|
to all christians
hey...well within the last year i have become christian. but lately i have been having my doubts. i have depression, and have had it for about 2 years now. i pray so much but i dont seem to be making any progress to becoming happier. i dont understand why my prayers arent getting answered.
[ ]
Want to answer more questions in the Miscellaneous category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Spirituality?
Watch the whole thing.
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
Sorry.
You can make what you want of the god stuff, but the prayer stuff makes sense.
]
well, i am a strong christian, and i know that sometimes our prayers dont get answered as quickly as we want, or the answer we get isnt exactly what we were expecting. but have you ever thought that maybe he is trying to ehlp you but you're not willing to do anywork on your own? you have to try on your own to come out of depression and be a happier person, which is really hard, but maybe once god sees some effort on your end, he'll try and help you.
]
Hi!! Maybe your prayers are getting answered, just not the way you want them too...I know that sounds weird, but God knows what he's doing (that has been SO hard for me to learn, I'm still working on it...). Let me share some lyrics with you (believe it or not, they're from a country song...Unanswered Prayers by Garth Brooks)
"Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn't answer doesn't mean he don't care
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers"
Keep praying, don't give up...things will get better...Your faith is getting tested, stay strong!!
hope I helped yah!
]
GOD IS REAL! ah had to get that out of my way. Anyways, prayer can take a while and sometimes you cant just ask to me happier you have to ask him to give you ideas and things to do that will make you happier. dont worry god answers all prayers!!! dont give up stay strong and read the bible! i hope i helped<33
]
Hey,I'm a Christian...and I'm always depressed.
I thought like you a few times,before I took time to start really paying attention to things-little things.
I found out God made my life better in little ways...and sometimes some prayers are better left unanswered.Thats not a bad thing,though,because if God granted us everything we wanted and did everything for us...this life wouldn't be too interesting.
It may be that you,like myself,are clinically depressed or have a chemical imbalance.This is fairly normal among teenagers,and it happens to teens of all religions.
If you need more help,drop a message into my inbox
Mucho Amor,
Long Lost <3
]
I'M A CHRISTIAN!!! so no way am i gonna tell you He isn't real, because He is!!! Wow, i'm soo happy you're part of the family, but about your question. I understand going through that depression. I did too for about a year and i prayed and got mad at God alot because i felt like He was totally ignoring me. But the best thing about Him is, everything that goes on in our lives is seen by Him. Everything has a purpose. God is always nearby and listening. And alot of times, He doesn't answer prayers immediately. One of the fruits of the spirit is patience. He wants to develop in us a patience and a strong faith. Just keep believing and praying because He hears everything and will never leave you!!! I know it's soo hard to think you're not getting anywhere, believe me, i totally understand. But even though you can't see it, God is working through this. Keep reading your Bible. Try Proverbs or Matthew. Those are my two favorite books. But keep praying too. I hope i seriously helped. If you need, my sn is my columnist name. Feel free to talk to me anytime about this. I'd luv to help ya!!!
4Him, Disciple
]
your prayers wont always be answered in obviouse ways. i have delt with depression and my walk with christ as well, and i know its very very hard. but dont give up, keep praying, and find some good christian friends that you can talk to! im always here too if you need me, just leave me a message in my inbox and ill give you my screenname or email.
]
sweetie, maybe try praying, " Thank You God for all You have blessed me with including my happiness." Also, try visualizing when you go to bed. Visualize that you are handing God your unhappiness. Also, start prying for those that are having the same problems. Sometimes when I am down, I come here to help others and it works. Also whenever I have to build up my faith I reach for the Bible verse: Ezekiel 39:29. Will keep you in my prayers!
]
Praying is like going to a restaurant and putting in your order. Sometimes it comes out quick, sometimes it takes a long time, or sometimes they just tell you "We're out of chicken". Compare that for god answering your prayers quickly, or taking a longer time. Or, sometimes it's just not right for you. Hang in there, you have a lot of people with great advice on here, and I'm sure I can't amount well, but good luck.
]
As others have said before, your first year of being a Christian is bound to be the hardest and most confusing. Everyone goes through trials in their life--some go through little ones, and some suffer alot. You simply have to trust that God knows what's best for you. You have to put your faith in Him. However, you can't JUST pray and expect things to get better--God wants you to put a little effort in yourself.
