How can you love a God you can't feel?

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Rozellelily

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Although technically catholic I no longer believe.
Some of my issues (amongst many) are a person is meant to care about having eternal life with God but in my case I can’t feel God,even conceptualise about God or Jesus and so on and certainly dont feel Gods love,so it’s hard to care about wanting to be with God in an afterlife.

Also,I fear Gods will.Like what if his will makes me totally unhappy but you have to do it anyway because he’s God.

Thirdly, and this would probably be a big issue to Christians ,but I don’t feel myself as being a sinner and have no feelings of sin.
So how do I be 'saved" if I don’t feel myself as a sinner in the first place.

Does that mean I’m not humble and am somehow arrogant?
Obviously I would never kill someone and hate hurting anyone but “little things” like some lies I have no issues with and have no remorse for doing if they don’t hurt anyone else.
In my view,sometimes people are forced to lie.
For example,a person may feel they need to lie about their age to get a job if they live in a culture that has age discrimination and they have experienced being rejected many times in job interviews due to their older age.

Christians may say that person should trust God instead but it’s a bit hard to trust God when the bills or rent might be due for them today and God has “let them hm down” many times before when they have prayed and tried to trust.
 
This is only my testimony–but when for whatever reason I’m not feeling warm, gushy, kumbaya feelings towards God, I take it to the level of choice.
I believe in God, as presented in the Catholic Church, but my intellectual assent doesn’t always mean feelings.
In that moment, I take it to God and say “God, I’m not feeling anything, but I choose You , and I choose to follow You.”

Anyway, that’s just my testimony, take it or leave it.

:pray:t2::pray:t2::pray:t2: for you and your employment situation!!!
 
You are talking a lot about feelings in your post. I generally feel the same as you. I don’t have an sense of “God’s love” as a concrete thing and I don’t “feel” like a sinner.

But that doesn’t change the facts. I am a sinner and God does love me. I think I’d probably not believe either if I hadn’t learned more theology and made the effort to deepen my understanding of the faith. Most people don’t feel a strong sense of God’s love throughout their lives. Some do, but that’s rare.

I look at faith from a more rational perspective. It makes sense to me even if I don’t feel it.

I think your example of small lies is a bit flawed. There are many ways you can be discovered in such lies. Even if people don’t see it as a “sin” it’s certainly not desirable to be viewed as someone who is dishonest.
 
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Well here is my conversion story: I was baptized as an infant and went to Catholic grammar school so I knew what I was supposed t believe and supposed to do and not do. In college I would sometimes miss Mass so I would, of course, go to confession. In our discussion I told the priest that the Mass seeemd boring to me and I got nothing out of it. He told me to “pray for a love of the Mass.”. That blew my mind. “Love of the Mass”??? Is that even possible?

So I was sitting in the church talking to God and I recall how the catechism said we were created to “know, love and serve…”. So Isaid someth8ing like: I don’t love the Mass because I dont love you. And I cant love you because I dont know you." We cant love something we dont know at least a little.

“Please show me who you are!”

That prayer changed everything. I began to see God everywhere or maybe better to say, realize God’s presence everywhere and in all things. I began to realize that not only is God everywhere but God is also beautiful. We dont hear that much in homilies, that God is beautiful. And I could then not help but love God and love the Mass because I loved Jesus.

But a realization has to happen and that takes grace. It is a pure gift from God and I guess we have to be ready for it, be open to it, and even ask for it.

My advice" Ask God to show you who S/He is.
 
When you say you have no sense of sin, but then use the example of lying about one’s age to get work, that’s probably not the best example. A lot of Catholics would argue about whether that is or isn’t really a sin if the person working needs the money. In any event, even if it was a sin, it’s a sin of finite duration. If you say you are 18 to get a job when you are only 16 then sooner or later you will be 18 and will no longer be lying. One concern with these type of lies is that if a person lies in something relatively minor like this, he may develop the habit of lying about more significant matters.

Do you have a “sense of sin” in understanding that it is wrong to do things that hurt people, such as gossip, unkindness, cheating on one’s spouse, etc.? Most people do, even if they don’t believe in God or follow a religion.

As for not being able to conceptualize God, I agree that you need to ask God to reveal himself to you. I have heard this complaint before from people who did not have a good relationship with their father or their parents and thus cannot relate to God as a loving father. I myself had a good father, so it’s easy for me to think of God as being like my dad only bigger, better, more powerful, more loving. This doesn’t work for a person who never had a relationship with their dad.
 
