Believe in God; - joyful or burdensome?

[Bruno_Schulz]

**

Let me make a statement before I go on:

I definitely wouldn’t still be alive if I had no settled belief in God and if I wouldn’t take the New Testament literally word by word.

It was only today that I said to an acquaintance; it was but my prayers that saved me from………

Many of my friends and many I know and I have heard of, say the same – for a very good reason: They all do feel the nearness to God.

That means; as soon as you do have faith in God, you are no longer alone, as you have continuously with you more than just a friend. God! Those who believe in God know that, as Jesus said: I’m with you. Always. Till the end of time!

Now, doubters can’t grasp nor realise or understand this. Neither could we explain in just a small talk statement.
But same as we try hard to explain, we might expect nonbelievers to listen and to try and understand.

Sadly enough there are too many, who simply don’t care. To them it’s foul matter they stifle by a wave of their hand – not realising that they miss their actual life.

So many Christians have faced hellish experience, but still don’t despair. In fact they even kept or found back to humour and often it’s a delight to be with them, for they donÄt have that shallow humor of (empty) nonbelievers, but that warm and includig humor of a Christian. (Including others).
Wouldn’t that be a treasure many an atheist would pay a fortune for to have?!

Any Christian is ready to tell you who is unsure about it all. Just pay a little attention and will to listen – it pays. And please stop saying as I so often hear: “Oh - leave me alone with this stuff - I wanna be free.”

Now, where is more freedom? In the wide wide life of a Christian with God, or in the narrow view of those who deny the freedom of togetherness with God?!

**

 

[Bruno_Schulz]

please administrator
would you be kind enough to correct the donÄt above into a
don’t and delete this post then.
Thanks.

 

[Monica4316]

I think that believing in God is joyful, even when there are difficulties. And He is always there to get us through those

 

[MarieVeronica]

My belief in God (a.k.a. “faith”) is my abiding JOY! God bless.

 

[Realcatholicgk]

**

Let me make a statement before I go on:

I definitely wouldn’t still be alive if I had no settled belief in God and if I wouldn’t take the New Testament literally word by word.**

**Hi Bruno,

I, on the other hand don’t take every word of the NT literally, word for word. It isn’t meant to be read literally all the time. But, I know you are an Informed Catholic and I also know what you meant! **

**
It was only today that I said to an acquaintance; it was but my prayers that saved me from………Many of my friends and many I know and I have heard of, say the same – for a very good reason: They all do feel the nearness to God.**

**
I think it takes so much more Faith not to believe in God then to believe in Him. When I finally started to know Jesus, I stopped being lonely. He filled an empty space that nothing else can. It has been said that when there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you needed in the first place.

Live simply, Love generously, and Care deeply, Speak kindly … Leave the rest to God.

If all else fails pray. But, remember if you pray first all else can’t fail

When we get tangled up in our problems, be still. God wants us to be still so He can untangle the knot.

As a child of God, prayer is kind of like calling home everyday.**

 

[utunumsint]

I heard it said that where your heart is, there is your joy. For those who love God, there is nothing and no one who can take away their joy. I think Christ said something like this in the book of John. A Christian should be joyful, not sad. Sadness is a simptom of excessive preocupation with our self and our selfish passions.

God bless,
Ut

 

[justinkolo]

I heard it said that where your heart is, there is your joy. For those who love God, there is nothing and no one who can take away their joy. I think Christ said something like this in the book of John. A Christian should be joyful, not sad. Sadness is a simptom of excessive preocupation with our self and our selfish passions.

God bless,
Ut

Easy for you to say. So, any ideas for those of us who try to believe but aren’t exactly filled with joy all of the time, for various reasons?

 

[Bruno_Schulz]

**

I, on the other hand don’t take every word of the NT literally, word for word. It isn’t meant to be read literally all the time. But, I know you are an Informed Catholic and I also know what you meant!

Thanks. Very well said and true about literal understanding. Let me explain it to others that way:
When a loved child speaks to his parents, his words might sound to outsiders strange, even inappropriate, hard to understand. It is the love between the parent and the child, that makes it perfectly understood between the two.

It’s that very same love between the Our Father in Heaven as Jesus >who is God< allowed us to call God, and us.

In my late forum gott-kirche-glaube.isthier.de/
we had a thread: “Ist die Bibel wörtlich zu nehmen?” (is the Bible to be taken word by word?).
Under the condition one reads the Bible in loving connection to God; YES! If it lacks that love, one will not even understand simplest sequences.

A Christian should be joyful, not sad. Sadness is a symptom of excessive preoccupation with our self and our selfish passions.

That’s too easy to be said. God knows that we often are in despair an cry for good reasons. Let it be. The Bible tells us, that God knows all our feelings including those, we’d never speak about. He knows our sorrows, but comforted us in John 16:20 and Luke 6:21.

Let’s remember that even Jesus Christ cried – see John 11:35 and others. Jesus also cried over the fate of the Jews that expected them in the year 70 and hundreds and thousands of years later (Lk 19:41). Saint Peter cried over himself and his mistake he made, but then he wrote in 1Peter 4:13: “Rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed”.

Saint Paul said in Romans 12:15 - Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

We learn in Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

No, it’s not selfish passion to be sad, but ever so normal. Jesus went trough such feelings too. Let’s allow depressed times just like highlights of life; for here we are: Here is the point of the question whether believe in God is joyful or burdensome.

