Do we really “trust in God”?

Aneeda72

Aneeda72

Well-known Member
Do we really trust in God or do we hedge our bets? God gave us free will so is GOD saying trust yourself, my work is done here? Or do we trust ourselves and hedge our bets by also trusting in God?

What do YOU think?
 

I don't believe in god or any form of the supernatural. I do know and like and love people who do believe in all that and that is of course their right just as it's my right not to. What does bother me, though (and it seems to be happening more or maybe I'm just noticing it more), is that a lot of people (here in the U.S. anyway) think (and say it even, like on a lot of well-known pastors, reverands, etc. websites) that since there is a god and he's a dictator and doesn't run the universe as a democracy, then nothing here on earth should be run as a democracy. As one relig. gal said to a reporter that the pastor of her church had told her to not worry one bit about if something was unconstitutional or not, that the only thing she should be reading is the Bible. That scares me immensely.
 

officerripley said:
I don't believe in god or any form of the supernatural. I do know and like and love people who do believe in all that and that is of course their right just as it's my right not to. What does bother me, though (and it seems to be happening more or maybe I'm just noticing it more), is that a lot of people (here in the U.S. anyway) think (and say it even, like on a lot of well-known pastors, reverands, etc. websites) that since there is a god and he's a dictator and doesn't run the universe as a democracy, then nothing here on earth should be run as a democracy. As one relig. gal said to a reporter that the pastor of her church had told her to not worry one bit about if something was unconstitutional or not, that the only thing she should be reading is the Bible. That scares me immensely.
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The only thing someone should read is the Bible?😂. That’s nuts. God didn’t even write the Bible a bunch of old men with bad memories did. I believe in God, it doesn’t bother me that you don’t believe in God.

I was in the USWAC, so I swore a never ending oath to the constitution of the USofA.
 
These statements are made from incomplete knowledge. Yes, They have surpassed the "dogmas' of specific religions to claim their "identity beliefs" but human intellect is not a adaquate judge of what exists or does not exist, of right and wrong, because reasoning has it's limitations. and because the scope of vision of the human mind is restricted in comparison to the unlimited field of influence of action of the entire cosmos.
We think only from an awareness of what is in our relative field of comprehension.
 
The only reason people "trust" or believe in a deity is that someone else told them to. It's completely trust in what some other human being said, using going back thousands of years. And the details depend on what family a person was born or adopted into. In other words, most people are told what they must believe, because their family believes it.

If religion didn't exist, there would probably be a sense of wonder, but that's all. Or maybe a new concept would arise, closer to the truth than the usual portrayal of God.
 
If trusting in God means having faith, then I trust in God. I trust or have faith that Saturday will be Saturday and so forth. The law of attractions show you reap what you sow. Choices set into motion and identify who we are in the world. The items and people we choose to be with attract people and circumstances with similar interests
 
officerripley said:
I don't believe in god or any form of the supernatural. I do know and like and love people who do believe in all that and that is of course their right just as it's my right not to. What does bother me, though (and it seems to be happening more or maybe I'm just noticing it more), is that a lot of people (here in the U.S. anyway) think (and say it even, like on a lot of well-known pastors, reverands, etc. websites) that since there is a god and he's a dictator and doesn't run the universe as a democracy, then nothing here on earth should be run as a democracy. As one relig. gal said to a reporter that the pastor of her church had told her to not worry one bit about if something was unconstitutional or not, that the only thing she should be reading is the Bible. That scares me immensely.
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There's a huge difference between believing in a Deity and an organised religion. That I know from the experience of being raised in the Roman Catholic Church. I won't go into the faults and downright hypocritical practices of Catholicism, they are well documented, but despite all that, the reason why I believe in a God is, and the Catholic Church won't like this because it's not in their teaching of faith, nobody can explain why we exist, or more precisely, how we came to exist.

