Why did God create us?

[guanophore]

It costs time and money to volunteer. OK I got plenty of time, but money is short and I prefer to pay bills with that, instead of paying it to commute across town.

You are right about that! I am fortunate to have a Habitat for Humanity center walking distance.

I have no value to God. He obviously wants me to do something. But he won’t tell me what. So I fail. And that makes him angry and then he punishes me with more suffering. It is a vicious cycle. I wish God would talk to me!!!

But He won’t and I’m doomed. I am heartbroken and God no longer loves me.

You are sounding like the lame man at the pool that Jesus asked “do you want to be healed?” He gave Jesus a lot of excuses why he had not been. If you believe the things that you have written here, then you have bought into the lies of the devil, and it is no wonder you are feeling miserable and are in a vicious cycle. Christians function best when they have the mind of Christ, which these statements do not reflect.

I have no gifts. If I did, one of the thousands of employers with home I applied for a job, would have seen it by now.

This is what is called a cognitive distortion. It is drawing a false conclusion based upon a false premise. God did not give you the gifts He did so that employers could necessarily recognize them or give you a job. He gave them to you so that you could serve HIm, and His Holy Bride, the Church. If a Christian denies the gifts given to him by God, he will no doubt be a miserable person.

I have no gifts for the Church. I used to be an apologist and would love to evangelize online.

Well, you could do that here at CAF, if your witness was more consistent with Christ, rather than the evil one.

I used to be on another Catholic board, and got myself a reputation of coming up with great arguments to defend the faith. I love the faith and want to defend her, and share her with others online. I sincerely thought I was doing something good for Christ and His Church.

I am sure you were. At some point, you stopped having faith in that which you were defending. God allowed you to be unemployed, and he wants you to use this time to strengthen your faith in HIm, and you are not letting Him.

But it was not to be.   Due to certain dissenters who had admin/mod positions, they banned me for a bogus reason.  I tried to appeal to higher ups, but the dissenters lied to them.   When we got a new Pope, all bans were lifted and I found out the dissenters no longer ran the show.  Yay!  Back to normal.   But it was short lived as I got banned shortly afterwards.   The admins/mods who lost their positions made the board a hostile place to be.  Some charity from people who claimed to be so holy and strict on their faith, eh?

I am sorry that you were hurt by all that. Jesus can heal your every hurt, and wants to do so. We cannot expect to be treated better than He was.

I even went on an anti-Catholic board and basically did such a good job of clearing up misunderstandings and defending the faith, the board admin even considered me for a mod position there. It never went through, I believe they were just faking it. They banned me and a lot of the other Catholics who were “too good” at defending the faith for bogus reasons. They wanted to only yank Catholics out of the Church and did not want biblical evidence for Catholicism.

Yes. I think I have been on that board!

 

[guanophore]

So I tried to defend the faith here. But I got the message loud and clear. I got dinged as “uncharitable” due to the fact I could easily win an argument (mind you, I can be salty, but not spicy!)

Your post certainly comes across as full of negativity.

That was years ago. I no longer am under the delusion I could ever do anything good again on the faith front. I would be prideful to think I could ever become 1% of the apologist Jimmy Akin or Karl Keating are.

You are called to use the gifts that God has given you, and you are called to do something different than these others. First you must bloom where you are planted, rather than nursing wounds from where you are not.

I really enjoyed being an Apologist online. 4 years that I really thought I was serving God well and was joyful.

Sounds like God is leading you into a deeper level of walking with Him.

That will never happen again. If I had a gift, it is long gone. It was taken away.

Sometimes God allows us to go through periods of deprivation so that we will not begin to think too much of ourselves. Remember when Paul asked God to take away his thorn in the flesh? God did not, and said “my grace is sufficient for you”. It is when His grace is sufficient, without anything else, that we can really image Him as He created us to do.

I have not overcome my suffering. That means God said NO to getting that grace. If God said YES I wouldn’t be here in pain.

Horse hockey! You don’t think Jesus was in pain hanging on the cross?! You don’t think Paul and Silas were in pain in the jail?! Grace is the ability to suffer redemptively. It does not mean pain will be taken away.

Since God has denied me, it is obvious I am useless to him as well. This is why what is written in the scriptures is happening to me.

Matthew 25:24 “but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.”

