Let's pray for humanity

[TheChocolateGamer]

Dear friends, the human is a very confused creature. Sadly, most people die without experiencing the only true happiness and justice, God and everything in and about Him. Wanting to be happy is not a sin, no God actually COMMANDS us to be happy, but our definition of happiness is wrong. God is perfect, so happiness and justice are the same thing. Sin doesn't bring infinite happiness It is saddening to watch fellow Christians, who should be the happiest people on Earth right now, gloomy and doing good only ''because God said so" or "for the sake of it" (not all but most). Is God gloomy, brothers and sisters? Doesn't God know happiness? Doesn't God want us to be happy? Didn't He create anything, not ''for the sake of it"? Aren't we made in God's image? Isn't God perfect And the unbelievers, who are not more sinful than us, think that their way is "the way to happiness". And when they see Christians sad, they get the wrong idea about God. They think that God is a crazy dictator like Stalin, Fidel Castro or Hitler who don't regard people's feelings. I'm sincerely sorry if this offends you in any way, but being sad offends God (that is, thinking that God doesn't/won't bring you happiness). I'm sincerely crying for all humanity right now, because our desire to be happy is too low. So, I want to pray for the true happiness to everyone. I want everyone to be happy and unbelievers to realize that only in God they would be infinitely happy.
I resisted writing this for a while, since I thought that I would get very harsh looks from everyone. Please don't make Heaven, Hell. Please don't make freedom a prison. Please don't make God, Satan. Because they aren't.

Thank you everyone.

[Nate]

Oh well wouldn't be the first time I offended God I guess. If he wants to get angry at me for having emotions then that's his problem tbh.

[Mullet Death]

I'm kind of confused about what you're trying to say here to be honest. Maybe I just need to read it more carefully when I'm not tired. I don't take issue with the idea that God wants us to be happy, per se. But that seems kind of obvious, and I don't feel like anyone besides those who truly despair and hate God or something would even dispute that claim.

And then there's the fact that being Christian must also involve taking on suffering for the sake of others, and one may experience suffering whether one likes it or not. That is part of what it is to love. It's certainly the way Jesus has loved us in His Incarnation, Passion, and Death. Go read the Beatitudes: "blessed are those who mourn," etc, etc. Jesus told Peter that He would lead him where he did not want to go; Peter's life ended with crucifixion in Rome. We all have to take up our crosses. Salvation is both "simple" and "complicated," depending on how you're defining the terms and what way you're looking at things.

But if indeed all you're asking is for prayer for unbelievers and believers who are upset with God and blame Him for their problems, then I guess I'm on board?

[Masaru]

I'm sincerely sorry if this offends you in any way, but being sad offends God (that is, thinking that God doesn't/won't bring you happiness).

I'm sorry, but can you help me understand how you get this from Scripture?
Using your premise, we would have to conclude that Jesus offended God in the Garden of Gethsemane:

Matthew 26:36–38 (ESV)

Jesus Prays in Gethsemane
36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” (emphasis mine)

I don't know about you, but "offending God" sounds like a sin to me, and we know that Jesus never sinned, so what you propose simply cannot be true.
There are plenty of places for sadness in the Christian life; contrition for sin, enduring suffering, etc.

I would encourage you to take a look at the Psalms as an example, which show quite the spectrum of emotions. For example:

Psalm 6:1–10 (ESV)

O LORD, Deliver My Life
6 TO THE CHOIRMASTER: WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS; ACCORDING TO THE SHEMINITH. A PSALM OF DAVID.

1  O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
2  Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
3  My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O LORD—how long?

4  Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;
save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
5  For in death there is no remembrance of you;
in Sheol who will give you praise?

6  I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
7  My eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.

8  Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
9  The LORD has heard my plea;
the LORD accepts my prayer.
10  All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

I am sure you meant well, but I would have to disagree, and would even go so far as to say that telling Christians they need to be happy all the time "or else" robs them of the comfort of the Gospel.

Jesus did not ultimately die for our happiness. He died to save us from sin.

[TheChocolateGamer]

I'm kind of confused about what you're trying to say here to be honest. Maybe I just need to read it more carefully when I'm not tired. I don't take issue with the idea that God wants us to be happy, per se. But that seems kind of obvious, and I don't feel like anyone besides those who truly despair and hate God or something would even dispute that claim.

And then there's the fact that being Christian must also involve taking on suffering for the sake of others, and one may experience suffering whether one likes it or not. That is part of what it is to love. It's certainly the way Jesus has loved us in His Incarnation, Passion, and Death. Go read the Beatitudes: "blessed are those who mourn," etc, etc. Jesus told Peter that He would lead him where he did not want to go; Peter's life ended with crucifixion in Rome. We all have to take up our crosses. Salvation is both "simple" and "complicated," depending on how you're defining the terms and what way you're looking at things.

But if indeed all you're asking is for prayer for unbelievers and believers who are upset with God and blame Him for their problems, then I guess I'm on board?

I didn't understood myself also, but this is basically a call to trust ONLY God for true happiness and to pray for the true happiness of everyone by coming to faitg in the salvation from the death of Christ. Yeah that's it.

[TheChocolateGamer]

I'm sincerely sorry if this offends you in any way, but being sad offends God (that is, thinking that God doesn't/won't bring you happiness).

I'm sorry, but can you help me understand how you get this from Scripture?
Using your premise, we would have to conclude that Jesus offended God in the Garden of Gethsemane:

Matthew 26:36–38 (ESV)

Jesus Prays in Gethsemane
36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” (emphasis mine)

I don't know about you, but "offending God" sounds like a sin to me, and we know that Jesus never sinned, so what you propose simply cannot be true.