If you're depressed, try finding a new hobby, or an uplifting book, or spend time with a family member/close friend to help yourself out of your depression. Playing an instrument is a soothing, calming hobby that you might be interesting in taking up. Try an acoustic guitar, piano, or violin. Spend time just talking to your grandpa about when he was little. Get out and enjoy your life.
Also, thank God for what you've got. Realize that you could have it a hundred times worse, and how lucky you are to be where you are. Things will get better soon, don't worry.
When you pray, do you have a clean slate? I.E., you've confessed your sins? If not, there might be your problem.
If you've got any more questions, or if you need any help, feel 100% free to IM me, email me, etc. I'm here.
<3 Sporkster
]
Youre being tested... thats part of becoming a christian... god wants to see how strong your faith is in him...have you ever heard the song "unanswered prayers" by garth brooks?? well heres part of it..
""Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you're talkin' to the man upstairs
That just because he may not answer doesn't mean he don't care
Some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers""
thats pretty much saying... even if he doesnt answer EVERY SINGLE ONE of your requests right away, doesnt mean hes not listening... hes taking care of everything for the better... and i know he will take care of youre depression, and any other problems you may be having, i have no doubts in that... you just need to be patient... God will come around sooner or later and help you out, he always does...trsut me!!
]
you just need to have faith HES prolly just testing you to see if you realy belive, sometime i get depressed to and all i need is at least 1 good friend to vent to and prayer! HOPE I HELPED!!
]
Wow, you've got some really good answers so far. I don't know if there is much I can add. I think FunnyCide is a very wise counselor. That advice was wonderful and I agree with it 100%. Remember that prayer is not you telling God what the problem is, for He already knows. Prayer is your humbling yourself before God and admitting to Him that you are depending on Him.
This may be a bit, straightforward, but I am trying to be kind and loving. Discouragement happens to all of us. Depression begins when we stop being impressed with God and His loving care of us. Simply put, depression is a lack of trust. Many will say that they trust God, but fail to act on it. Trust is an action that is confident about God's sovereignty, love, and concern. Did you know that the Bible says that God thinks about you more times in a day than there are grains of sand on the seashore? That's a lot of thinking He does about us. And what does the Bible say about His thoughts towards us? Jer. 29:11 says that His thoughts are thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you an expected end. What is the expected end? Romans 8:29 says it is to be conformed to the image of Christ. Is God doing that work in you, the work of bringing you to Christ-likeness? If you're a believer, you can take it to the bank. Philippians 1:6 says, "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you (bringing you to salvation) will perform in until the day of Jesus Christ (when you're ushered into the very presence of Christ through death or the rapture). And the great thing about all I've said is that these are promises and we know that God cannot lie.
Sometimes, we all have to do as David did and encourage ourselves in the Lord.
If I can be of further service to you, please let me know.
-ByReasonofUse
]
hey its ok to have doubts, all christians do. you really have to believe in it and that it can help you. as for depression, get something that helps you. for some its giving advice or helping people so its a good start. dont worry, relationships with god are never perfect/smooth. were human. any more questions let me know! <3
]
Dear Typical Christian,
Praying never gets you what you want.. no amount of praying will make you happy, no amount of praying will get you the girl of your dreams, no amount of praying will heal someone with brain cancer, no amount of praying will win you a new car..
Praying helps in no ways at all.. being a christian doesnt mean you pray, or go to work.. the only thing about being a christian.. is that you beleive in god.. if you beleive in the chirstian god, your instantly a christian..
I dont know if there is a god, Im agnostic.. To me there is something.. but I dont know if its a god.. or just a supreme being..
if you wanna be happy, you have to make it off your own steam, meet new people, be out going, actually have fun! you cant be happy if you dont get out and enjoy your life.. you cant simply pray and be happy... you need to do the things that make you happy.. and obviously praying isnt one of them.. my advice drop the praying.. and get out of the damn house!!
]
Happiness comes from outside circumstances and is temporary. Joy comes from within and is eternal. God has not promised you will feel happier if you are a Christian and all your circumstances will suddenly change. He may change them, but what God is interested in is changing YOU – inspite of your circumstances. It's how you look at your circumstance that makes the difference. If you have truly accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, you have the Holy Spirit living inside you – guiding and directing you. You have the power of heaven inside you right now! There is no greater thing than that. Read your bible; hang on to your faith no matter what, because you KNOW you have found truth. The enemy (satan) will try and steal it from you, but don't let him. He's a bully that is trying to get you back into his kingdom of darkness. He has lost you and he's mad about it. Think about it, if satan is that mad he must know how powerful you could be in the kingdom of God. He wouldn't waste his time trying to pull back a nobody. Jesus loves you SO much and all of heaven is rejoicing because YOU are saved. Have faith and allow the Spirit to work in you. You will grow and learn beyond what you could ever imagine! You will find joy!
