Hello again!! ....
What is it that the world offers that God does not? The world's standards are not the same as God's standards, we cannot pretend to love God and live according to the world. "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
Matthew 6:24 NRSV-CI. We all should know that the Bible states nothing but truth, you cannot claim to serve God and focus most of your resources in living according to this world yet we must live according to Jesus Christ. You will grow to hate God if you continue to find satisfaction and fulfillment in the world. So let us not live to impress people, let us live to impress God, let us try to live up to His perfection.
You will never be satisfied by the world no matter how much you have, true happiness and fulfillment only comes from God. Living for this world will only keep you away from God, we have to read the Bible and learn what is right and what isn't, we must be able to discern false teachers from real teachers and we have to be prepared for we do not know the day or the time the Lord will come back. You will never truly love God as much as you say until you start living according to His will.
"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ."
Colossians 2:8 NRSV-CI. We have free will and we have misused it and disappointed Him in all our actions. What we forget is God has free will as well, God has the power to do anything to anyone at anytime but not once has He misused it. He can do anything he desires without any limits but we who have limitations, have failed to do even the little we are able to do. God can do anything He wants whether it's good or bad but he doesn't because He is holy, only He is good as it says in Matthew 19:17 "And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." We have to try our best to copy His nature. We are humans, we will still fall into sin but the difference is we should hate sin and not indulge in it, we should ask for forgiveness sincerely ( you can't 'repent' and commit the same sin the next day, that's foolish), we should get rid of temptation perhaps getting rid of specific parts of our lives that lead us into sin and love wholeheartedly. Jesus clearly states that we are not good we will never be good for only God is good, keep the commandments and you will be granted eternal life but let us not get too prideful in our actions, we are not above anyone else. We are all sinners and we have all fallen short of God's grace, all we can do is have faith in Jesus Christ's sacrifice for us and live according to His will.
We are not good so we have no right or reason to judge anybody, as Jesus said when he was protecting a woman who had been caught in adultery from the crowds, "When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."
John 8:7. If you are perfect then go ahead, judge people because there'll be nothing for you to be judged by..... people make mistakes and so do you and just incase you don't know, you're not perfect and you're not close. Don't judge someone because you think what they're doing is wrong or even because they aren't doing what you would do, if what they're doing is truly wrong according to God's word then we are obligated to educate them and lead them to a straight path. If God can give us multiple second chances when we have not been deserving or worthy then who are we to judge others as though we are any better, this is why we should not be prideful in our actions. Jesus did not look at this woman with disgust or hatred. He told her to sin no more and left her on her way. If he who is perfect did not judge who are you compared to Him. Matthew7:1 - Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.
No one knows of God's plans apart from His Spirit which he has sent to us such that we may know the things given to us by God. Jesus Christ left the world with God's Holy Spirit that it may fill us in all we do according to God's will. God is so generous that He left His Holy Spirit with us that He may always be with us in all that we do. But let us not forget that this is God's Holy Spirit, keyword Holy, God will forgive a lot of short comings from humans but God will not accept blasphemy against His Spirit. God is not mocked. God will not allow His Holy Spirit to be slandered by humans for this is the unforgivable sin. Blasphemy against His Holy Spirit is an unforgivable and we must guard our hearts in all we do.
Humans are moving further from God because of human knowledge. People put too much belief in their own knowledge, people believe God isn't real because they think they know how the universe was created, we have put too much trust in our own intellect, to put it lightly we aren't smart enough to understand the creation of this world but God told us all we need to know, shouldn't that be enough?. We put too much pride in our abilities and yet we have so many limitations that God doesn't. Scientists do not have the answers for every question but God does. We have put too much faith in our knowledge and not enough in God. We have become so consumed in our opinions that we as Christians only listen to what we want to hear, read only what we want to know. We listen to all the promises of God but block our ears when it comes to Jesus' commands or God's wrath. We have favored our opinions over God's word. We have twisted scripture or ignored warnings to fit to our own selfish desires, to make us feel good about ourselves. Why do we do that? We have taken advantage of God's grace who still waits for us with open arms but we forget His arms won't be open forever and regret is a terrible thing, so let us live as God wants us to not as we want to. Let us not take advantage of God, we have learned to worship this world more than God, we need to turn away from such while there is still time. Do not base the rest of your life on your own knowledge, read God's word and ask for His guidance so that we may not be led away on our own accord.
Do not deceive yourself, you can read God's word and you can hear it but only by practicing God's word, by making an effort to stick to the word, will you have eternal life and of course this only comes after accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. Jesus did not come on this earth to give you a pep talk, He wasn't a motivational speaker whose only purpose was to make us feel better about ourselves, He quite literally did the exact opposite to show everyone where our sin would lead us. He spoke the truth, Jesus did not come to be nice He came to save us, we were all going to hell but Jesus died to give us a choice live by Him and enter heaven, live by the world and suffer hell. He definitely wasn't afraid to be forward about His intention, Jesus was not rude, He was honest and he did not beat around the bush. He left us His knowledge so that we may live according to him and not our own knowledge. So let us live how Jesus would expect us to live. I used to think I could still be a good Christian without reading the Bible but I have come to realize that I can only have a relationship with God by reading His word, He can speak to me through the Bible, we should not read the Bible to feel like good people, we should read the Bible to learn how to get closer to God, to learn how to be better for God.
God is a just God, only He is good....all decisions He makes are just. Whether you think His decisions are fair or not. If you think His decisions are not just then you are using your knowledge not His divine knowledge. Trust God, i mean truly trust Him whatever you think doesn't matter,it's about trusting Him enough to believe everything that He does for you is only for the best, trust His plan for you. No matter what you do God's will shall prevail, we need to accept that by trusting that all our hardships will be worth it.
God loves you and all He wants you to show Him the same kind of energy. And while you wait for whatever it is you require, don't forget to worship His name.
Please share with friends or family. And I'm not going to sugarcoat anything. I hope this helps.
God doesn't want you in hell!
Here's a prayer (it's more of a conversation) that I wrote, hopefully you can get ideas on how to talk to God.
Lord, You truly are amazing, before, I truly didn't think of myself as a lukewarm Christian..... I thought my relationship with you was as great as it could be and yet I still didn't think I'd end up in heaven, I quite literally thought I was predestined for hell; on my own account of course. Lord you reached out to me and I started realizing how awful I've been to you, but Lord you welcomed me with open arms, Lord you accepted me even before I realized the era of my ways and I've never felt anything but blessed by you, all I receive from You is love but all I put on the the table is doubt and sin but Lord you are willing to forgive me, You're willing to love through all my shortcomings and I'm sorry that I still do all these terrible things against your will, Lord I'm sorry for disappointing You time and time again but thank you for forgiving me and pulling me back to You. Thank you for never giving up on me and being so perfect that you love me even with all my imperfections. To be honest Lord, I'm probably still a bit of a lukewarm but I'd like to think I've changed Lord, I feel like I'm sinning less and I read the Bible now and I'm making an effort and it's all because of your love and patience with me, You've never given up on me and from what I read you never will and I'll forever be grateful. Thank you for loving me even when I couldn't. I didn't realize how greedy I was and still am, always wanting more without realizing how much I already have, Lord I am not completely content unfortunately but I am starting to accept that I am extremely privileged to have you in my life for their people who don't know You. Thank so much for blessing me abundantly without me even deserving a tenth of it. I love you!
AMEN!!!!
xoxo
M✨