Christians, how has God proved His existance to you in your life?

Thanks for asking this question. God is an unmistakable presence in my life. 35 years ago He showed up at my darkest hour, and hasn’t left. I’m grateful for the peace and joy He has given me, which endures through every circumstance, both the good and the bad. It makes all the difference.

@snowberry The question is how did God prove his existence in your life. You said he showed up in your darkest hour? How did you know? Did he speak? Was there a presence? How did you know it? What is the story here? How did you experience Him?

He’s great. He answers my prayers, he guides me, when I am fearful he brings me calm. He looks after me like no other human can. He likes and loves me despite my not always liking and loving myself. I have been filled with the holy spirit. Plus I was delivered from a spirit, which was very dramatic. Very shocking to me, and the Church that had set up the prayer specially for me (I found out later). And also was not a Church I attended. For a time I had been operating as a psychic, tarot reader and also using pendulums. My psychic ability grew very strong. But I was becoming more and more ill. Since that day, there has been great improvement.

I’m not a great Christian, not as many would expect me to be. I swear and am basically full of shit. I don’t even get on with many Christians. But that’s OK, I am with Him, not them.

I’m not a perfect Christian by any means, and I try to live by the “God is Love” mantra and I try really hard not to judge my fellow human beings who are fallible. I’ll list a few of the ways God has manifested in my life.

God has saved my life a few times, literally in my opinion. I had a massive head trauma when I was four years old, in the middle of rural Missouri in the middle of nowhere. While my mom is holding my skull to keep my brains from falling out, God sent a doctor to that very rural road where we were. Luckily I came through without any physical or mental repercussions.

My mother drank heavily when I was about twelve, and took me to bars with her. It wasn’t ideal, but I had been raised in church with my grandparents and mom off and on, so I knew right from wrong. I was approached many times for sex, or drugs, and rode home with a drunk mom many times, once even falling out of the car while moving on the highway. God watched over me through al of this as well.

Because my father was not in my life at all really, I have turned to God as my Heavenly Father the majority of my life. His love and grace have finally allowed me to forgive my earthly father, and helped me continue to love my own mother regardless of the paths she has chosen in life. Within the last ten years, my mother has been diagnosed bi-polar, quit drinking completely, got Stage 4 cancer and less than a year later it was all gone. She has rejoined her childhood church and is truly happy, which if you knew my mother, is miraculous without alcohol.

Due to my childhood, I swore I’d never get married, then I met a great guy and we hit it off. I was not comfortable living together before marriage, but I did it and felt tremendous guilt. I prayed that God would show me that I was meant to be with this man, I was terrified of committing to anyone, let alone forever and to a hometown boy at that. We had no money to get married and were struggling, and I knew I didn’t want to live like that forever. Less than one week later, on a Saturday morning, my husband went to work to earn a little extra money, stopped and bought a lottery ticket and won $30k, which we used to get married, have a nice honeymoon and put a cash deposit down on our home.

Some people may call these manifestations luck, but I know it’s God answering prayers.

@Shippy Wow, that is amazing and I’d love to hear more some time. And I’m not perfect either!!!

@KNOWITALL Any time, I was told by Him to testify to it, whenever required. So can post here I really don’t mind.

I used to be Catholic, then spiritual, then agnostic, now agnostic atheist. I hate labels but that’s how you best describe me. I know it’s not exactly an answer to your question but I just don’t get why there would need to be a God or how can there be one. I mean, if God is merciful and all loving why does so many bad things happen to good people? I can’t go with Christian belief saying all goes to hell if not believe in Jesus which may include Monks and people of other religions. Sigh…I honestly wish if there was God then it would be let known to me.

@chelle21689 Thank you for your post. Maybe reading some of these answers will show you how it’s been proved to us. And perhaps a Christian will discuss your questions. Bless you!

I have to admit that I was rather dubious about things, but I do see how God has helped my SO and bring her a sense of peace and well-being at various times. She was previously very stressed and at times us humans can only do so much to calm somebody as I think a percentage of it has to come from inside but there is no doubt that after her turning to God she can deal with things a lot easier than she could before and that to me is the most important thing.

