone.

 

I believed Kate was being kind and tender hearted toward you and ask for her to be blessed accordingly.

 

Me on the other hand can need a correction because I can most definitely get an 'attitude' and need to repent.
 
God be merciful and grant what is needed ..... Please help us to pray as we ought....
 
Ginger

[Glenn Rogero]

x

[CHRISTOPHER310]

@ Ginger,

I do apologize for any issues with my name, my trust in God, and any of my post. I never intended to create issues, but do expect to have them never the less.

My first name is Christopher. Really that simple, but for some reason people seem to find it easier to disregard my first name and shorten it to Chris. I don’t like when people do that, especially without asking if it’s okay with me. I don’t do that to other people. For many, this may be a petty issue, but for me, it’s my name as it was listed on my adoption papers. It means something to me with no disrespect to others intended.

Yes, I do fully trust God but almost never trust people anymore to any above average level. God has never once let me down, sent me in the wrong direction, abandon me, or hurt me for some selfish greedy personal agenda and lie to me about it. People have however. From the rotten family I was adopted and raised in to the woman I had married and had a kid with. Even fellow Christians have hurt me. I am not saying my any means the world is out to get me or are all against me. That is so not the case. I just been hurt alot by so many people who were in special roles in my life that I have lost trust in people to be truly caring and honest. You get hurt enough, it changes you. It’s changed me. People worry me now more than they had in the past. I don’t know how else to explain this to you or others. Pain changes a person given enough of it.

Again, I was not trying to create issues. My name is my name and my trust is as how it has become. I am struggling to be a good person in a fallen world. Almost impossible to do.

@ Glenn, you don’t know me enough to pass a valid judgment on me nor is it your place to do such. You could of easily asked me ( as other have ) to clarify my replies or something to that effect. You chose not to. Instead, you chose to judge by the cover and not seek further knowledge. So in your reply, I disregard with little concerns.

[Ginger]

Christopher,

God cares about Glenn and it hurts my heart that you can read his post and dismiss anything about Glynn and that he has been honest about what he thought and felt.  He shared what he was dealing with and your reply totally discounted him as worthy of any consideration.

 

I do understand about a name being important.  Won't go into personal details....

 

Glynn is important as a human being.  You are important as a human being.  Kate is important as a human being.  John is important as a human being.  Why is each person important to God? 

 

I won't try to mess with you in any way shape or form... I'm hopefully going to pray in alignment with God's Word and His will and be respectful of each person .... it is difficult to see any person keep 'stuck'.... so I look to myself about being stuck in the muck of selfishness or whatever.  I tend to be as self-centered a person that I could ever know so need God's mercy a lot.

 

I pray that each of us will mature in Christ and lay down what we think about being hurt so bad by any person enough that our mind is stayed on HIM.....

 

God bless you in a very special and healing way is a request to God from my heart for you.  May this be helpful in some small way.

 

Sincerely,

Ginger

[CHRISTOPHER310]

@ Kate,

I do apologize for my earlier post that was in response to your reply. I obviously over reacted and rushed to reply before given proper though or consideration to you. I don’t think I need to clarify my issues further, but I do feel like I owe you an apology for my inconsiderate reply. I will attempt to do better in future expressions and reply. Thanks.

[Ginger]

O thank you Lord for the post to Kate and please bless Christopher for apologizing.  Now it is my turn to apologize too.

 

Christopher, I do apologize for getting into an 'attitude' about you.  I am very sorry to be so full of myself as to not consider praying before posting words that are not going to give any glory to God and can be minimizing any human being.

 

I've had 'attitude' problems over being lied to or lied about.  So much so that I've failed to love as Christ loves me.  Maybe I 'react' to your words in a negative manner because I have the same 'attitudes' in my heart toward some people.  I don't know this but it is something for me to bring before God and ask for Him to do His will in me about my attitude toward any human being. 

 

I can be so full of myself that I can be stuck in perpetual ignorance of other people being important to God and that He knows and I just suppose from hurt feelings at times.  So dear Christopher, I'm not judging you but examining myself.

 

Please pray for God to be glorified and for Him to increase and my opinions not be hurtful toward any person He died for....

 

So want God to increase and me decrease.... He died so I can live.... selfishness .... well, God KNOWS, I don't want to suppose, not even about myself.... opinions are not God's Truth....

 

God bless you Christopher.

 

Love and prayers,

Ginger

 

PS God does change my attitude and for this I'm very thankful to Him.

[Ginger]

One more post before considering to be done.

 

Big John,

You and your wife have been in His service and you've experienced a loss that only one who has been there truly knows...

