How come with many of my problems in life that the Bible doesn’t provide me specific answers?
Submitted on Monday, 7 December 2009
42 Comments
42 Comments
roughruggedraw asked:
I’m a 34 y/o Black American who has mild depression. I’m really struggling with life after my divorce seven years ago. I’m alone and not enjoying life. I look to the Bible at times for answers to my struggles with dating, parenting, and a myriad of other issues. I’m now trying psychotherapy. I’ve grown really cynical about religion and I’m questioning my faith more and more. How come trying to be a believer is so difficult for me? And what should I do?
Tags: myriad, believer, mild depression, enjoying life, Psychotherapy I’m a 34 y/o Black American who has mild depression. I’m really struggling with life after my divorce seven years ago. I’m alone and not enjoying life. I look to the Bible at times for answers to my struggles with dating, parenting, and a myriad of other issues. I’m now trying psychotherapy. I’ve grown really cynical about religion and I’m questioning my faith more and more. How come trying to be a believer is so difficult for me? And what should I do?
The bible has caused more problems than it has solved.
b/c you don’t read it with passion
The Bible gives us principles. We all have questions. Imagine, that the Bible would give us straight answers to all of our questions–the library wouldn’t be able to contain the Bible.
The Bible can speak directly to our needs/questions we have. The Bible says, “Seek and you will find.” The Bible talks about true happiness, it has many stories about mothers raising their children, as well as, direct principles on how to raise children (for example: Deutoronomy chapter 6). Don’t give up!
The “Bible” therapy doesn’t work for everyone. Trying getting more active.
The bible is full of fairy tales you might as well ask mother goose for answers
If you read the bible try to read it as if its talking about you and the whole book is about you. This might help
Get a thesaurus. Look up the question in the bible with the thesaurus. It helps.
Why would a book written by man two thousand years ago provide specific answers?
the bible provides you with the Answerer
I totally know what your going through. Most people have doubted there religion, sometime or another. Just believe, and never stop. The Bible couldnt say everything. Just pray, and try to enjoy your life with God.
It’s completely made up.
That’s like asking harry potter for life answers.
try to read the book call THE SECRET instead.
you’ll be fine, obama is going to turn this country around, pray pray pray and God answers prayer
its different for everyone just keep on keepin on! just think. how was the universe created? dont say big bang because how did that stuff get there before that? and before that? thats what i do. dont give up and just keep positive
Because that bible has to be interpreted into your life. you cannot read it word for word.
a great site
Answer: I was psychotic, and at that time in my life I relied on the Christian faith. Worst mistake of my life. My best advice to you is to stay away from religion. It will only make your problems worse. This is coming from experience.
hang in there buddy, sometimes you have to find the answers within yourself. good luck, I hope it all turns around soon.
Try this… it is the Bible Yellow Pages and you can find verses related to your specific situation!
You may also want to see a clergy member… it will make it more personal for you!
Just cause these Voo-Doo Christians try to use the Bible this way doesn’t mean that is what it meant for.
Use the Bible to lean about people and what they think about God and what God may be like. We can learn from it, but its not a mystical book intended to give you answers to life’s questions. You will enjoy it and life more if you don’t try to use it that way.
Keep reading the Bible daily . Romans 10:17 ” So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Its answers are always hidden, you just have to keep looking and you may finned them.
the Bible doesn’t come out and say, “thy shall not… or thou shall…” you have took look for that answers the bast way to grow in Christ is to join a church and get involved you have took let God work in you.
the bible isnt made to be specific to personal problem its made make you believe and know the word of god. i think you should savor and enjoy life a lot more.
The Bible is a story written by humans. Think for yourself and you’ll be less depressed because you’ll empower yourself to solve your own problems – not see it as punishment or fate or karma from an invisible being dedicated to teaching you a lesson (or else).
Good luck and empower yourself – you have the power not some fictional tale written to control the masses by ancient governments.
having an niv study bible would help and the answers are in there.
its difficult because your not the only one trying to control your life, your also against dieties and pricipalities. thats there too.
second, none comes to the father but through christ. when the devil attacks you start praying for those people in here that will try to torture you even more, believe me they will pop up, pray for thier souls and watch what happen, also repepnting is a very nec. thing to do too……..