@chelle21689 We live on the earthly plane. There is a spiritual world and an earth bound world. We live here on earth. So we are subject to earthly things. I also don’t believe God sends us hardship, pain, death or illness, God is the reverse of all those things. But the world can have us believe they are sent through God. My son shouted at me, why did God take my dad? He didn’t. In fact might sound odd, but you don’t even have to believe, just say the words. The rest just follows. Words on the earthly plane are extremely powerful.

@wundayatta that’s a long long story. The short story is that my earliest memories are wanting to commit suicide, but I was too little to know how to do it. I remember being so little I was trying to figure out how to kill myself by hitting myself in different places- arms, legs, and body.

My parents had a bad marriage. I was an only child. My mother had a horrid disease that eventually killed her. She was severely disabled. She told me I was the only reason she didn’t commit suicide and I was the only reason she didn’t get a divorce. I grew up with the constant conversation of death, both spoken and unspoken, my whole childhood.

At age 19 I was a young adult who couldn’t think clearly, was severely depressed, and I knew that in my then-present condition, I wouldn’t be able to manage as an adult. (To give you perspective, years later I was telling a psychologist how I had grown up, and she told me that she knew people who had been through less, and were permanent residents in an insane asylum.)

Someone told me that God answers prayer, that he would come into my life and save me. Well, I needed a lot of saving! I finally said, “God, I’m going to pray this sinner’s prayer. If you come into my life, great. But if you don’t, I’m killing myself, because I can’t live like this any longer.”

It was a scary day for me, because I intended to follow through on that promise, but God did show up. First He took away my desire to die. Then I began to see how God answers prayer, both in my life, and how God moved as I prayed for others. I’ve seen many times how the power of prayer results in miracles. Some of those answers to prayer were documented medical miracles.

I have been a Christian for 39 years now, and you know, it just keeps getting better! God has given me that peace that surpasses understanding, and on top of that, joy! It’s not a transient thing- it’s permanent. The key to it all is remaining in relationship to my creator. The closer I get to God, the better it gets.

I’m really enjoying this thread. Thank you for sharing, and peace, y’all.

I too am finding this very interesting.

(existence)

@snowberry, @Shippy, @KNOWITALL, @TheProfoundPorcupine: I found your responses deeply intriguing. If any of you want to share more, I was wondering: What is it about each of your experiences that makes you think it was an act of God in your life, and not something else, like luck, human drive and ambition, changes in brain chemicals, etc.? Were there any specifically Godly qualities about your experiences that you could describe? Or is it one of those things that’s like trying to describe the color blue?

@wildpotato In each of the circumstances I listed, it was different each time.

The first time with my mom in the car accident, there is practically no way a random doctor would be driving down a gravel road with just a few houses on it in rural Missouri at the same time I’m laying there dying. My mom said she just kept praying for help and for God to save her baby, we are firmly convinced it was Divine Intervention.

Without God’s influence in my life, I truly believe my anger and self-destructive feelings (during my mother’s alcoholic years) would have taken me over completely. I was using sex , drugs and alcohol to bury my misery and disappointment with humans, both my parents, everything.

All the sudden, God spoke to my heart (no big smoke cloud or vivid dream, I just knew) and told me to turn to Him before it was too late. I started going to church with a friend and got immersed to the point I was thinking about joining a nunnery, I mean I was IN TO IT 100%. I learned that I didn’t have to be 100% perfect to be worthy of the name Christian or to be worthy of love, so I took it down a notch, and ever since I have felt like God truly saved my life from utter desperation and destruction. I was that angry, like exploding angry. Thank God for his mercy and love for us imperfect people. :)

@wildpotato There are so many instances and examples. I could write a book. I will maybe just think for a bit, and share those that are simple and perhaps meaningful to you for example.

Once I was driving alone in the Kharoo. You can’t drive here alone it’s too dangerous. It is a barren landscape that goes on for miles and miles. I was told ten times by various people NOT to miss the turn off that I needed to meet to get back onto the correct highway.

Now you have to know me to understand, but I am just a regular person, and a bit twisted and naughty. Probably prone more to prayer when I need it. (That’s how I know he loves me warts and all).

