Do you really want to know the answers to the big questions? If you're like most people, the answer is "No way!" The unifying ethic of your life is to follow what makes you feel good. As a successful person, you value delayed gratification, but it's really only on a scale of days, months, or even years for the most disciplined. The practical agnosticism of popular American culture has permeated your thinking. To say you're not sure about God is an understatement; you're not sure you even care.
The problem with your ability to ascertain the truth about God is not in your intellect, but in your heart. Those temporary comforts like food, cars, trips, jobs, and even family are enough to distract you from thoroughly questioning their eternal value. You easily allow your curiosity to be quelled. For some, your depression is rooted in that nagging, honest feeling that you're missing something central, but you've allowed someone to "help" you feel better about it. Pain should drive us to cure its cause, not just mitigate its symptoms.
Don't fight the initial discomfort caused by probing questions such as, "Who made me?" and "Why?" Everything is at stake. Use your reason and study the evidence, but realize that you are not alone is this endeavor to find the truth. Someone is actively hindering your investigation. You obeyed him instead of God (you thought you were just doing what you wanted,) and now he doesn't want you to let you go free. Your oppressor is the Father of Lies, God's enemy. Not only are you a resident of his kingdom/concentration camp, but because your rebellion against God involved your mind and heart, he has influence over that, too. After years of sinister brainwashing at the hands of his prison guards, you've barely got your wits about you, spiritually speaking. If there was an escape plan afoot, how would you know about it? Do you even want to? What now? Enter the Jesus the Liberator.
The problem with your ability to ascertain the truth about God is not in your intellect, but in your heart. Those temporary comforts like food, cars, trips, jobs, and even family are enough to distract you from thoroughly questioning their eternal value. You easily allow your curiosity to be quelled. For some, your depression is rooted in that nagging, honest feeling that you're missing something central, but you've allowed someone to "help" you feel better about it. Pain should drive us to cure its cause, not just mitigate its symptoms.
Don't fight the initial discomfort caused by probing questions such as, "Who made me?" and "Why?" Everything is at stake. Use your reason and study the evidence, but realize that you are not alone is this endeavor to find the truth. Someone is actively hindering your investigation. You obeyed him instead of God (you thought you were just doing what you wanted,) and now he doesn't want you to let you go free. Your oppressor is the Father of Lies, God's enemy. Not only are you a resident of his kingdom/concentration camp, but because your rebellion against God involved your mind and heart, he has influence over that, too. After years of sinister brainwashing at the hands of his prison guards, you've barely got your wits about you, spiritually speaking. If there was an escape plan afoot, how would you know about it? Do you even want to? What now? Enter the Jesus the Liberator.
So [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
- Luke 4:16-21
Start the prison break. The only thing you have to do is come to the end of yourself and ask Jesus for help. There is no prerequisite for doctrinal agreement before you do this; in fact, if you wait to sort out all the facts you may never come to Jesus. Don't worry; He will help you with that later. Get yourself into the Kingdom of God as quickly as you can. Ask God to free your mind so that you can know Him and obey his commandments. This is the only alternative to death in the devil's concentration camp.
Have you ever really tried to seek God? To understand Him? To know what your Creator wants so that you can prioritize that above your own desires? If they're honest, most people will answer "No." There may have been a time in your life where you felt very awful, maybe because you were a victim or maybe because you were guilty, and you felt humble and temporarily emotional enough to ask God for some relief. But in your mind, you were committing an irrational act of desperation with no real expectation of a reply.
Here is a guarantee: if you seek God, you will find Him. In the Sermon on the Mount (of "...turn the other cheek..." fame,) Jesus said, "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." (Matthew 7:8) Are you really seeking God or just satisfying intellectual curiosity? Are you truly humble, or do you think you can fix yourself through your own efforts? Do you expect Him to answer you?
Have you ever really tried to seek God? To understand Him? To know what your Creator wants so that you can prioritize that above your own desires? If they're honest, most people will answer "No." There may have been a time in your life where you felt very awful, maybe because you were a victim or maybe because you were guilty, and you felt humble and temporarily emotional enough to ask God for some relief. But in your mind, you were committing an irrational act of desperation with no real expectation of a reply.
Here is a guarantee: if you seek God, you will find Him. In the Sermon on the Mount (of "...turn the other cheek..." fame,) Jesus said, "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." (Matthew 7:8) Are you really seeking God or just satisfying intellectual curiosity? Are you truly humble, or do you think you can fix yourself through your own efforts? Do you expect Him to answer you?
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