I had a similar experience when I struggled to pray or spend time with the Lord. I told Him I wanted to want to do His will, but I didn’t want to do His will. I asked Him to make me want what His will for me is. I told Him I freely choose to make His will my own. Everything unfolded—the Mass made me weep for months because of how much meaning poured from every single word. And God was everywhere, and I was able to see Him so easily. And then I sinned and all of it was GONE. Total desolation. And I went to Confession feeling like I had lost everything. I walked out of the Confessional and I could see again, spiritually.

Nothing compares.
 
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You exist don’t you? You say, that you’re technically a Catholic, were you not taught that Jesus Christ died for your sins? Were you not taught that what you receive at Mass is the body and blood of Christ? I’m sorry if I’m sounding offensive, but I’m so tired of everyone relying on emotions. God exists, he became man, he died for your sins. That same sacrifice, God becoming man and dying for your sins, is what the sacrifice of the Mass is. What don’t you believe? That God exists? Well I’m sorry, he does. Willing that God doesn’t exist, doesn’t make him not exist.
 
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Thanks for sharing. “Nothing compares” and it can be so a hard to describe. We can see God everywhere and yet our eyesight hasn’t changed and the world hasn’t changed. And yet it is all totally different.
 
I’m sorry.
But it sounds like you’re relying on your emotions too much.
Feelings aren’t always the best measure of reality.

I’d say it is more pride. You put your morality over God’s morality. Some things we may not understand. I believe it was St Paul who wrote in his inspired writ that is in the Bible, that if the Law had not shown some sin or other to be wrong, he would not have known it.
The key is to trust in God.

You say you can’t feel him.
Faith is a gift. I request that you ask Him to let this happen.

Now. If I were to guess, I am guessing you are living in a state of sin, though you might not feel it is sinful.
From my own experience, I too lack my faith when I am in a state of sin. So, change your ways, ask God to forgive you and show Himself, and confess. Make a good confession. Perhaps spend some time in Adoration.
 
I strongly I feel it’s wrong to be unfaithful to a spouse or be unkind to others but I don’t really see it as “sin”.
And maybe I’m like arrogant or something because I think to myself I haven’t cheated on someone and don’t like talking unkind about or to people so I don’t find any sins that I have so I must be free on sins.

But every religion would say that no one (except Jesus if someone is Christian) was/is free from being a sinner so I don’t know why or what causes me to not be able to come up with any of my own sins.

Regarding gossip,I find it hard to distinguish between what is gossip and what is just chit chat.
To me,gossip means saying something that would hurt another person and I don’t like to do that but if it just something for example like “I heard xyz is going to leave work and is looking for a new job” then I guess I have been “guilty” of that.
 
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“Sin” means anything hurtful to yourself, to another person, or to God. I realize you don’t have much concept of “God” at this stage so let’s leave the last one off.

I’m pretty sure that even with the arguments you’re making, you can see where certain behaviors are hurtful to yourself or another person. I think your reluctance to see them as “sins” means more that you’re kind of rejecting the whole sin concept than any inability to distinguish between un-hurtful gossip, such as saying, “I heard the Joneses might go on vacation to Hawaii”, and hurtful gossip, such as saying, “I heard a rumor that the Joneses are fighting a lot and might get divorced.”

If I were you, I would look more closely at why you’re arguing obtusely about behaviors that, whether you call them sinful or just hurtful, are pretty clear to the vast majority of people, including those who do not practice a religion or believe in God.
 
God is Being Itself.

If you’re conscious, technically you can feel God.

You just need to slow down, be quiet and be still, and know that I AM truly IS.
 
Generally,Do all Catholics on here have a strong sense of themselves as being sinners who need to be “saved”?

And what is meant when people say they see God everywhere?
I mean like on a practical literal sense.
 
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Sorry but I don’t really understand that reasoning.
Muslims for example are not told to believe in Jesus dying for their sins so they don’t believe it.
How do I know that they arn’t the “right ones” regarding “spiritual truth” (providing that anyone’s right at all)?

My point being that people can often believe what they are conditioned to by their religion and/or upbringing and that varies individual to individual.
I can’t just blindly believe something without question because the religion of my birth says something (even if they are right).
I think people should use their discernment,mind,reasoning and discretion.
 
Obtuse pretty much describes me.
I guess what I’m trying to explain,rather poorly,is that I don’t know how to love (whether emotionally or through will) a God that I can’t feel or conceptualise.

I understand what you are saying that even good people who are not religious don’t like gossip in the harmful form but what about the “harder things”.
Eg:Catholics are meant to believe in no sex before marriage.
That seems so foreign in today’s “modern world”.
I’m not suggesting people should sleep around either of course,but the first notion seems “strange” too to younger people in committed relationships.
We think things like what’s the difference between sex one night prior to a wedding night vs one night after?

I guess my point is how do you make yourself love (agree to his ways) God if you have no motivating factor like feeling him/knowing him?
 
