Originally posted by Serizawa
reply to post by Heartisblack
I prayed every night for 3 years straight and nothing happened. God doesn't help me, meanwhile the devil is out playing with my soul. I don't
pray anymore...................God gave up on me.
This may be a little hard to understand, but...
I believe that God has almost always let the devil run the world. Whenever a tsunami hits, or a
hurricane, a flash flood, a bear-mauling attack, birth defects, epidemics, everyone always says, "How could God do that?" I've always wondered why
people don't instead ask, "Why is God letting Satan do this to us?" After all, there's a whole book of the Bible devoted to exactly that (Job).
Fortunately, I think I have an answer: The Meaning Of Life.
How do you make steel stronger? You temper it, heat it to incredible temperatures. I doubt the steel "likes" it very much, but it definitely improves
it, and the steel is "happier" afterwards despite the pain required to get there... just like Job was happier once God was done letting Satan have his
way with him. God used Satan to purify Job, to temper him, to make him more spiritual; it wasn't a test. God
never needs to test anyone; he
knows exactly who and what we all are. Strengthening Job's faith was the goal, and/or proving a point to Satan.
Now think what would've happened if Job had given up in the middle of his ordeal, if he'd killed himself or spurned God or otherwise pulled himself
out of the fire. His transformation would've been incomplete. He would have been far less useful to God then (and to himself). And when I say "he," I
mean his soul, his spirit, the REAL Job, not that bag of bones sitting in ashes and sackcloth. His soul is what was strengthened; his body didn't
matter whatsoever. Our bodies are merely the desks we sit in in the School Of Life. That's all life is: a school where we get tempered. If you drop
out early without graduating, game over. You Lose.
Eternally. Period.
So hang in there. The miseries of your few years here will become a distant memory over the next infinity years if you graduate. It sounds like you
once believed in God. Consider re-connecting with him. Don't expect "answers" to prayer, either. Your course curriculum is set in stone. Everything
you experience is just another lesson towards getting your degree. Life 101.
Just bear in mind: the bad things are not God's doing. He's merely using the devil as your teacher, and he
certainly has not given up on you.
You just need to listen differently to hear him. The simple fact that you
are experiencing adversity means you mean something to him;
otherwise, you'd just be sailing through life without a care in the world, like a Rothschild or something. Those guys... man, are they doomed...
ETA: I forgot to include a pertinent verse of scripture, Daniel 12:10. Daniel is discussing the End Times with God, his prophecies, and God says,
"Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall
understand." So I hope you understand.
edit on 7/25/2011 by Thought Provoker because: Pertinence