So I started praying and was so anxious. There was a car in front of me, with a caravan at the back. Suddenly I saw a row of bridges, with turn offs and I started to panic more. Which one was it? The car in front began to go really slow, like deadly slow. Then finally slowly pulled over, as he moved to the side of me, he flagged me down. Being a dead road I pulled up alongside his window. He said to me, you need to turn on the second turn, that is your road. I was so shocked?? I said thank you? He said God bless and smiled.

Recently I had a huge issue. I was told by three doctors I needed a biopsy. Two were specialists. I am a baby! I was terrified I admit. I went onto a few prayer chains, one of them another jelly heres prayer chain.

I had my appointment booked about two weeks ago. I was scared. Anyway long story short, when I got there, the doctor said what lump? It had gone.

@Shippy Both gave me chills, our God is so inventive and amazing!

The closest I have come to God is through the inexplicable good deeds of others.

Great question! Funny, I was just thinking of this today. Although
I do not see myself as a Christian, but I do believe in God. I was baptized as an Anglican but when i was able to really think for myself abandoned all religion (Anglican or other).

Today I recalled when I was 12. I have always had a mental
disability that I have been dealing with forever so for me all
decision making causes me a lot of problem. That’s just a little
background and maybe it makes more sense why I reacted the way I have
that led up to my realizing God is with me.

So when I was 12 I recall being angry at my mother for no particular
reason as usual, I ended up running upstairs smashing a hole in my
wall getting on my bike and taking off. I went to the park and cried
and was angry and kicking my bike and told myself I was going to live
there in the park I was not going back and that I hated my
mother. And old lady I will never forget seemed like all of a sudden
she was sitting on the park bench. She asked me if I was ok and I
started bawling saying no and told her I hated my mom I wasn’t going
home and I was going to stay on the bench forever! Obviously I
was irate and at that time there were no cellphones, the lady
basically calmed me down and and was my voice of reason telling me
why I couldn’t live in the park, why I don’t really hate my mom and
how they would really miss and were probably already worried. After
about 4hrs of this lady dedicating her life to mine she said I was
ready to go home and I did. I never got her name she never got mine.
Now that I’m older and a little wiser I feel that was meant to be.
And it never dawned on me until today.

Another time when I was in my early 30s I think, I was having another
moment of irrationality which come often but tbh since I have
accepted God into my life I’m not as tortured anymore. So at this
point I don’t know what set me off any little thing could, I was
determined to commit suicide. I took a bunch of pills and my husband
found me and I was sent to the hospital so after I got back I thought
I’m going to do it right. I researched the pills and got in my car
found a desolate spot and had the Bible because I wanted to give
myself a last rights I suppose. I opened the windows and sparked up
a cigarette and opened the Bible put it on my lap and a gust of wind
flew in and turned the pages like being turned by a finger to this scripture which caught my eye:

“So you, by the help of your God, return; observe mercy and justice, and wait on your God continually.”
Hosea 12:6

At that moment it became apparent to me and I have loved and accepted God into my life ever since.

I, like so many of my friends, was raised Catholic. Like so many of them I ran away from God, because I felt uneasy with the God worshiped in the churches of my childhood. Luckily God didn’t run away from me. After my Brain Injury I realized that I was still here for a reason- it could have, should have been so much worse. I wasn’t even supposed to live. After the accident I realized that God did exist, and that He cared for me. My mom did die, but if she had lived her life wouldn’t have been anything like it had been in the past. I realized that He actually was “man enough” to handle my doubts and occasional anger, that He wanted real people who actually would engage with Him, and not just the “yes men” people think most Christians are. He wants us to be ourselves with Him, warts and all. He understands that life is not perfect and we wouldn’t be ourselves if we just showed Him the parts of ourselves that get trotted out on special occasions.

Good question. I consider Christianity’s relevance today to be self evident, and a belief in Jesus’ claims about who he is, who I am and what he did for me to be proven and quite rational, based on the evidence. However, more personally, about three years ago, God delivered me of the burden of substance addiction, and He did it in a split second. This is not something I had ever been able to do on my own. I thank Him every day. Be well.

@theodiskaz Me too 20 odd years ago. And also in a split second.

There is one thing I’ve noticed about myself. I’m always trying to figure God out. As soon as I think I’ve got it, He goes and changes things! But yes, in many ways, it can be like trying to explain the color blue to someone who’s never had the gift of sight.