Even if I somehow got a “epiphany” that God was real,and the Catholic God /Catholic beliefs no less, do you to be perfect ie:agree with everything God say and believes such as no sex before marriage,don’t agree with abortion in any circumstance,disagree with gay relationships etc) first to be able to “join the club” so to speak or can you be a work in process and come from the place your at now?
 
But isn’t this the same as New age meditation?
Ie:quieting your practice and sitting in God(?)'s presence and I thought the Catholic Church was against this Centering prayer type of thing?
 
You can definitely be a “work in progress.” I left the Church when I was 15 and was away for 27 years. When I returned I did not agree with everything the Church taught. It took me a few years to reach the point where I could honestly say I agreed with everything the Church teaches. Meanwhile I was back in the Church and making all sorts of mistakes and learning.

We are living in a post-Christian society so things like sex outside of marriage or same-sex relationships appear to be a normal part of our culture. However, up until very recently (last 50 years or so) it wasn’t like this at all. For the last 2000 years Christians have believed these things were sins.

Meditation in the Catholic sense of the word means having a conversation with God through prayer. Practitioners of Eastern meditation, on the other hand, are taught to empty their minds of everything and every thought. When I meditate I try to fill my mind and heart with God.

Do I always feel his presence? No I don’t. Some people feel his presence more often than others. I agree with the posters who have suggested asking God to show you who he is.

Please keep asking questions.
 
It’s good that you found yourself in a hard spot. It means you have a chance to realize that you yourself don’t know how to love, that you yourself don’t know how to trust, that you yourself can’t do all those things you would like to do. This is how the whole journey starts.

Those things, those virtues you write that you lack come from God. He is the source. We are not the source of them. Pray to God to teach you how to cultivate those virtues, because they are His. The work you need to do is properly open yourself. If you want your excuses, that’s fine, but why do you also expect God to help you while you have them? You can’t have both hell and heaven. It’s like asking for your parent to give you a lift to a crack den. They won’t help because they wouldn’t want to harm you.

If God gave you His grace more abundantly, when you don’t feel that you are at all sinful… oh my. The results would be disastrous.
Rozellelily said:
For example,a person may feel they need to lie about their age to get a job if they live in a culture that has age discrimination and they have experienced being rejected many times in job interviews due to their older age.

Christians may say that person should trust God instead but it’s a bit hard to trust God when the bills or rent might be due for them today and God has “let them hm down” many times before when they have prayed and tried to trust.
Click to expand...
Nah, virtues cultivated for the sake of Christ give us so much Grace that we could very well do without everything else.
 
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Rozellelily said:
a person is meant to care about having eternal life with God but in my case I can’t feel God,even conceptualise about God or Jesus and so on and certainly dont feel Gods love,so it’s hard to care about wanting to be with God in an afterlife.
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We struggle to love people when we do not know them. Fortunately, Jesus, our beautiful and caring Friend has given us countless ways to get to know him! Speak to Him in your heart throughout your day as you would a friend, tell him anything and everything, pray to Him for whatsoever you desire, and read the New Testament (even if it is just a page a day). God loves us so much, a love so strong that we could never fully comprehend it. In fact, when Jesus showed Saint Phillip Neri a small portion of His love for him, Saint Phillip felt God’s love in his chest so strongly he nearly died. He had to cry out for God to stop, saying: “Enough! Enough! I cannot take anymore!” He loves you so much, if you reach out to him with humility, confess that you need Him and want Him, he will respond to you.
My best advice for getting to know Jesus and thus feeling God’s Love and His Presence, is to spend quiet time before Him in the Blessed Sacrament! There is no denying the peace there, it is a peace unlike anything I have ever felt in this world, and I have heard many others say the same. Find a Church near you that offers Perpetual Adoration, or even displays the Blessed Sacrament at certain hours of the week. Even if you just spend 10 minutes a week with Jesus, no time in front of Jesus is ever wasted. Please give this a shot, I guarantee you will not regret it.
You could say this prayer:
Jesus, help me to accept the Love of God as it is being shown to me. Open my eyes, my mind, my heart and my soul so that I can be saved. Help me to believe by filing my heart with Your Love. Then hold me and save me from the torment of doubt.
Jesus, I trust in You. Help me to love You more. Fill me with the confidence to surrender in full and final union with You. Help me to grow my trust in You during difficult times. Fill me with Your Peace. I come to You, dear Jesus, as a child, free of all wordly ties; free of all conditions and I hand You over my will to do with it as You see fit for the sake of my own and that of other souls.

God bless you! I am praying for you, that you come to know and love Jesus, who loves you more in a single moment, then any human being could love you in a lifetime ❤️❤️❤️
 
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