When did God become real?

[Sue Johnson]

Afternoon.....

I asked myself this question.....When did God become real for me?

I had to try and think back....I went to Sunday school....I grew up knowing folk talked about 'God', but I did not know Him. I married in a registery office as I never went to church....far too much to do in my life, setting up home, raising children, getting on with my life....no room for God.

But something begins to happen deep within and I do not remember when it began, or for how long but I knew there was something missing...a void was growing that I could not explain. I did not relate any of this to 'God' so I started to look into mediums, astrology, crystals and all sorts of 'new age' stuff. The problem was, the void got deeper and the search became more intense. Nothing answered my deepest questions....why am I here? what am I here for? and many many more unanswered questions.

Not having had a father, I could not relate to the idea of a Father, who cared for me. As far as I was concerened, Fathers were not to be trusted and they were absent.

So, when did God become real.....

When after attending church for 12 months searching for answers and at the invitation of a drug addict/alcoholic, I one day went forward to ask for Jesus to come into my life....I had not a clue what that really meant but I knew I wanted to give it a try and found myself flat on my back on the floor in front of over 1000 people...and on that day aged 46...God finally became real

:hooray: :hooray: :hooray:

[Joan]

Like you Sue, I cannot name a date, time or even an experience.

But is it not wonderful to know that not only do we know God, but that He has known us all along and just waited for us to let Him into our lives.



:hartlik: :lovef:

[Oom Rob]

I feel just the same as you both do - I cannot put a date, a place or a time to it, but he has been there for a very long time.

How do I explain it so others can also feel the way I do? - not an easy question to answer. I know several friends of mine who like to play Devils Advocate knowing how deeply I feel about religion, and therefore I tend to chose my words very carefully. I honestly have no idea how my children feel about the Good Lord, and I have never tried to push them in any way, because I do believe that each must find their own way. Sometimes if one pushes too hard, it can have the opposite effect, just as it nearly turned me away from religion and stopped me actually entering the Church as I had wanted to do for years as I grew up. That one person nearly destroyed all that I had come to believe - and he was the Church Minister - his dictative ways were certainly not my ways.

But I stuck to my own beliefs and do believe that he has guided me through incidents in my life that I would otherwise not be here typing this today.

[Sue Johnson]

Afternoon

Have either of you read books written by Phillip Yancey?

Phillip continually struggled to believe in a God who was invisible to him, a God who often seemed absent when he was in pain, a God who sometimes did not answer his prayers....

He tells it like so many of us have experienced our walk with the Lord. I find he asks the deepest questions we have asked but slowly, and surely, in his questioning, the Lord makes His presence known through the ordinary, the everyday, the generally un-noticed.....I love it!!!!

When for an instant, God breaks through into the natural and you know, what you know!!!! Phillip shares his walk with the Lord and boy, what an inspiration he is unny:

[Bean of Love]

This is quite a difficult topic for me.....

I have always known God, but at this time I feel like that Poem about the foot prints.... I believe that God must be carrying me at the moment. I really want to walk next to Him and to be strong enough to do that, but I feel that I am failing miserably at the moment.

Please pray for me so that I can walk next to God again soon, as I am so scared that I lose my faith. At the moment I feel as if I cannot pray, and I cannot read my Bible... nothing makes sense to me at all.

[Sue Johnson]

Afternoon

Can I tell you what He tells us......Never will I leave you!

Sometimes we find ourselves in the wastelands, and we feel alone. We talk to Him, but do not hear a response in our hearts......do NOT despair. It is precisely at these times that we need to push in to our faith even harder.

Sometimes, we find prayer so hard and we wonder, "Does he hear me"? the Bible tells us, Romans 8 v26 -27

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

What this tells us is DO NOT WORRY!!! God knows how you feel, he knows what you need, He loves you irrespective of how YOU feel. You are His and will always be HIS.

Tell God how you feel. Tell Him what is on your heart and ask for His peace to rest upon you and help you come back onto your path with Him. You carry Him in your heart, so you are NEVER alone, despite how you are feeling right now.....

This is quite a difficult topic for me.....

I have always known God, but at this time I feel like that Poem about the foot prints.... I believe that God must be carrying me at the moment. I really want to walk next to Him and to be strong enough to do that, but I feel that I am failing miserably at the moment.

Please pray for me so that I can walk next to God again soon, as I am so scared that I lose my faith. At the moment I feel as if I cannot pray, and I cannot read my Bible... nothing makes sense to me at all.