Science tells me that the universe started with a big bang. When I ask how that happened I'm told that it was by gases. OK, how did the gases exist? That question usually gets the exasperated look of despair, but it never gets answered. Science also tells us that infinity is impossible, (God is infinite,) but the universe is also infinite, it has to be, otherwise why doesn't it fall into the void at the end of the universe?

Society has become more and more secular and I think that's because of organised religious faiths. When the AIDS virus struck you heard that it was God's punishment, or God's wrath. Since when did mortals have a hotline to God? It's about as believable as war. How many times, down through the centuries has God created war? You think I'm making it up? Man's battle cry has, so many times been: "In God's name, charge." Little wonder that so many dismiss God as a fairy story, who can blame them?
 
I believe in God, I love God and I want to trust Him. Being transparent, I'll admit that I'm struggling right now. After this year, dealing with COVID and the pressures that added to my work as an RN, being sick with the virus (recovering, thank goodness), I am tired mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Added to all this, there is an additional, unforeseen rigamarole with getting my RN license renewed in a timely manner. I have been on the phone, trying to get things straightened out (and it will get straighten out, I'm sure) today but right now I feel like pulling my hair out.

And I ask myself, "where is your trust in God?" All I can say is to say what the very honest man in the Gospels said: "I believe; help my unbelief."
 
CinnamonSugar said:
I believe in God, I love God and I want to trust Him. Being transparent, I'll admit that I'm struggling right now. After this year, dealing with COVID and the pressures that added to my work as an RN, being sick with the virus (recovering, thank goodness), I am tired mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Added to all this, there is an additional, unforeseen rigamarole with getting my RN license renewed in a timely manner. I have been on the phone, trying to get things straightened out (and it will get straighten out, I'm sure) today but right now I feel like pulling my hair out.

And I ask myself, "where is your trust in God?" All I can say is to say what the very honest man in the Gospels said: "I believe; help my unbelief."
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I am sorry😓
 
Faith and belief are different concepts. Belief is a lot to do with the mind. Faith is something much deeper and involves trust.

Do I believe that every word of scripture is literally true? I do not because I am an educated woman with a scientific background and I am not living in the first millennium AD.

Do I have faith in God, I do because I have felt the call of something that exists within me and also outside of me. I now have some understanding of what theologians refer to as the immanence and the emanence of God. I answered that call and have entered into a relationship with the inexplicable and that is what faith is all about. It is about where we place our trust.

Some of us trust ourselves beyond all else, only at some time, to find that like Nebchadnezzar's statue, we too have feet of clay. Some place their faith in wealth and material possessions, others in charismatic leaders, or knowledge and science. It is in the end our choice and we have many opportunities as we age to switch our trust to something else. When that happens it is a moment of conversion.

As I child I had an infant's faith in the goodness of my parents and later in Jesus as described in Sunday school. As a teen I began to doubt the authority of the bible and fell in love with science. That was my first conversion - from faith in God to absolute faith in science.

Science has its place in answering questions relating to the material universe but is sorely lacking when it come to philosophical and existential questions. I found this out and discovered the feet of clay of my beloved science when I encountered personal tragedy and found a deep emptiness inside me. Still, I clung to my faith in science, above all else.

Without going into details because some things cannot be easily expressed, my second conversion came at the age of 33. It did not take place under the influence of any church or preacher. It happened during a teachers' inservice course that was taking place in a hotel/motel. There was a moment when something inside me called out and something outside me answered in a most unexpected way. Science would say it was my psyche (is that actually a scientific term?) talking to itself. My rational brain was puzzled to say the least. A few days later I felt/heard God call me by name.

From that day on I have ceased trying to be my own master, blundering my way through life. I voluntarily placed myself in the hands of God and now concentrate on becoming more loving, more accepting of my fellow humans, more forgiving and more generous and a lot less fearful. Am I perfect? Certainly not. I remain a flawed human being but I try to follow The Way that Jesus preached and have come to know great peace of mind and heart.

I still love science but my faith is in something greater.
 

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