You will be tempted by Satan often. Try to stick to the Word and spend time with God. Find a good Christian man who you can walk with and discuss deep spiritual issues with. Don’t be afraid to talk directly to a pastor either. God Bless.
The reason the Bible isn’t giving specific answers is because that was written ages ago! God knows you and I’m sure He loves you, all you have to do is pray for him to help you in your time of need. The Bible wasn’t written to specify your needs.
The reason you’re so depressed, is because you’re not trying hard enough to be happy. Try looking at the bright side to all things in life. Find something that benefits you and makes you happy, and keeps your mind off all the pain you were suffering while you wrote this question…
first of all God says he’ll never present you with a problem that you can’t handle. second of all, i know where you are coming from. i’ve been molested, beat, in and out of foster care, lock up, wife had a miscarriage, now separated from my family due to schooling, two wrecks in one week last month, etc… God will challenge you. If you are truly seeking your answers, quit trying so hard. more than you realize, you are probably trying to run your life by yourself. He can’t help you if you won’t let Him.
a man’s boat got destroyed in a storm. he’s floating on driftwood. he prays “god please save me”. soon another ship comes by, a man says to the stranded man “do you need some help?” “no,” he replies, “God will save me”. twice more this happens, but the man refused to let the other men help saying “God will save me”. the man drowns and when he gets to heaven he asks God, “I prayed and prayed and prayed, yet you didn’t save me. why?”. To which God replies “I sent you three big boats you dummy!!”
If you ask God for guidance. Allow Him to guide you. if you want to chat
Lets see. The Bible is a history of two religions and collected statements of part of the philosophy of two of them. Both have millennial experiences and documents since the books were created coping with details of the philosophies and the relationship of them to life. If you are ignoring these hundreds of books, believing the the Bible contains all the answers (and I am ignoring the controversies about every word in the Bible being true), then you have to expand your outlook. The Protestants were protesting the Catholic separation of the Bible from the people, among other things. Having gotten access to the Bible for their own reading, too many have go too far and declared it contains all the answers – only if you have a very simple life.
There are no answers because it’s a bunch of crap, and it’s open to interpretation. I suffer from depression too. You can take medication, but I have always felt that it changes me into a person I am not. I personally exercise to try and combat the lows, and to shut my brain off.
One good thing about church, however, is that it is a great place to meet people- if you can put up with all the babble about trusting God to solve your problems. Otherwise, sign up for a class like crocheting (I think you are female?), or yoga, or even a class at a community college where you have to interact with people. You’ll be amazed at how much better human interaction will make you feel.
I was always taught to believe that the Bible is supposed to be read “between the lines”. It tells you something that you can transform into a “inspiring” message that will help you through problems.
Reading the Bible and following a religion never helped me solve my problems or make my life any easier. It just made me scared and more self conscious. So I stopped going to church because I realized I can make those 2 hours more efficient doing something I actually enjoy. Like drawing, writing, or watching TV.
Maybe you should try to figure out how it would be if you didn’t follow the Bible and start following your desires and your intuition.
Dear fellow christian,
remember the bible isn’t your God. God is, if you having problems it is good to pen the bible but God wants you to go to him for stuff in your life that has been troubled…
I was going through a rough time too and what helped me was realizing how much God loves me and is always there… not just for the good times but for the bad too…
my brother went to court for raping me and you can emagine how i felt.. i felt hearbroken… my verse that helped me get through it was
psalm 147:3 ” He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.”
Anything that is broken in your heart and in your life God wants to heal if you will just let him. He wants to heal your depression and give you complete joy for he is the God who truly satisfies.
Remember your not alone.. you have God and your fellow christians..
email me if you have questions and struggles i would love to help!
God bless you, and remember his unfailing love fo you!