My gift was taken away, and I have nothing. It is quite heartbreaking and depressing…

You are right, the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Whenever there is something in this life that can lead us away from Him, He asks us to sacrifice it, like our Isaac. Your gift was not taken away, what you lost was a venue in which to exercise it. God wants to draw you into a deeper relationship with Himself. Yes, it is heartbreaking and depressing, but that is the natural reaction of the ego to loss. When we are “nothing” is when He can shine the brightest for HIm.

When you are able to give thanks to HIm in all that you have lost, because He is all that matters to you, then you will see things begin to turn around. When you are able to cling to the Giver, not the gifts, you will find that you are completely fulfilled.

 

[nightranger]

Like which?

Matthew 10:38
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

Mark 8:34
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Mark 10:21
come, take up the cross, and follow me.

Luke 9:23
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

John 15:20
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

God created us as an expression of His love and for us to glorify HIm by reflecting His image and likeness. He did not create us to suffer, and Adam and Eve did not expereince suffering until sin entered.

Ok , just remember you said that. “He did not create us to suffer.”

For once, instead of these useless platitudes, I wish one person here would admit to the obvious fact that God did in fact create us to suffer. Like I’ve asked many times before, if He did not create us to to suffer, than why do we?

He uses our suffering also to glorify Himself in us, but our destiny is to be completely free of suffering (because there is no suffering in heaven) and to be in communion with HIm forever.

So you’re saying that He does want us to suffer? After all you just said “He uses our suffering to also glorify Himself …” But just a paragraph ago you said :“He did not create us to suffer.” So which is it? Does He want us to suffer or not?

 

[Bernadette173]

When God wanted us to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him, he meant for us to love one another, to get to know one another, and to serve and help one another along the way in life. Not to see God as some great unknowable force in nature, but to see God in one another. Even when we commit sin against one another to be able to forgive those sins and try to live peacefully among one another.

God Bless,

 

[InJesusItrust]

I think suffering is just a condition of our exile we have to put up with. I felt a supernatural joy and peace that I think was a foretaste of heaven when crying out to God. In heaven, if that is indeed what I felt, there is only love and bliss unlike anything on earth; I am talking about the kind of love where you would take a bullet to save a man who tortured you.

 

[BobCatholic]

You are sounding like the lame man at the pool that Jesus asked “do you want to be healed?” He gave Jesus a lot of excuses why he had not been. If you believe the things that you have written here, then you have bought into the lies of the devil, and it is no wonder you are feeling miserable and are in a vicious cycle. Christians function best when they have the mind of Christ, which these statements do not reflect.

I wish God would talk to me. He doesn’t.

God did not give you the gifts He did so that employers could necessarily recognize them or give you a job.

Then God gave me a burden I cannot carry and I am doomed to fail.

Well, you could do that here at CAF, if your witness was more consistent with Christ, rather than the evil one.

True. If I had value to God I could do better.

I am sure you were. At some point, you stopped having faith in that which you were defending. God allowed you to be unemployed, and he wants you to use this time to strengthen your faith in HIm, and you are not letting Him.

Let me see if I get this straight. God wants me to trust him more by being more untrustworthy. I ask for a fish of employment and He gives me a scorpion of unemployment. I guess employment must be an evil thing.

I am sorry that you were hurt by all that. Jesus can heal your every hurt, and wants to do so. We cannot expect to be treated better than He was.

No heals yet. Jesus said no.

 

[ivebeenshown]

This assumes I am given an actual job. Which I’m not. I am given a responsibility, but no means of carrying it out.

Your job is to spread the gospel in action to glorify God. How can you say you have absolutely no means of doing that?

 

[BobCatholic]

Your post certainly comes across as full of negativity.

Long periods of unemployment do that to me. I have no control over my employment situation.

You are called to use the gifts that God has given you, and you are called to do something different than these others. First you must bloom where you are planted, rather than nursing wounds from where you are not.

Unfortunately I have no gifts. I am a beggar on the side of the road screaming “have mercy on me” God does not care.

Sounds like God is leading you into a deeper level of walking with Him.

God WAS during that time. Now he’s pushing me away. He has rejected me.

Sometimes God allows us to go through periods of deprivation so that we will not begin to think too much of ourselves.

Mission accomplished. Now I think I can do absolutely nothing. I am useless to God.

Horse hockey! You don’t think Jesus was in pain hanging on the cross?! You don’t think Paul and Silas were in pain in the jail?! Grace is the ability to suffer redemptively. It does not mean pain will be taken away.

If the only value I have is to be a masochist, that is even more depressing to me.