]
believe me, god is hearing your prayers, he just has a different plan for you. i believe in god 110% because if it hadnt been for him, i couldve gotten badly injuried or died
]
Since when have you ever known whats best for you??? Maybe god sees something you dont. He is the all knowing. Im a fellow christian and let me say if your praying for something you think is good maybe god sees some better way. Pray that you dont lose faith. Maybe your looking at it wrong. Maybe god did help you. He put the person who descovered medicine for depresion on the earth. Maybe he's working on a miricle for you. Miricles are not as miraculas as you think and they take even longer then you think. Personally i believe that god created each of us an we have the power to do our own miricles. Be your own miricle.
]
As always, I'll be up front about this and begin by saying that I am an atheist, although I'm fairly well-read in the Bible.
My understanding (and your own particular sect may differ on this point) is that God does not answer all prayers for a number of reasons. Here are some:
1. Because we don't know everything. Maybe the depression was sent to test you. They say that God moves in mysterious ways, after all. Perhaps, years down the road, after you have worked through and conquered your depression with the help of doctors and medication, you will end up a better person, stronger in your faith, because of the trial that you have gone through.
2. Because of the doctrine of free will. If human beings did not have some freedom of action - the same freedom which allowed the Original Sin - then our choices would be meaningless. We could not truly choose to come to God, to accept salvation, because we wouldn't HAVE a choice. Our purpose as created beings would be nullified if we weren't able to make our own decisions; we would be, to quote Anthony Burgess, like a "clockwork orange", not real creatures at all. Our sin, and redemption, would be meaningless, and there would have been no point to Christ's crucifixion and resurrection at all.
The same doctrine could apply to the answering of prayers. If God answered all prayers, who would question his existence? How could we freely chose between good and evil?
3. It's also possible that God will answer your prayers via other human beings - that is, through medical treatment and therapy from mental-health specialists! I know of no doctrine that says that God is limited to acting through miraculous means only. Just because medical treatment has visible human causes doesn't mean that it doesn't ultimately come from God.
You should talk to your pastor or spiritual leader for answers about this subject, of course. They're far more qualified to answer than I am.
From a strictly secular viewpoint, let me say that depression is NOT a character defect, nor the result of sin. It is a documented neurochemical ILLNESS, as real as a broken leg or heart attack. If you broke your leg, would you pray to God to heal it? Perhaps you would, and ultimately you might feel that the cure came from Him, but unless you are a Christian Scientist or belong to some sect with similar beliefs, I'd bet that you'd also go to a hospital to have your leg x-rayed, the bone set, and a cast put on. And you wouldn't consider it a spiritual failure to go to a doctor.
Just because an imbalance of the chemicals in your brain isn't as visible as a broken leg is no reason not to seek medical treatment. If anything, relying on prayer only might be considered a sort of spiritual hubris - testing God, to force Him do what you could do for yourself, with human help.
But God is not a butler or a slave.
It would be like jumping off a cliff to see if God would catch you. I know of no doctrine that says that this is acceptable. Since effective treatment for depression is available from human sources - and it IS available, and effective - you should take it.
It may take time, and patience. But in the end you CAN have your life back. So pray, if you want, but also talk to your doctor. He or she will probably refer you to a specialist for an evaluation.
There's an old saying: "God helps those who help themselves". Please take that first step.
