Pastor Ralph Posted November 15, 2009 Report Share Posted November 15, 2009 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? What are the effects of crises on our faith? How do they help us grow in our faith? Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissioned Posted February 23, 2010 Report Share Posted February 23, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? What are the effects of crises on our faith? How do they help us grow in our faith? Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? We equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives because we chose to see the blessing as bringing good times in every aspect of life. Butin teaching His disciples, Jesus said, "... so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." Matthew 5:45b (NASB). And yes, He also told the disciples that He came so that they may have abundant life, living life to the fullest, but we know that the Apostles and other followers of Christ suffered much persecution. As Believers we must live expecting the fight of the enemy. In John we are told that the thief, Satan, comes to kill, steal and destroy. He is after us to make our journey as unplesant as he can, but these bouts will strengthen our walk with God as we faithfully believe on and trust Him. As we remain faithful to our God He delivers us from the snares of the enemy and strengthens us. It is only when we fail to take everything to God, then we find ourselves weakening and the enemy steps in to take a strong hold. "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you, and to all to be sober, watchful, and firm in the faith. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 1 Peter 5:7-1 (KJV). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pickledilly Posted February 26, 2010 Report Share Posted February 26, 2010 We think of blessing in earthly terms of happiness, comfort, and freedom from hardship. When crisis comes, this misconception provides no sure footing or strength to see through the pain to the glory beyond. Our faith can be crushed because it is shallow and rootless. But it can also be grown in ways we never experienced before. Blessing is far more important in the spiritual sense. Sometimes God allows crisis to bring us to the end of self where we finally realize/accept that we have nowhere else to turn, just like Jacob did when he agreed to let Benjamin go to Egypt with his brothers. Crisis is merely a starting point for God to do mighty things. The circumstances don't always get completely resolved or go away, but God always proves Himself faithful and true when we release everything to Him. His power for endurance, peace for calming the fearful spirit, and promises for the ultimate future are the most precious blessings of all. He is using every experience on earth to move us toward a spiritual eternity of surpassing blessing. This view of life builds faith. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vincent Paul DiMino Posted February 27, 2010 Report Share Posted February 27, 2010 "In all things,give thanks." Would we recognize peace as a blessing,even if it served to weaken us,divert us from the Truth,and lull us into a false sense of security based on material prosperity and lack of conflict ? A father who does not discipline his children, hates them.We ask,in prayer,for things we want,for things we believe we do not want to be without,we do not want to be without the Love, Discipline, Correction,and Guidance, that are given to us as blessings from Our Heavenly Father. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanMary Posted February 27, 2010 Report Share Posted February 27, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? I think it's because we view hardship as a curse! We desire sunshine and flowers, prosperity and ease, and anything less seems like punishment. What are the effects of crises on our faith? I was told as a new believer that to each is given a measure of faith...that faith is like a muscle which grows with exercise. Crises for me (the loss of our business, our home, our newer car, homelessness, false accusations at 2 churches, (in which truth was only discovered after huge harm was done to our family), my husband losing his sight, betrayal by a dear "friend".....I could write a book. Oh, I am, and it's nearly finished. It's about this question: the affect of crisis on my faith has been to develop my character, and maturity, to deepen my dependence upon and my love for my Lord. It has caused me to learn that the "treasure of darkness" is getting to know Him intimately, and seeing the many facets of His character while in darkness of trials. How do they help us grow in our faith? Crises and trials came AFTER glorious promises from the Lord, as with Jacob. The trials brought about humility, and unselfishness, where there had been much pride and self-centeredness. They "tested" what I thought I believed and what I wanted Scripture to say and mean, and taught me TRUTH. They've built patience and perseverance, as I've had to WAIT....one promise was given in 1979, and I'm still waiting and expecting. Another was given in 1988, and has YET to be fulfilled, but God is faithful and will do as He promises. The trials have drawn me into fellowship with the Lord, where before I had a shallow relationship as a new believer. The trials opened old unhealed wounds from an abusive childhood, and through God's love, encouragement, support and training, those have been healed. One of the gifts He's given me is exhortation, and because I've found Him to be absolutely faithful in every way, I'm able to comfort others with the comfort I've received, and so much more. Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? I can only think that the shock can knock one for a loop, and either the support, or the openness to see and seek God in the trial are lacking. Our trials have come suddenly and have been shocking, so I can understand this happening as with Jacob. Perhaps the strong willed ones refuse to accept that the trial is meant to be a blessing. When I'd been a believer for less than a year, someone prophesied over me when I was leaving a prayer meeting....actually ran out to the car to speak these words: The Lord is saying, "You are like the oak, and you must become like the willow, able to bend or you will break". This from someone I'd never met and didn't even know her name, but I knew it was true and began to pray for that softness and flexibility to withstand storms, and God has been faithful in that as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iam4-1god Posted February 28, 2010 Report Share Posted February 28, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? What are the effects of crises on our faith? How do they help us grow in our faith? Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? Because we are selfish, and we only think of ourselves, we cringe at the thought of pain and/or suffering. When I first got saved, I expected God to give me all that I wanted-everything should have been smooth as glass. I was knee-deep in prosperity gospel garbage, and at the first sign of trouble, I back-slid, and fell away. A person who truly belongs to Jesus will roll with the punches, and ask for prayer. With time, the punches won't seem so bad. The person who is not truly belonging to Jesus will not have the stamina to continue, no matter how bad things get. Jesus said that there would be trials and tribulations for the saved-these trials and tribulations serve to make us stronger in the Lord. But, if we are just playing the role, these trials and tribulations will just bury us, and will cause the true nature of our belief to come to the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masika Posted March 1, 2010 Report Share Posted March 1, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? What are the effects of crises on our faith? How do they help us grow in our faith? Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? The Key to God Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Standing On the Rock Posted March 1, 2010 Report Share Posted March 1, 2010 A3. Because we associate all things good with God, we also connect the good times, times of abundance and smooth sailing as well as rescues in life with being blessed by God. We have come to understand the comfort He provides us with as being His blessing. We know His mercy and His grace protects us and shields us. Therefore, when we think about or envision being blessed, the crises we go through don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leihaynes Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? What are the effects of crises on our faith? How do they help us grow in our faith? Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? 1. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? It is the human way of thinking that if we lack crisis that means we are doing the right thing and living a righteous life. 2. What are the effects of crises on our faith? The effects of crises on our faith depends on the attitude of our heart. We can take what has happen to us and use it to bring glory to God by focusing on others and God and not ourselves. (like Joseph) (Which is the easiest thing to say and the hardest thing to do). Or we can wallow in our grief and become hateful and resentful. 3. How do they help us grow in our faith? When we are close to God crises will deepen our faith in Christ. We learn to trust and depend on him. We learn from our mistakes. We learn that God is in total control. We learn to move on even though we don't quite understand and we learn that only he can give us the peace that surpasses all understanding. 4. Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? Our faith is destroyed when we take things into our own hands, when our hearts are full of pride and when we become ungrateful and take for granted what we do have and not what we don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leihaynes Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? What are the effects of crises on our faith? How do they help us grow in our faith? Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? 1. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? It is the human way of thinking that if we lack crisis that means we are doing the right thing and living a righteous life. 2. What are the effects of crises on our faith? The effects of crises on our faith depends on the attitude of our heart. We can take what has happen to us and use it to bring glory to God by focusing on others and God and not ourselves. (like Joseph) (Which is the easiest thing to say and the hardest thing to do). Or we can wallow in our grief and become hateful and resentful. 3. How do they help us grow in our faith? When we are close to God crises will deepen our faith in Christ. We learn to trust and depend on him. We learn from our mistakes. We learn that God is in total control. We learn to move on even though we don't quite understand and we learn that only he can give us the peace that surpasses all understanding. 4. Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? Our faith is destroyed when we take things into our own hands, when our hearts are full of pride and when we become ungrateful and take for granted what we do have and not what we don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanks Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? What are the effects of crises on our faith? How do they help us grow in our faith? Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? I associate blessing with God, through His love, grace, and mercy, conferring prosperity and happiness upon us. A crisis can have a detrimental effect on our lives. We lose faith and start blaming God for all our mishaps. But if we fully trust and obey God, it should have just the opposite effect and draw us closer to Him. We turn to God in our moment of crisis resulting in a much closer relationship with our Heavenly Father. If we are truly born again, we trust our Lord and have surrendered our lives to Him and any crisis should not destroy our faith. We have seen this throughout history, by some remarkable Christians, who have persevered under horrific trials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Standing On the Rock Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 A3. Because we associate all things good with God, we also connect the good times, times of abundance and smooth sailing as well as rescues in life with being blessed by God. We have come to understand the comfort He provides us with as being His blessing. We know His mercy and His grace protects us and shields us. Therefore, when we think about or envision being blessed, the crises we go through don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WALT39 Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? What are the effects of crises on our faith? How do they help us grow in our faith? Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? I believe that if everything is going alright that we must think that we are blessed. If we really believe in our Lord and Saviour, we know that He is not going to let us handle more than we can bear. He will continually bestow blessings on us and therefore the crises that we are experiencing will be lessen. If we can see God in our lives, our faith will continue to grow even when we are the valleys. When we come out of the valleys, we can see the fullness of God's glory and blessings to us. If a person only looks at a crises and blames God, whatever faith they may have will be diminished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okno Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? We are thinking in "earthly" way. We expect the "paradise on the Earth" and if we are happy, we believe, it is a God Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vincent Paul DiMino Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 Faith itself is a gift from Our Lord.His presence in our lives is the real blessing.The struggles that engage our minds are mostly illusion,but when a solution to those problems comes as inspiration,the difficulty becomes part of the path to His Glory.For some of us,anger and frustration,are part of the path,and appear as signs of a lack of faith.Are they ?We may not know.A calm and dedicated appearance,on the surface,might not represent the Truth beneath.Why did Jesus curse the fig tree when it had no fruit ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helen Williams Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? What are the effects of crises on our faith? How do they help us grow in our faith? Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? We equate blessing with lack of crisis in our lives, when we think like the world thinks. As we look around the world we hear a person is blessed when all is going well. Jesus was blessed but he sure went through a lot. Our lives can be blessed and still have crisis. Crisis can and will build our faith and trust in God if we allow it. Our attention has to be on God if we are to know we are blessed in the time of crisis. Thinking only of self and circumstances, we will began to feel God does not care and why am is this happening to me. Inorder for Joseph to get where God wanted him to be he had to experience crisis in his life. In the meantime he was being blessed. I know it got rough with Joseph but he was victorious. Anyone that does not know can't see this as a blessing. MY DEAR BROTHERS AND SISTER IN CHRIST, CRISIS WILL COME, STAY FOCUS ON GOD AND REMEMBER WE ARE BLESSED. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeking His Face Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? What are the effects of crises on our faith? How do they help us grow in our faith? Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? I am not sure, maybe because of our flesh we want things to be easy. Well hopefully our faith is strengthened, because we realize we have no abilities of our own and we our dependent on our Savior . Maybe because of a broken heart, someone very close to us has betrayed us and we think God is the same way. We stop looking up and start looking inward, and life becomes overwhelming. But praise God He is not like us. He is faithful and true always,never will He leave me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elwood C O'Dell Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 We seemed to be conditioned by the idea that blessings come outside the realm of crisis. We tend to see crisis in a bad light as if nothing good comes from or through them. However, as we trust in God, allow Him to lead, we can realize that crisis can help us grow in and through our faith, knowing that God is at work for our good in them. They can destroy our faith if we take our eyes off God and try to go it on our own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elwood C O'Dell Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 Sorry about the double post. Don't really know why it happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion of Grace Posted March 2, 2010 Report Share Posted March 2, 2010 We equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives because the world conditions us that way from the time we are born. "If" we do any particular good thing, we will be rewarded in a good way. "If" we are bad, bad things will happen. And, let's face it, even our churches adopt worldly teachings like these. "Get saved" and