God wants to draw you into a deeper relationship with Himself.

God is pushing me away, and does not want me.

When we are “nothing” is when He can shine the brightest for HIm.

I am nothing but a broken vessel useless to him.

When you are able to give thanks to HIm in all that you have lost, because He is all that matters to you, then you will see things begin to turn around. When you are able to cling to the Giver, not the gifts, you will find that you are completely fulfilled.

I cannot give thanks for a cross that is too heavy. Or suffering that is too large for me. I am not a masochist.

 

[InJesusItrust]

I don’t know what I can say to make you feel better. You are despairing.

There are two ways to suffer, like the thief on the left and like the thief on the right. For the longest times all my sufferings turned me way from God but thanks to His grace suffering lead me back to God. I think you must place your hope not for happiness in this life but the world to come. I think suffering disconnects us from the things of this world.

“…I saw two roads. One was broad, covered with sand and flowers, full of joy, music and all sorts of pleasures. People walked along it, dancing and enjoying themselves. They reached the end without realizing it. And at the end of the road there was a horrible precipice; that is, the abyss of hell. The souls fell blindly into it; as they walked, so they fell. And their number was so great that it was impossible to count them. And I saw the other road, or rather, a path, for it was narrow and strewn with thorns and rocks; and the people who walked along it had tears in their eyes, and all kinds of suffering befell them. Some fell down upon the rocks, but stood up immediately and went on. At the end of the road there was a magnificent garden filled with all sorts of happiness and all these souls entered there. At the very first instant they forgot all their sufferings.”

 

[guanophore]

Matthew 10:38
And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

Mark 8:34
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Mark 10:21
come, take up the cross, and follow me.

Luke 9:23
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

John 15:20
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

Ok , just remember you said that. “He did not create us to suffer.”

None of these verses say that God created us so that we could suffer. Adam and Eve had no suffering prior to sin. All these verses say is that suffering is going to be an integral part of our fallen state, and that it can be redemptive if we join it with the cross.

 For once, instead of these useless platitudes,  I wish one person here would admit to the obvious fact  that God did in fact create us to suffer. Like I've asked many times before, if He did not create us to to suffer, than why do we?

It is sad that you think of the mighty promises of God as "useless platitudes. It is evidence that you have fallen prey to the Tempter, who wants us to despair in our suffering, rather than to have hope.

Jer 29:11-14
For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, 14 I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

The tempter is a liar, and wants to convince us that there is no hope and future for us.

Why were we created? What does the Apostle say?

1 Peter 2:9-10

9 But **you are **a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, **that you may **declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.

We are created in Christ to declare His wonderful deeds.

So you’re saying that He does want us to suffer? After all you just said “He uses our suffering to also glorify Himself …” But just a paragraph ago you said :“He did not create us to suffer.” So which is it? Does He want us to suffer or not?

 

[guanophore]

I wish God would talk to me.   He doesn't.

This is a curious truth about communication that I have also noticed happens in families. If the spouse notices that their beloved is not listening to what they are already saying, they don’t say anything further, and communication becomes limited. If kids find their parents are not listening to them, they stop trying to talk to them.

God has already spoken to you through his Holy Word and His Holy Church. Since you have rejected the revelation He has already given you, why would you expect HIm to say more? He opens His heart to the obedient, not the disobedient.

Then God gave me a burden I cannot carry and I am doomed to fail.

You can choose to see it that way, or you can choose to accept His grace. If you are able to humble yourself, then you will be able to experience the truth that He does not expect you to carry it, but to be yoked with Him, so that Christ in you, the hope of glory can be a witness to the world.

When a person takes a position opposite of what God has ordained, such a person will find themselves miserable. God created us for HImself, and to the extent that we rebel, we will not find peace.

1 Cor 10:13
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

What is that way of escape?

Rom 7:24-25
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

True. If I had value to God I could do better.

Amen! So, instead of embracing a lie from the pit ie; “I have no value to God”, choose to believe what He has already told you in His Holy Word. It is your choice.

Matt 10:29-33
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

The more you conform your mind to what He has already revealed to you, the more you will have revealed.

 

[ivebeenshown]

I ask for a fish of employment and He gives me a scorpion of unemployment.

You allude to one of my favorite saying of Jesus here, and you do so out of context with the actual passage. Jesus said “then how much more will the Father give his Holy Spirit to his children that ask!” We are never promised temporal goods or ease by God. What we are promised is his eternal love and life in communion with Him and all his Saints and his Blessed Mother.

