How do you find comfort in something you can't see or touch?
I have seen things and I have felt God.
To you, what does it mean to serve God?
To serve God, right now, is to seek Him always. I look for Him in everything I do. I think about Him and I read His Word. He has asked me to read the Bible. So serving God means I've surrendered my life, let Him in my heart and learn as much as I can about who God is.
If there is a God, how are you supposed to know what he wants from you or how to serve him best?
I don't even know what He wants me to do with my life yet. He has been very clear that my job as His servant is to love Him with all my heart and love people as I love myself. He has asked me to share my testimony so that others may learn to find Him and know Him too. Love people; be there for them. When no one else wants them because of how bad of a person they are or how lost they are; love them. Love them so they can see God. So they can see what God has done for me. How He has changed me and how He has fulfilled my life. You serve Him when you realize that there is no other way but Him. You have tried everything in this life to feel like you have meaning and purpose and always come up empty handed and full of sorrow. Then you realize that God is the only answer. When you realize God is the only answer, you are challenged to believe that your way of living is wrong. You are full of sadness because what you have been doing has no meaning and you're sorry. But God says, "I love you and I have a purpose for you. If you chose me, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I have a plan for you; a plan for good. A plan to proposer you and not to harm you. I love you despite your rebelling against me and to find meaning in everything but me. I will always keep asking you to come back to me. Even if you deny me a thousand times, I will never give up on you."
When you're dealing with different issues in your life, do you ask God to help you through them or just ask for the wisdom to make it through on your own?
I ask for God to help through everything. I ask for God to give me wisdom...His wisdom through it, and He does.
Ecclesiastes 2:26: To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
James 1:5: If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.
This is what I'm new at because I haven't followed God before. I just believed Him to be real. So I've been learning what it means to follow Him and how He talks to me. He's been teaching me how to live in certain circumstances.
Is it enough to serve God by just being a good person?
I assume by being a good person you mean doing good deeds. But the cross, or following God, demands that you trust in Him and surrender your life to Him. It is not by doing good things that you are saved or is required for following God. Of course being a "good person" comes from following God but that comes with surrendering your life. Entrusting your life in God's hands.
So many times in the bible it says it is by faith (Trust in God) that counts. Because if you don't have faith being a "good person" doesn't mean anything. You can do "good things" and still be someone who doesn't believe in God. By definition of following Christ we are a new creation and are therefore different from everyone else. Because we as people are naturally flawed, there is no amount of good deed or being a good person that is "good enough for God". And the amazing thing is we don't have to be "good enough for God".
Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the faith of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
James 2:26: For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Romans 3:23-26: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
Do you regret any of it? The whole experience of finding God?
This is one of those things that is very hard to explain until you get to a point where you surrender yourself to Him because you want Him in your life. Choosing to follow God is not like choosing what college you want to go to or what career path you want to take or even who you want to marry. Choosing God is choosing a way of life and a way of death. You are choosing, in this life to follow THE God. To live out the plan he has for your life. Which is always good. Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the plans I have for you," declared the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." He has a plan for your life providing you choose it. His plan is good for you and it glorifies Him.
You also made a choice of what happens when you die. You choose a life of eternity with God. John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live..." John 5:24: "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." The fact is: You will die one day. What do you believe happens? You just die and that's it? What if you don't just die. This life is about choosing. You either choose God or you don't; there is no middle ground. If you die and find out there's life after death... It's a little too late.
So, do I regret choosing to follow a God that loves me,
"I knew you before you were conceived" -Jeremiah 1:4-5-. "I chose you when I planned creation" -Ephesians 1:11-12-. "You were not a mistake... for all your days are written in my book" -Psalm 138:15-16-. "I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live" -Acts 17:26-. "You are fearfully and wonderfully made" - Psalms 139:14-. A God who wants to do good to me? "It is my desire to lavish my love on you, simply because you are my child and I am your Father" -1 John 3:1-. "I offer you more than your earthly father ever could" -Matthew 7:11-. "Every good gift you receive comes from my hand" -James 1:17-. "For I am your provider and I meet all of your needs" -Matthew 6:31-33- . Who promises to be there for me when I'm hurting? "When you are broken hearted I am close to you" -Psalm 34:18-. "One day I will wipe away every tear from your eye and I will take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth" -Revelations 21:3-4-. Who sacrifices for love? "I am your father and I love you even as I love my son Jesus" -John 17:23-. "He is the exact representation of my being" -Hebrews 1:3-. "He came to demonstrate that I am for you and not against you" -Romans 8:31-. "And to tell you I am not counting your sins. Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled" -2 Corinthians 5:18-19-. "His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you" -1 John 4:10-. "I gave up everything I love that I might gain your love" -Romans 8:32-.
No, I don't regret that.
What if you don't feel anything anymore? How can someone love you when you don't even love yourself?
You are able to love in the first place because God loves you. God is love.
1 John 4:19: "We love because he first loved us."
1John 4:16: "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
I know what it's like to not love yourself. Now that I am where I am in my life, I know God loves me and that's enough. I've haven't had to worry about someone else loving me or even me loving myself. I know that doesn't make sense but that's how I see it.
It seems like in order to accept God into your life, you have to love him. But how can you do that when you really don't even remember what it's like to love anyone let alone yourself. How are you supposed to learn to love anything when you just feel hollow?
He loved you first. So that implies that you don't love first. You don't have to love Him first. You just have to accept Him. Let Him show you He loves you. In order to do that, you have to acknowledge Him. You are hollow because you haven't accepted Him. You will always be hollow until you realize He is that only things that can fill the void in your heart. It's hard to love yourself when you don't have love. God is love -1 John 4:8-. You don't love yourself because you don't know God. But He knows you. That is the whole point. Do you believe God to be real? That is where you start.
It is hard to wrap my mind around the possibility of an all powerful being that is everywhere at the same time. Something that is capable of unconditional love.
We aren't supposed to be able to wrap our heads around it. You'll be in a life long pursuit of trying to understand if you think following God means you'll understand everything He understands. That's like looking at your Dad when you're three and saying "You're not my Dad unless I understand everything about who you are. You know your Dad is your Dad when you're a kid by believing he is.
If God wants us to believe in him, why not make his presence more known and remove all doubt?
Would you want a God who forces you to believe in Him? Forces you into surrendering to who He is? The greatest gift from God is our free will. He's not going to spell it out for you because it all comes down to choice. You have to want God. Even with all the experiences I have had, He still leaves me with a choice and I'll be honest, all the proof in the world could point to the existence of a God, and people would still choose not to serve Him. He has shown me so many things in the spiritual world, yet I still had to make a choice. It is said in the bible, not sure the reference, even demons acknowledge God is real. When you want God, when you seek Him, He will show Himself to you. Trust me. But you have to want it. Truly want it.
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEfJpJ1lhQc
