CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

It's been a bad period of time here, as I've had a lot of essential appliances and my car break in rapid succession, costing money I don't have. Basically, everything is going wrong at once. I know it's stupid, but I find myself struggling with the feeling that I'm being punished by God for something.

I'm not looking for sympathy here (stuff happens, right?), just a reminder that my thinking is wrong.

God gives us these experiences, it doesn't mean that we're being punished.
Everyone has that thinking at one time or another, I think what we're forgetting is that Christianity doesn't garuntee an easy life.
If God's punishing you for something, you'll know,
and you'll know exactly what sin it's for.

Yeah, I'm feeling better about it now. I was praying about it, and the answer that kept coming was "Be not afraid." So I might not know what is going to happen, but now I can trust that whatever happens, I'll be able to handle it.

Thanks for responding!

For one thing, God never "punishes" us and never will. It's Satan who is doing the "punishing". It's the fact that God allows it to happen that it seems like it.

Anyways, all yo can do is pray. I know what it's like to be in a funk (I'm depressed 24/7) but things will look better. Trust in Him Oh BTW, nice Motoko avy

Hitokiri wrote:For one thing, God never "punishes" us and never will. It's Satan who is doing the "punishing". It's the fact that God allows it to happen that it seems like it.

Anyways, all yo can do is pray. I know what it's like to be in a funk (I'm depressed 24/7) but things will look better. Trust in Him Oh BTW, nice Motoko avy

Thanks for responding. Rationally, I know God is not like that, but when all comes crashing down, sometimes it's tempting to say "What did I do to deserve that?" Usually, in these situations I remind myself of God's response to Job...

The avatar's from Tokyopop's website. Surprised it still works actually, I had it for over a year at ANN, and just recopied the link for here. I guess TP doesn't update their website often...

ahh, one of my favorite scripture verses ^^

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
-James. 1:2-4

suffering can either deminish, or strengthen out faith with God ^^, but its the person who decides wether or not their faith will grow^^

stay strong friend ^^

If you think these occurences are unnatural, you could ask your priest about blessing your house or possibly an exorcism. I'm not saying that's what it is, only if weird things keep happening and it doesn't seem normal.

Hitokiri wrote:For one thing, God never "punishes" us and never will. It's Satan who is doing the "punishing". It's the fact that God allows it to happen that it seems like it.

Anyways, all yo can do is pray. I know what it's like to be in a funk (I'm depressed 24/7) but things will look better. Trust in Him Oh BTW, nice Motoko avy

Out of curiousity, if that is so, what do you make of Acts 5:1-11 which read altogether, heavily implies that they were true believers, but that due to lying to YHWH they were killed.

In trial we need to always remember to rejoice for it. It is the testing of our faith just as the book of Peter says that after you gone through this your faith and all would be stronger.

These little trials are meant to prepare you. Please learn from them! You need to have some money set aside for emergency/unplanned expenses. I set aside a portion of every paycheck for just such an emergency. I know it's hard - I've resorted to tricking myself by subtracting the money from my checkbook so I can't see that it's there in the account.

Well, the bad news is $715, which is going to hurt. Thankfully I can manage with some cautious budgeting until the end of the year. So, God has protected me from more than I can handle.

Thank you all who took time to post.