 

[guanophore]

Let me see if I get this straight. God wants me to trust him more by being more untrustworthy. I ask for a fish of employment and He gives me a scorpion of unemployment. I guess employment must be an evil thing.

No, there is nothing evil about employment. What is evil is when we place our employment before him, so that if we do not get what we want, we become angry, resenfful, and hopeless. These are NOT fruits of the Spirit! If God wants you to be unemployed for the rest of your life, then it is for you to receive His will with joy and thanksgiving. We can take the attitude of Mary, who said “Be it done to me according to Your will”. And I recommend that you do this quickly, so that God does not have to get any more drastic with you. I am listening to a man on the radio who says he was caught up in his secular work and earning income. He got a flesh eating bacteria and almost died. He lost some body parts, and now he can’t work.

No heals yet. Jesus said no.

Then you can rejoince in your affliction. In everything we are to give thanks. It is this failure in the attitude of gratitude that causes us to be miserable. Maybe a reading of Job will help? “Though He slay me, yet will I praise HIm”.

Long periods of unemployment do that to me. I have no control over my employment situation.

If you have done all you can to be employable then no, you have no control over that. But you do have control over your attitude. You do have the choice to allow your circumstances to control your mood, or to conform your mood to the Word of God.You are clearly having an identity crisis, as you have forgotten that you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ, in God. A dead man does not need employment.

Unfortunately I have no gifts. I am a beggar on the side of the road screaming “have mercy on me” God does not care.

These are lies of the Devil that you are embracing and repeating. You don’t have to harbor and buy into these thoughts. Yes, we are all beggars on the side of the Road, but Jesus is our Bread, and he has already had mercy. If you tell yourself and others that you have no gifts, and that He does not care for you, then you are spurning the blood that bought you. If you refuse to recieve HIs blood and the gift of the HS, then what more can He give you?

Heb 10:26-28

26 For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries.

You bring judgement upon yourself embracing lies, and turning your back on what Christ has given you.

God WAS during that time. Now he’s pushing me away. He has rejected me.

When we are in the dark night of the soul, it can sure seem that way. But your posts make it plain that you are the one pushing Him away. He will not force Himself upon you. If you wish to spit back His sacrifice and HIs Gifts, He will allow you to do so.

Mission accomplished. Now I think I can do absolutely nothing. I am useless to God.

In a way this is a very good place to start.

Rev 3:17-19
…You are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent.
If the only value I have is to be a masochist, that is even more depressing to me.

God is pushing me away, and does not want me.

This is sure what the devil whispers in our ears all day long. It is up to you if you wish to believe that liar. It is your choice, whether you want to believe what the Evil One says, or what God says.

Eph 2:1-10
2:1 And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God - 9 not because of works, lest any man should boast. 10 **For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. **

I am nothing but a broken vessel useless to him.

On the contrary, He specializes in using Cracked Pots.

I cannot give thanks for a cross that is too heavy.   Or suffering that is too large for me.   I am not a masochist.

Yes, you can certainly give thanks for a cross that is too heavy. His grace will help you to carry. Where He guides, He provides. No, I think you have just fallen prey to the evil one. He is a sadist.

 

[guanophore]

I know that. And I do depend on God. However, God is not dependable.

Such an attitude, and the blaming of God for being unjust is a very spiritually dangerous position. It is one thing to be angry at God because you don’t get your way - this is human nature, but to indulge such fleshly notions and accuse God of wrongdoing is gettng very close to getting thrown into the fire.

He keeps saying “no” to me getting a job. What if God is ignorant of the laws of economics? Or maybe He doesn’t care about temporal issues.

God is certainly more concerned about the state of your soul than He is temporal issues. If I were in charge of your spiritual health, I would forbid you a job also until you changed your tune. Better you should never work again, than continue to harbor such animosity toward the HS in your life. Lying to the HS can be eternally fatal. Every time you say that you have no worth to God, and that you have no gifts from God, you are calling the HS a liar. Very dangerous.

God so cares about spiritual things to the complete and utter exclusion of any care about  temporal things.

If that were true, He would not have created and placed us in a physical world. However, if you have not love, you are nothing and right now you don’t come across as a man who has love.

1 Cor 13:4-7

4 Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5 it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

This is a good way to measure one’s journey to love.