Your post have been helpful and I ask for you to be especially blessed ... Don't even know how to write about wanting you to be especially blessed but God KNOWS and He does bless .... some losses do stay with a person and God does use the loss to minister to His hurting people .... Thank you and others too for ministering to us on this forum.

 

God bless.

 

Thank you,

 

Ginger

[Kate Curry]

You are forgiven, Christopher.   Sincerely

 

Ginger and Glenn, awesomely perceptive, bracing and compassionate responses.

 

Extra prayers for you, too, Glenn.   Is there any help at all available to you where you  are?

[Glenn Rogero]

x

[Ginger]

Glynn will be praying for all your need to be met for your spirit, mind, and body.  So sorry that you have this current situation and pray God will raise you up in faith and all else that will make a miraculous difference for His glory and for your best in Him.

[Speilb]

Ginjer, Your repeated use of "Glynn" inexcusable in this context; it is "Glenn".  

 

Not at all Sincerely,  

 

Spblie

 

 

On a serious note I pray God's very best for you Glenn.  Our God's heart is very much with those who have been brought low by sin and Satan.  May he continue to rebuild you for His Glory. 

[radar]

Hmmm, my name is Chris, I am known by radar in my old motorcycle fellowship, and people are constantly calling me Christopher...so...just as long as they DON'T call me 'late fer supper!'   been called a lot worse!

 

Christopher, your angry. Maybe even angry at God. The greatest commandment is two parts, let me paraphrase: Love God, Love people. It is not an option, it is THE COMMANDMENT, not suggestion. I understand your pain. Been there and done that. After striking out in anger at people most of my life, I found that a consequence of that resulted in no one wanting to be around me anymore and me not wanting to be around them. I was lonely and mad that God didn't fix my problems the way I wanted. But God is God and I am not and when I started earnestly seeking His Face instead of His Hand, I came to the realization that I was doing just what Adam did in the garden, blaming God for my own problems. I needed help. I sought to submit myself to God, and seek medical treatment. I found I was Bipolar, with PTSD. 

 

Great! I now have an excuse for my poor behavior. But I found that I was still accountable for what I did, Mental disease or not. It is no different for me than it is for anyone else. I have to own up to my sin, ask God for forgiveness, and go to his word to find out how to overcome. Trust and obey, for their is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, is to trust and obey. So, by using the right regiment of medications, and seeking intimate Christian counseling with a well trusted source, which happened to be my old pastor, I had to rebuild my stinking thinking and have it come into line with the word of God. I needed a covering pastor who was also my accountability partner. After a while, I started changing by seeing myself and others the way God does. I started learning how to give my frustrations to God and try not to take them back. It is a suffering and painful process to go thru that kind of sifting, to daily deny yourself, take up your cross, and crucify the flesh. But if you belong to the Lord as you indicate you do, suffering is not an option in the Christian life. Jesus said that with much tribulation you enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The Promised Land of Rest can only be a prayer away instead of forty years. Selah! It is all about relationship, not religion or rules, not that they are important in their proper place.

 

Happy in Jesus....fruits of the Spirit love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Gal 5:22-23).......Fruits of the Flesh: sexual immorality,  impurity extreme sensuality,  idolatry,  witchcraft,  hostility,  bitter conflicts,  jealousy,  outbursts of anger,  lack of unity, dissensions,  cliquishness,  envying,  drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. (Gal  5-19). We are known by our fruits (Mat 7-16).

 

Now, for a hard word. I don't want to do this, but your life depends on the next few words....If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen." (1 John 1:20)...... Jesus replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”(Matt 12)....we have to love the unlovable, Christian and others. Impossible without God. So where are you with God?  Don't answer me as this is a question for you to seek God on to see where you stand. I am concerned about your well being and do not like to have to put it in these terms, but since I have known you for these last three months, I know that your being sifted. Just wanted to make you aware of what fruit you have witnessed to me so far. Not judging, just observing. This reply is just a simple exhortation for you to look at where you are and where you want to go instead of being stymied in this horrific loneliness...You would not have posted if it did not bother you. I had an old Chief  while I was in the navy that had this on his bulletin board in his office and I find it is true: "Don't ask the question if you cannot handle the answer." There is only one being rude here, and just like a fever indicates that something is wrong with your body, so does fruit indicate the state of the spiritual man.

 

 

"Loneliness was the first thing that God's eye named not good." - John Milton

 

The answer to your question is simple: Look to Jesus!

 

With my kindest regards and concern,

chris(radar)