your life will be wonderful! Or,"That person is so blessed because of success....that other less fortunate,is forgotten by God." The truth is Jesus taught something else that says "Take up your cross and follow me." or "In this world you will have troubles." Enough said. The effects of crisis on our faith is growth. When we are down and out, we look up. When we've exhausted every human effort, we turn to God. When we are faced with anything beyond our capabilities, we say "Help." In them we grow in humbleness and dependence on God and learn to seek and ask of Him. Not of self and others. And we come to respect...He is God. Sometimes we just won't know the "why" of situations. We accept them in good faith. I could not fathom one ounce of good when our second daughter was stillborn, but over the years, in acceptance, I've found a deepening in myself and faith and closeness to God. It was through excruciating pain God showed me He was always with me and began a relationship to walk me out of, and through other, extreme hurts in my life too. I'm still deepening in my faith and trust in Him. Sometimes though, we look away in pain and question why. That can be detrimental to our faith. I've always been rescued in these times and have returned to my first love, but sadly there are some who can loose faith altogether and go back to avoiding or masking the pain and give up in faith and trust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patriciaa Posted March 3, 2010 Report Share Posted March 3, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? We live in a world where we expect life to be easy and have a lack of trials. Therefore, when there is a lack of trials, we think we have been blessed. What are the effects of crises on our faith? Crises can either make our faith growth or become weak depending on whether we turn to Jesus to help us in times of crisis. We need to ask how trials can help us grow stronger and closer to the Lord. How do they help us grow in our faith? Trials can help us grow in our faith when we learn to trust God in all circumstances and know we are not living for the world but for eternity. Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? Trials can destroy our faith if we do not turn our trials over to the Lord and ask Him to show us how to use them to grow closer to Him. If we don't do this we could see trials as punishment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patriciaa Posted March 3, 2010 Report Share Posted March 3, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? We live in a world where we expect life to be easy and have a lack of trials. Therefore, when there is a lack of trials, we think we have been blessed. What are the effects of crises on our faith? Crises can either make our faith growth or become weak depending on whether we turn to Jesus to help us in times of crisis. We need to ask how trials can help us grow stronger and closer to the Lord. How do they help us grow in our faith? Trials can help us grow in our faith when we learn to trust God in all circumstances and know we are not living for the world but for eternity. Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? Trials can destroy our faith if we do not turn our trials over to the Lord and ask Him to show us how to use them to grow closer to Him. If we don't do this we could see trials as punishment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patriciaa Posted March 3, 2010 Report Share Posted March 3, 2010 Q3. Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives? We live in a world where we expect life to be easy and have a lack of trials. Therefore, when there is a lack of trials, we think we have been blessed. What are the effects of crises on our faith? Crises can either make our faith growth or become weak depending on whether we turn to Jesus to help us in times of crisis. We need to ask how trials can help us grow stronger and closer to the Lord. How do they help us grow in our faith? Trials can help us grow in our faith when we learn to trust God in all circumstances and know we are not living for the world but for eternity. Why do they sometimes destroy our faith? Trials can destroy our faith if we do not turn our trials over to the Lord and ask Him to show us how to use them to grow closer to Him. If we don't do this we could see trials as punishment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charisbarak Posted March 3, 2010 Report Share Posted March 3, 2010 We tend to see blessings being good things, Crises as not being good or blessed--we think we need to be happy if we're blessed. Crises bring us to a point to prove our faith. We grow when we know in our hearts that God is in control and that He works all things to our good in the end and live our lives believing this. Trials can pull us out of our faith when we allow ourselves to be completely involved in the problem & let it start eating us up--forgetting totally that is it God who is in control & that He loves us & wants the best for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimathi Posted March 3, 2010 Report Share Posted March 3, 2010 Why do we equate blessing with a lack of crisis in our lives?. By our earthly eyes we see lack of crisis as blessings - but to me overcomming the crisis is the real total blessing. going through the crisis and seeing the deliverance of GOD as HE walks with you through th shadow of death, lifts up our spirits and the assurance to me is a pillar of faith. if we loose focus on GOD and centre all on our success then crisis and failure will hack into our faith and ultmately destroy our faith in GOD. success too - in the ignorance of GOD can lead us to think too highly of ourselves and push GOD to the side. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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