But let me give you an example. My life after I became a Christian did not immediately turn wonderful. I still had trouble thinking clearly, I still dealt with depression, but not to the degree that I did before.

A few months later I got a job working in an all you can eat restaurant. It was one where you paid after you ate. My boss pointed out one of my customers (a shabby unkempt man) and asked me to keep an eye on him because she thought he’d try to leave without paying.

His name was Hank. As I talked with him, I began to understand that he looked like I felt. Looking back on it, I think he and I were pretty much alike- just that he’d had more practice at being miserable than I did. By the end of the night I had spent a great deal of time talking to this guy, and because I saw his misery as my own, I had really come to care for him. I wracked my brain trying to figure out how to stay in touch with him. I didn’t want to give him my phone number and have my mother answer the phone, so I did the only logical thing a naive young woman would do! I gave him my address (!!?!)! I told him that I cared about him, and to write me and let me know how he was doing.

That night I couldn’t get Hank off of my mind. I went home and prayed long into the night for him. I prayed every way I could think of- standing up, lying on my face, kneeling beside my bed, you name it. I praised God for him, I wept hours for this man. Finally exhausted, I said, Lord, I’ve done everything I can do. Save this man! Heal this man! Restore him in Jesus name! Then I went to sleep.

I had just about forgotten about Hank when I got a letter from him. He told me that that night he had planned to eat a huge meal, go home, drink himself into oblivion, and shoot himself.

That night when he got home, he couldn’t touch the liquor or pick up the gun. He lived in a flophouse with a bathroom down the hall. He said that for 40 days he’d had the DT’s (Delirium tremens), and his friends brought him food during that time. He said he had written as soon as he could hold a pencil. He said he’d like to meet me.

Nobody at the VA Hospital believed he had stopped drinking, for they had a file on him about a foot thick, but he had gotten a job as a night watchman at the local VFW hall. He actually lived there in a back room for over a year, with 24/7 access to all the alcohol he wanted if he chose. Eventually he got his high school diploma and then took classes at the local university. He was a master jeweler and a gourmet cook. When I married, Hank made our wedding rings, and cooked the reception dinner. Hank remained in my life for 20 more years, cold sober.

This was my first experience with the power of intercessory prayer.

This is how God shows up for me. It’s not my job to heal people (that’s God’s job); it is my responsibility to pray, and I do.

@snowberry : Wow. Awesome story, in the true sense of the word. It gave me the shivers. Thank you for sharing.

@KNOWITALL Thank you so much for asking this question. I just joined Fluther, and I love it, and your post really reassures me that I’m in a good place here :). I’ll probably post something that actually answers your question later, when I have time, but I just wanted to thank you for your question and echo the sentiment that I’m enjoying this thread!

@theunkindraven Shewwww, with a name like that when I saw you typing, I got nervous, what a pleasant surprise to read your post. Looking forward to it, it’s a “come out as a Christian party” woo hoooooo!

Here’s a short clip from my favorite movie. God brought it into my life when I really needed the message from this song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgh3XgxA0K8

It speaks to me more than any hymn. Perhaps you will like it too.

@KNOWITALL Haha can’t judge a book by its cover! Let’s see if I can answer your question. I was raised Catholic, and I attended Catholic mass every week for around eighteen years; I also attended Catholic school from kindergarten through high school. I always “believed,” with quotes, in the sense that I nodded my head along with what the priests said and what the nuns said and what my parents said, but I believe I actively came to have faith that Jesus Christ is my personal savior, and that I am saved by God’s grace alone, in college. I saw my dad reading a daily devotional by Charles Stanley (a Baptist preacher), and I started to read it, too, and then everything kind of just…opened up for me. It made sense. And God continues to reveal Himself to me every day.

I’m so far from perfect it’s not funny. I fail, and I sin, but I see God working around me, and in me, all the time. The other day, for instance, I was praying about love, and how I wanted love in my life, and I then opened up a Christian magazine I subscribe to and the first article was titled “You Are Loved.” That’s one of the little things that happens so often in my life that makes me look up in wonder and think, “Jesus!”