This indeed is joyful only! As joyful as the joy of a child who at any time might flee off and with all his sorrows into the loving arms of his parents, for the child knows he’s comforted there as nowhere else, and he is understood.
It’s the joy Pope Benedict pointed out, when he said:

WHO BELIEVES, IS NEVER ALONE!<

Not to be alone is the joy of the Child who has loving parents.
Not to be alone is the joy of the Christian who has God.
**

 

[utunumsint]

Easy for you to say. So, any ideas for those of us who try to believe but aren’t exactly filled with joy all of the time, for various reasons?

Its not easy for me to say. But the love of God is the first and most important commandment. Only the saints come close to realizing it, so don’t sweat the lack of joy that you feel.

God bless,
Ut

 

[Michael_David]

Easy for you to say. So, any ideas for those of us who try to believe but aren’t exactly filled with joy all of the time, for various reasons?

Seems life is for living… the ups, the downs; the joys, the pains; and in Christ’s terms: the Palm Sunday… the Good Friday… Easter Sunday… Pentecost. We are humans BEING human.

Since feeling are not tied to either category, the more pain you can feel, also, the more joy you can feel. But when we get to the Soul Level, it is there that the Belief in God gives joy, in-spite of what the emotions and environment are doing to us… that Peace that passes all understanding. Pain becomes like that saying ‘Foot Prints’… where one looks back and sees only one set of foot prints in the sand.

This living of life finds one in many different ups and downs at any given time. I am not a woman, but I can imagine ‘child-birth’… the pains, intense and regular… what happens when the child is born and cries out for the first time? JOY… to the core. (This from what my wife has told me). So yes, feel all that life has to offer, but also feel all the soul has to offer.

I see my self as God’s ‘burden’… I keep going to Him for comfort and help. I am very ‘joyful’ that He does not take His ‘burden’ lightly, but ‘joyfully’ helps and comforts me when I need it. Then we do share the Joy also.

 

[John_Russell_Jr]

Easy for you to say. So, any ideas for those of us who try to believe but aren’t exactly filled with joy all of the time, for various reasons?

This life is a test to see if we’re worthy of eternal life. Heaven is not our birth right, we have to fight to get it. Really fight. We can have much joy and peace in this life though. But when we follow Christ we are given the cross to purify and perfect us. Suffering is something we detest because we were never meant to experience it. God made us free and we abused that feedom and suffering enetered our world. God permitted us to choose this and he permits suffering only because he can bring good from it. Otherwise he would not allow it. Many people find a false happiness in sin, pleasure, money, drugs etc but one can only be truly happy with the knowledge of the truth and a relationship with our Lord. If you want peace and joy even in the face of the greatest adversity you will only find it if you are close to our Lord. The closer you are the happier you’ll be. One could go on forever, but to answer your question quickly. You will be happier the closer you get to Jesus. You can read 1000’s of books etc on how to do this. God bless you.

 

[Bruno_Schulz]

**

God permits suffering only because he can bring good from it. Otherwise he would not allow it

Sorry, but this is quite in the contrary to the rest of your answer; incorrect!

It even leads to the absolute wrong conclusion, that evil done by people who serve Satan, is allowed by God.

No!
It’s NEVER in God’s will, nor permitted by God, that anything bad or even evil happens. God is love itself!

As we learn by Mt 18,7: Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!**

 

[seekdatruth]

I heard it said that where your heart is, there is your joy. For those who love God, there is nothing and no one who can take away their joy. I think Christ said something like this in the book of John. A Christian should be joyful, not sad. Sadness is a simptom of excessive preocupation with our self and our selfish passions.

God bless,
Ut

THIS IS SO TRUE!!!
If I could remember that all the time, I would live my life in pure happiness 24/7!
This is how accepting Christ back into my life has helped my chronic depression. I still struggle at times, but praying the rosary and daily prayers has helped keep me more focused and positive. God bless!

 

[Bruno_Schulz]

**Mt 6,21:
**…where your treasure is, there your heart will be also… do not worry about your life…

 

[seekdatruth]

**Mt 6,21:
**…where your treasure is, there your heart will be also… do not worry about your life…

Yep, the secret to happiness. UNfortunately, walking around with my head in the clouds doesn’t get the housework done and the kids taken care of! LOL!

 

[Michael_David]

Yep, the secret to happiness. UNfortunately, walking around with my head in the clouds doesn’t get the housework done and the kids taken care of! LOL!

“Idle hands are the devils workshop…”

“Whistle while you work…”

 

[Bruno_Schulz]

**

Yep, the secret to happiness. UNfortunately, walking around with my head in the clouds doesn’t get the housework done and the kids taken care of! LOL!

Oh, to be a Christian does never mean to do things with ones head in the clouds. Quite to the contrary the Bible tells us, to do whatever we do, right! See e.g. Proverbs 3,6: “in all your ways, whatever you do, acknowledge God, and He will make your paths straight”.

**

 

[justinkolo]

**

Sorry, but this is quite in the contrary to the rest of your answer; incorrect!

It even leads to the absolute wrong conclusion, that evil done by people who serve Satan, is allowed by God.

No!
It’s NEVER in God’s will, nor permitted by God, that anything bad or even evil happens. God is love itself!

As we learn by Mt 18,7: Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come!**

OK, you’re WRONG. If you were right there’d be no such thing as free will and no such thing as evil!

And as far as being joyful, all I can think about is how poorly I follow God’s will and how unworthy I am of what He gives out. That doesn’t exactly bring joy…

 

[Realcatholicgk]

Easy for you to say. So, any ideas for those of us who try to believe but aren’t exactly filled with joy all of the time, for various reasons?

**Hi Justink,

Finally an easy one! I can answer this for you. Pray! Prayer is the answer to all questions, doubts, worries, and concerns. **

 

[seekdatruth]

RC,
The images!