There are plenty of places for sadness in the Christian life; contrition for sin, enduring suffering, etc.

I would encourage you to take a look at the Psalms as an example, which show quite the spectrum of emotions. For example:

Psalm 6:1–10 (ESV)

O LORD, Deliver My Life
6 TO THE CHOIRMASTER: WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS; ACCORDING TO THE SHEMINITH. A PSALM OF DAVID.

1  O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
2  Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
3  My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O LORD—how long?

4  Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;
save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
5  For in death there is no remembrance of you;
in Sheol who will give you praise?

6  I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
7  My eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.

8  Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
9  The LORD has heard my plea;
the LORD accepts my prayer.
10  All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.

I am sure you meant well, but I would have to disagree, and would even go so far as to say that telling Christians they need to be happy all the time "or else" robs them of the comfort of the Gospel.

Jesus did not ultimately die for our happiness. He died to save us from sin.

Oh, sorry let me rephrase: being PESSIMISTIC in God is sinful. But I think I wrote that to also reveal my Christian Hedonistic views. I was trying to point to it. I'm bad at explaining things and I just tried to tell something that is easier to feel than to tell. I'm so sorry I wrote something that didn't make sense. But the prayer for humanity is on a go and we should pray for every human on and outside of Earth.

Trying to understand God is impossible, so again I'm sorry I tried to explain something that is hard to explain. Let's just pray for humanity and ignore everything else I said.

[Masaru]

Oh, sorry let me rephrase: being PESSIMISTIC in God is sinful. But I think I wrote that to also reveal my Christian Hedonistic views. I was trying to point to it. I'm bad at explaining things and I just tried to tell something that is easier to feel than to tell. I'm so sorry I wrote something that didn't make sense. But the prayer for humanity is on a go and we should pray for every human on and outside of Earth.

Trying to understand God is impossible, so again I'm sorry I tried to explain something that is hard to explain. Let's just pray for humanity and ignore everything else I said.

Ahh, Christian Hedonism; so I take it you're probably a fan of John Piper? I'm not aware of anyone else well-known who teaches that, so
And it's not that stuff didn't make sense per se, just that we need to be careful so that we're not saying something that's untrue, even if it's not intentional.
Sorry if I came off a little strongly.

[Furen]

As a Christian Hedonist, I'm curious as to some of your theological views.

As for pessimism, is it wrong to be pessimistic? Elijah for example is one that would get me caught up, or David in some of the Psalms.

I know that those two aren't sinful, but they were very Godly men.

[TheChocolateGamer]

Oh, sorry let me rephrase: being PESSIMISTIC in God is sinful. But I think I wrote that to also reveal my Christian Hedonistic views. I was trying to point to it. I'm bad at explaining things and I just tried to tell something that is easier to feel than to tell. I'm so sorry I wrote something that didn't make sense. But the prayer for humanity is on a go and we should pray for every human on and outside of Earth.

Trying to understand God is impossible, so again I'm sorry I tried to explain something that is hard to explain. Let's just pray for humanity and ignore everything else I said.

Ahh, Christian Hedonism; so I take it you're probably a fan of John Piper? I'm not aware of anyone else well-known who teaches that, so
And it's not that stuff didn't make sense per se, just that we need to be careful so that we're not saying something that's untrue, even if it's not intentional.
Sorry if I came off a little strongly.

No problem Yeah, you are right about that. My emotions just ran wild there.

As a Christian Hedonist, I'm curious as to some of your theological views.

As for pessimism, is it wrong to be pessimistic? Elijah for example is one that would get me caught up, or David in some of the Psalms.

I know that those two aren't sinful, but they were very Godly men.

Pessimistic to God means that you do not believe in the greatness of Heaven and/or His promises, it is illogical and untrue. Godly people are DEFINITELY NOT SINLESS (sorry if it looks that I have just shouted to you, but I needed the emphasis). What they do isn't always right. Neither were the apostles, only Christ was sinless.

As a Christian Hedonist, I'm curious as to some of your theological views.

You don't know how it makes me happy that you are a Christian Hedonist You MUST (emphasis) be a very happy person right now.

[Nate]

only Christ was sinless.

Wait if only Christ is sinless how come the angels get to sin and still hang out in Heaven? Sounds like humanity got the raw deal.

[goldenspines]

God actually COMMANDS us to be happy, but our definition of happiness is wrong.

Citation needed, preferably from the Bible.
Because there are actually only two commandments that matter in the entirety of the Bible, and they are found in Matthew 22:34-40 and said by Jesus (for reference: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?s ... ersion=NIV )

Though I understand the feeling of wishing people weren't so pessimistic all the time, but that comes with the feelings of hopelessness, caused by sin being an ever present thing in the world. There's not really some enlightened state Christians will reach where they become happy all the time, unfortunately. In fact, that we as Christians can feel sadness and a multitude of other emotions gives us more reason to need God for His unconditional love. (unconditional means no conditions, by the way, like, you don't have to act or be a certain way for God to love you. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.).
Speaking of love, Christians are not known by their happiness. If anything, that seems fake to many people. But Jesus said that his followers will be known by their love toward others (John 13:34-35 ----> link: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?s ... ersion=NIV)

That being said, it's possible your vocabulary is mistaken. It could be that you might be mistaking happiness for peace, which God grants to those who ask. But as long as we reside in a world of sin, we will have happiness, sadness, anger, etc. But that's life, and it's more important to have hope in Christ's love for us, rather than happiness.