The Bible is full of principles, proverbs, and some answers. To find you answers, pray! If you are not completely sure of your salvation, take care of that first. God only hears the prayers of those who are saved. If you aren’t saved, you won’t get answers because you will not be heard. Keep reading! Read daily! A great site for that is it gives you a reading for every day of the year. I find the choronological version to be easier for me to read. You have to keep the Word in you. However you also must have a prayer life. The Bible teaches us that some things come only by fasting and prayer. It is SO true. Get hooked up with a good Bible believeing church. It might take some time to find the right one but you will end up where you belong. Grow where you are planted! There is always a light at the end of the tunnel! God’s light shines brighter than any amount of shadows or darkness. He is ALWAYS there. We are the ones that move further away. We have to take our bliders off and realize that He has never left us. Start by making sure of your salvation…then keep reading, start a dedicated prayer life, hook up with a good church, and surround yourself with positive faith-filled people!
I found the Bible is for educating in faith not in life.You have to learn from mistakes,change direction or alter things to keep going in liefs hard times.You have to keep focused in your health and well being
while maintaining everything else.Strength and Love from friend’s and family members helps.The rest is up to you ,It comes from within.
I love the Bible. I take from it, for one thing, the stories of ordinary people who had great struggles and yet they managed to still serve God.
But when you ask “what should I do?” my first thought was to offer that you check out mormon.org.
Hang in there, my friend.
The Bible has the answers, maybe you are not looking hard enough. Or maybe you simply do not like the answers given (believe me, it happens to me too). The truth can be hard to swallow, and God can be a harsh disciplinarian, but he only disciplines us because he loves us. Remember to “STUDY the scriptures to show oneself approved of God”.
P.S. Trying to become a believer is an exercise in futility, as faith is a gift from God, you cant get it from your own effort. But know also, that even the SLIGHTEST amount of belief will grow, and faith as big as a mustard seed is enough to move mountains. Remember the man who told Jesus “I believe Lord, help my unbelief” Jesus is the key. Jesus IS God come to earth, who died to take away the penalty of your sin. With Jesus you can live life, and life in abundance, with exceeding joy (joy means your problems are taken care of) . With Jesus YOU are MORE than a king or a conqueror, but he remains King of Kings for ever and ever. Your knee WILL bow to him, and you WILL call him Lord, I just pray that you do it as his beloved brother, and not as one that he will throw into the outer darkness “where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” God Bless you.
The Bible becomes alive to you through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Without the Spirit indwelling you as a genuine result of faith in Christ as the only Son of God, the Bible is simply another book.
Are you involved in Church? Or a prayer group? What I mean by that is are you always wanting something or, are you giving? I’m not talking about money. As far as your problems go, you need to realize that there will be bumps in the road and they will build character and faith. Life will never be perfect. But if you pursue God with all your heart, soul and mind, like he said, you will find these problems are very small.
I do not see how it will be any different if you just throw away your relationship with God. What will that do to all of a sudden make your problems go away? Problems don’t melt away on their own. You need to get your focus off of your problems and onto God. I know that those words are lofty but it is the only choice you have.
By the way, life is difficult for all of us. It’s how you look at the problem.
The bible never gives you specific answers, it wasn’t written in our time. Like my Pastor said last week the Bible doesn’t say thou shall no streak…you just know that it’s not something that you should be doing. You take things…like stories in the bible and try to see their mistakes and you don’t do them, that’s what they’re there for.
And being a believer is difficult for everyone….I’m trying to be a better beleiver so I can help other people. It’s good to question your faith, but do not question it to the point when you start hating God. There are a lot of things in history that cannot be explained (like if God was so loving why would he do that, kind of questions), I am sure that God had some reason for doing it. Behind everything there is a purpose. So by trying to be closer to God, I am applying myself to try to get closer to him. Since I grew up in the church, and I am the Pastor’s kid people automatically think that I am an expert with the Bible. In my level I am, but I don’t want to know the bible, I want to know God… so I am going to start waking up early to pray even if it is just 5 minutes. God wants that time with us even if all we say is “thank you.” I want to read my bible more; I want to apply myself…Since you are older than me you can probably try to join a chruch and start having counsling with your pastors. But don’t move around…be consistent. Because you want to build yourself under one vision. Apply yourself is the best help that I can give hopefully it will help you. When you have a relationship (not Religion) with God, God will send someone in your life that is better than your privious wife/husband. His promises might take a while or it might happen soon, God does not live in time so don’t exspect everything to happen right away. If you are real with God, all the promises he offers won’t compare to what he has already giving you… 
hope that helps..