1 Cor 13:4-7

4 Bobis patient and kind; Bob is not jealous or boastful; 5 Bob is not arrogant or rude. Bob does not insist on his own way; Bob is not irritable or resentful; 6 Bob does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. 7 Bob bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

It sounds like your “job” right now is to work on your charity! Maybe when you have made sufficient progress on that, He will allow you secular employment?

As long as I don't have a job, I am useless.

This is a good example of embracing a lie from the devil.

I am open to grace. And my cross is too much for me, don’t you think I know better how weak I am?

Evidently you do realize that you are wretched, poor, blind, pitiable and naked ,but rather than going to God to recieve riches, you want to depend upon yourself to produce them.

I hope in your stubborness you do not end up homeless.

 

[JOE_OBERR]

As God’s word in the Catechism teaches us, “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life.” (Prologue). I.e., God created us so we could share in his HAPPINESS beginning now on this earth and to continue in all eternity in heaven. Scripture nourishes this teaching with the Beatitudes as Jesus begins each one with Blessed are they… Blessed is another word for happiness. Some translations use happy. So by following the beatitudes, obeying the commandments, avoiding sin like the plague (and repenting and going to confession when necessary) then one will be on the road to happiness. That is why God created us and is why Jesus became incarnate in order to teach us how to live since we lost the way through Adam’s sin.

Unfortunately the Baltimore Catechism got it wrong by saying this happiness begins in heaven. Big time error. The BC was never approved by any Pope, therefore it was subject to error. The CCC is the “sure norm for teaching the faith” so there are no teaching errors in it. Therefore we go with the teaching that God created us so we could be happy living as his children beginning NOW, on earth, and then for eternity in heaven.

 

[BobCatholic]

You allude to one of my favorite saying of Jesus here, and you do so out of context with the actual passage. Jesus said “then how much more will the Father give his Holy Spirit to his children that ask!” We are never promised temporal goods or ease by God. What we are promised is his eternal love and life in communion with Him and all his Saints and his Blessed Mother.

Where does it say in Church teaching, Bible, or anywhere, that becoming a follower of Jesus Christ requires a vow of poverty for laymen?

I reject the “health and wealth” gospel, but I am TRYING MY HARDEST to reject the Deist position. What you’ve said doesn’t make it easier to reject that position.

 

[BobCatholic]

Such an attitude, and the blaming of God for being unjust is a very spiritually dangerous position. It is one thing to be angry at God because you don’t get your way - this is human nature, but to indulge such fleshly notions and accuse God of wrongdoing is gettng very close to getting thrown into the fire.

So you believe it is just for me to be punished for the sin of Adam and Eve?
You believe it is just for God NOT to provide when he promised to do so?

God is certainly more concerned about the state of your soul than He is temporal issues.

That is true. God ONLY cares about my soul and not about my body.

I now got to figure out how I’m going to live the rest of my life without income. To me, that is an impossible mission.

Better you should never work again, than continue to harbor such animosity toward the HS in your life. Lying to the HS can be eternally fatal. Every time you say that you have no worth to God, and that you have no gifts from God, you are calling the HS a liar. Very dangerous.

How am I harboring animosity toward the Holy Spirit?

If God says one thing in the scriptures and does another thing in my life…there’s a huge disconnect. And when I ask God to tell me what the issue is so I can fix it, I get silence.

If that were true, He would not have created and placed us in a physical world. However, if you have not love, you are nothing and right now you don’t come across as a man who has love.

So what you are saying is that I somehow took a vow of poverty in my life. I do not recall ever doing so.

It sounds like your “job” right now is to work on your charity! Maybe when you have made sufficient progress on that, He will allow you secular employment?

And how do I work on Charity? Without any resources to do so, I’m doomed.

Evidently you do realize that you are wretched, poor, blind, pitiable and naked ,but rather than going to God to recieve riches, you want to depend upon yourself to produce them.

I did go to God to receive. HE SAID NO. MULTIPLE TIMES.

I have no choice now but to depend on myself, I am on my own. THIS IS HIS WILL.

Unless you have some way of getting God to change his mind or actually get him to talk to me, I have zero way of figuring out this on my own.

I don’t want to depend on myself. I suck. I am weak and worthless. BUT I HAVE NO CHOICE. God said NO MULTIPLE TIMES and that’s that. Nothing I can do about that.