]
Sweetie, don't we all go through these times? -- yes. The first year of your Christian walk is bound to be the hardest, especially if you're a teenager/young adult. I became a Christian at the age of seven, and I didn't fully understand the world around me at that time. I hadn't tasted pain or suffering or seen cruelty and hardships. But you have to remember something that is VITAL to your Christian walk : God doesn't HAVE to answer your prayers. That's not in His contract. God isn't a genie in a bottle, He's not there to grant your every wish. God doesn't work that way. God does, however, LISTEN to your prayers. Whether He chooses to answer is up to Him. It depends on your situation, what God wants you to go through and what the request is. Being a Christian is not an anti-depressant, you won't all of a sudden feel happy because you're a Christian. Some people are absolutely ON FIRE for Jesus, it seems like NOTHING can get them down. Not everyone is like that; though we all should be. Sometimes God will test you, to see how strong you are, to see how you will react under a tough situation. Some people have chemical imbalances and they are depressed because of that and they would benefit greatly from an anti-depressant. Other people are depressed because something happened that wasn't on their list of planned outings. Perhaps a friend dies in a car accident, parents get divorced, sister is raped - so many things can happen that aren't planned. But they are put in our lives to see how we will respond to the stress; if we will call on Him and put our trust COMPLETELY in Him. This can be SO hard, so trying and difficult. I don't always understand why God does the things He does, but I know that there is a plan and a purpose. Take this example :
A girl is upset and talking to her mom. She's failing algebra and her boyfriend broke up with her for her best friend. She doesn't know why God was allowing all these things to happen. To try and cheer her, her mom asked if she'd like some cake for a snack. The girl loves cake, so naturally she wants some. Her moms says
"How about a few raw eggs? .. or a few cups of flour? ... what about some Crisco? ... or maybe some baking soda?"
"Gross, mom!" the girl replies.
The mother replies :
"Exactly, the individual ingredients of the cake are yucky, but when you mix them together you get a wonderful cake. Life is like that too. You might not understand why these things are happening, but God has a plan and a purpose for your life."
There will rough patches in your life, believe me. That is inevitable, but no matter what is thrown your way, God will always be there to comfort you and guide you. Sometimes I find myself saying, "God, don't you think that it would be good if things happened MY way?" instead of "God, I want things to happen YOUR way." It's hard to put complete trust in God sometimes, and sometimes you'll wish that God would make things happen your way, but sometimes those wishes are not granted. God only wants the best for you and He's not going to give you something (unless He wants you to grow/learn from it) that is bad for you. God gave us a free will. With it we can choose to WORSHIP Him or IGNORE Him. We can choose to do our homework or "forget" about it. We can choose to help our siblings with their chores or laugh at them. We can choose to do weed, crack, pot, drink, smoke etc. or we can choose to live purer lives. God is always there to help you, but you have to step into that and say "I WANT YOU TO HELP ME DO THINGS YOUR WAY, GOD." Saying "I want you to help me do things my way, God." doesn't cut it. Sorry. You've gotta trust God 100% no matter what to do what is best for you. Complete, total, and pure trust is hard to come by, but once you acheive it - things don't seem to be as bad, as hard, as high or as strong. :-)
In Christ - your sister,
-FunnyCide
]
God will answer every single one of your prayers, and you may get something you want, but it may not be specifically what you want. For instance, a person may pray for a house, and find a cardboard box lying somewhere in the street a week later. That person may not realise it, but that was the answer to his prayer.
Yet, most are not like that. You may pray to be happier. God gives you it, but not in a permenent fashion. You may pray one day and the next get a call from a friend inviting you to come over. It's a gift from god.
Sufferring from depression for nearly a year now, I can relate to the doubts. Yet, God created this world such that people would have doubts. He wanted to see that the people who believed in him did not need proof to believe in him. that is where the faith comes in. God tests you and compells you to do his bidding, as he wishes to see if you are fit to enter heaven. He gave you this challenge for a purpose, and you need to overcome it.
-Steven
]
Sometimes God puts us through trials in life. It's hard to understand why He does, but just believe that He has a reason behind it. Perhaps by your prayers not being answered, God is preparing you for another difficult time in your life or offering you a front-seat view of what people dealing with depression go through. My granny has always told me, "God never gives you more than you can handle."
For help in building trust in God, I suggest reading Romans 15:13. On God testing His children, I suggest reading Deuteronomy 13:3 and James 1:3. Other scriptures to read include Psalm 73, Lamentations 3:1-26, Psalm 27:14, Matthew 11:28-30, Psalm 130, Psalm 40:1-5, Psalm 77:1-15, Matthew 11:28-29, Psalm 37:28, Psalm 138:8 and 2 Corinthians 1:1-11.
I hope these help. I'll keep you in my prayers.
]
Well i am a christian, and Praying works. but it doesnt just happen over night. Keep doing it and results should come sooner or later
hope i helped♥
]
More Questions: |