I understand you my friend. Believe more in yourself, and focus on your life. From what you are going through, it will help if you talk to yourself out loud. Theres gonna be some christians coming in here to answer you telling you the bible is the key to success … no it isnt. I dont want to put in my skeptic view on bible and religion, but its not gonna give you the answers to life. You cant trust a man-made rlelgion / belief system from thousands of years ago when during that time it was a bunch of Kings with empires wanting to expand to control other empires. So I personally believe they created religion to gather people under one faith to form an army to invade another country. And you know what? Thats being used today as Islamic terrorists are viewed as a threat to the christian world. So dont fall for anything somebody else tells you honestly. Your brain is easily manipulated through sight and sound, remember that. I am not an atheist, I do believe in a God whether it be an energy in this universe, natural law, a physical being, or a spiritual being, I do believe theres something influencing our lives (could be the stars because of magnetic patterns). Religion though is just something we made much like politics … its purpose is to keep people under control. Its kind of what made the switch from barbaric civilization to a faithful civilization thousands of years ago. And we still use it today as its a proven and tested method. However other civilizations formed their own religion and their own deity and so on and so forth. This stuff didnt come from God come on now.
So anyway what I feel you can do to better improve yourself and there are numerous things I’ve learned in life to help myself as well. Cause I do go through the same things as you. Spending some time to yourself. Speaking out loud to God and letting him know what you’re going through and what you would like to change. Doing this has always helped me. It never fails. Sometimes it takes some time to actually work but rest assured, once you get to the breaking point, he WILL intervene lol. Dont ever test God! lol There were some nights I was frustrated with one thing or another, and I kid you not I pointed my finger to the sky and yelled to him … within 30 minutes something MAJOR would happen to me. It knocked sense into me that he really is there and you should speak to him.
Aside from God if you dont believe … your brain is your most important organ. Exercise it. It will make you happier. Read a book, write down your thoughts, draw paintings / creating things, anything that expresses yourself will take your mind off other things and make you intelligent. Its why I spend a lot of time here at YA! cause I need to think in depth of a variety of things like Im doing now. And I’ve noticed it makes me more calm, Im spontaneuous, humorous, I think of words I never realized I knew! lol I have better memory. So strengthen your brain by reading or imagining things. Your brain is very important as it controls every aspect of your life, your actions, your speech, how you think, the electro chemicals which make you depressed.
Another something you can do is find something that make syou happy. Get your mind involved in something. Theres more to life than meets the eye, anything you can imagine, and you can accomplish anything you desire. Understand that. What are your deepest desires in life? What makes you happy? When you write this stuff down, or speak aloud to God you’ll know what needs to be done.
Well, I hope I helped some. I do believe what I mentioned above will help you. The bible will tell you to put your heart and mind into an imaginary false idol figure. No. You’ll know what to do man, you’re smart, you know whats best for you =). You are your own man, its your own life, these are your decisions. Dont let the bible or religion tell you what to believe. Figure it out based on your OWN life’s experiences. For example, when you got divorced your life went downhill … its time for change. Make it happen. And learn from that experience. Its time to start improving your life instead of living the same day by day. You’ll be happier, trust me =). Even though you might not have the motivation, or feel lazy, just do something different!
SOME OF QUESTIONS WILL NEVER RESOLVED BY HUMANITY.
GOD KEEPS MANY THING SECRET FROM US.WHILE WHO KNOWS EVERYTHING WILL GOD !!??
SECRETS ARE WHICH WE WILL NEVER FIND THE ANSWERS MEAN PROOF OF HIS EXCISTANCE. AS LONG AS THERE ARE QUESTIONS THAT NOT RESOLVABLE BY US HE WILL EXCIST.(ALLWAYS)
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