 

[BobCatholic]

God has already spoken to you through his Holy Word and His Holy Church. Since you have rejected the revelation He has already given you, why would you expect HIm to say more? He opens His heart to the obedient, not the disobedient…

I don’t recall reading my name in the Bible, Catechism, Church documents, etc. and where my next job will come from. Maybe there is something you know I don’t? Please tell me.

You can choose to see it that way, or you can choose to accept His grace.

I’ll be glad to accept His Grace when he decides to give it to me. I can’t force him to do something he does not want.

1 Cor 10:13
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

What is that way of escape?

I think you do not know what my situation is.

I asked God for a job. He said NO. My unemployment ran out. I have to figure out how to live on zero income.

I don’t know about you and your knowledge of economics, but THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE.

When God requires the IMPOSSIBLE - that is DEFINITELY “tempted beyond my strength” and basically God broke his promise there.

Matt 10:29-33
29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. 32 So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

The more you conform your mind to what He has already revealed to you, the more you will have revealed.

If I had more value than many sparrows, I would be able to do wonderful things for God. But I can’t do squat.

I’m just a beggar on the side of the road asking for mercy.

 

[snarflemike]

I’m just a beggar on the side of the road asking for mercy.

Maybe that’s where God wants you right now. Maybe that’s where you need to be.

I don’t say this lightly or scoffingly. Everything you have written sounds like a soul tightly clammed up, hissing and snarling, scratching and biting. It is not the surrender that God desires of you - needs from you. Give up, let go, offer yourself to God as his instrument.

I will keep you and your family in my prayers, this it will be my joy to do.

 

[BobCatholic]

No, there is nothing evil about employment.

It must be, when God said no multiple times. God always says no to evil things.

What is evil is when we place our employment before him, so that if we do not get what we want, we become angry, resenfful, and hopeless.

I am hopeless because I am a mere mortal. Subject to all the laws of nature and one of them is the laws of economics.

When the only hope for me is for God to help, and God doesn’t help, there’s no hope there.

If God wants you to be unemployed for the rest of your life, then it is for you to receive His will with joy and thanksgiving.

If that is his will (which it appears to be) then there is no such thing as Divine Providence. If I refuse to provide food and shelter to my son and wife, I would be charged as an abusive father and husband. Why does God get to do it?

We can take the attitude of Mary, who said “Be it done to me according to Your will”. And I recommend that you do this quickly, so that God does not have to get any more drastic with you. I am listening to a man on the radio who says he was caught up in his secular work and earning income. He got a flesh eating bacteria and almost died. He lost some body parts, and now he can’t work.

Just great. Things can only get worse.

Then you can rejoince in your affliction.

I’m not a Masochist. Why does God require me to be one in order for him to love me?

. A dead man does not need employment.

You confuse spiritual and temporal. I’m still temporally alive. I have to figure out somehow, how to survive until I die.

At this point I’m contemplating going to Saudi Arabia, to preach the gospel at Mecca and Medina. Muslims will slice my throat and I will be FINALLY able to make God happy since I am dying for the faith.

Yes, we are all beggars on the side of the Road, but Jesus is our Bread, and he has already had mercy.

Spiritually yes. Jesus took care of that. Temporally no. Read Romans 8:23. We have not been redeemed yet nor have we been adopted as children of God yet. Our souls yes. Our bodies NO. There is no temporal mercy.

If you tell yourself and others that you have no gifts, and that He does not care for you, then you are spurning the blood that bought you.

How is that? I don’t know what gifts I have. God won’t tell me. Nobody else would either.

If you refuse to recieve HIs blood and the gift of the HS, then what more can He give you?

I received both. That took care of the spiritual issues. But the temporal issues are still there.

When we are in the dark night of the soul, it can sure seem that way. But your posts make it plain that you are the one pushing Him away.

How am I pushing HIM away? I try to get closer to him and I get rewarded with pain and unemployment. That’s my reward for trying to have a personal relationship with God. Slapped hard. If I approach someone and they slap me hard, that’s not ME pushing them away.

Yes, you can certainly give thanks for a cross that is too heavy. His grace will help you to carry. Where He guides, He provides.

He is not guiding. He is not providing. THAT is my point. I get silence and unemployment.

No, I think you have just fallen prey to the evil one. He is a sadist.

Yes. And God expects me to be a masochist. That’s why the devil is permitted by God to hurt others. God wants masochists.

I don’t want to be a masochist. I don’t want to be sadist. I just want to be able to have a conversation with God, and not a monologue.