I wish I could think of an “impressive” example for the collective, but honestly, it’s mostly the little things for me. I can totally see how those who do not (yet) have an intimate relationship with Jesus might write off my experiences, and the experiences of other Christians; that’s because they have not yet come to know the love and acceptance that is Jesus Christ. I pray that they will know His peace and love, because it’s the most extraordinary feeling in the world, the peace that comes, even in the most challenging of times (and there are plenty of them) with knowing Jesus Christ.

@theunkindraven Yes, the little things add up to quite a lot don’t they. Thanks for sharing!!

@theunkindraven Welcome to Fluther :)

Thanks for participating everybody. I have never seen God’s name used so much on fluther in the entire time I’ve been here, and it fills my heart with joy. Keep the faith and feel free to PM me anytime, we can help support each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Love and blessings, keep adding any stories you feel may change someone else’s life, you never know who is reading all this. Peace out!

There is a book said to predate the old testament; I have not read it, but I have read about it. In that book, God is described as a floating head with long oily hair and beard, one mouth, one nose, one ear, and one eye.

Some years ago, perhaps in the late 70’s, I was lying in bed, in a semi-dark room, eyes wide from sleeplessness. Suddenly, there appeared a single eye, floating near the ceiling by one of the corners of the room. It was orange-bloodshot, and cast an orange glow across the wall nearest it. It turned abruptly and fixed its brown gaze upon me. I nearly had a heart attack.

Earlier during the 70’s, having recently returned from San Fran Cisco to Gadsden Alabama, and residing temporarily in my Dad’s apartment, I heard what I have come to think of as the voice of God, and alternately as the voice of Christ. Here is the story:

I was lying in bed one night, wide awake and listening to several noises at once. The loudest noise was the radio I had playing. The softest noise was the sound of my heart beat in my ears. In between was the noise of the upstairs neighbors once again engaged in argument and name calling. All these noises came to a sudden stop, and there was complete silence. A voice came to my hearing that I could feel physically on my eardrums. The voice said, “Eleven years and sixty-five days.”

On the following night, as I dreamed, I was running an errand for a master (as if America had fallen, and all of us suddenly found ourselves under new management); my task-master was a blonde male, well fed, with too tight clothing. He was an obvious European type. As I ran through the woods, beautiful tall pines, I chanced to see a large rock set at 45 degrees as it jutted up from the earth. A cave underneath the rock went down into the earth, and there it happened again. The voice from the previous night came to me again. It was a deep and resonant voice with a musical quality. The voice said, “And there you will be in the safest place in all the world.”

On the following night, I lay awake again, with all the usual noises. I turned on my side; the heartbeat in my ears began to sound like the ringing blows of a hammer against an anvil. Then the complete silence came again. I listened, and the voice came a third time, saying, “Danny, come hear.”

These are but small singular pieces in what, to me, constitutes proof of God—but then, when putting together a jigsaw puzzle, one is faced with quite a few pieces, and all of them seem out of place. I personally have a lot of pieces I am still struggling with, but I think I will ultimately see the big picture.

I am always interested in people’s stories about how they met God. This is because I could never understand how God would make sense to anyone based on the Bible or any other external source. These stories never spoke to me or made sense to me. The language was too foreign.

I could not imagine what other people were seeing in religion. Eventually it occurred to me that people were having personal experiences and that these might provide more insight into their belief in God.

I believe in stories and the power of stories, myself. I find them very healing. Indeed, they are supposed to be the most effective technique for helping with mental illness. So much so, that Medicaid might actually pay people to attend support group meetings and talk, as treatment for their mental illnesses.

I read these stories not for what you say about god, but for the stories themselves. For what happened to you. It is in these stories that I can start to see why you might need God.

For I see God as a kind of metaphor that helps you make sense of your lives. Many of us have been hit hard in life with trials that don’t make sense. As humans, we have evolved to need to make sense of our lives, and yet, some of these events just can’t make sense.

With God, you can find a purpose in these things that are impossible ot make sense of. You can comfort yourselves. Calm yourselves. Literally, as many of you have described.

If ever I did a dissertation, I think I would probably want to analyze stories like these, and try to understand the meaning making process that you go through when you make sense of what you have experienced. My ultimate question would be why do you find it helpful to bring in the idea of God in order to help make sense of these narratives. In doing this, I think I would find a common definition, or commonalities in an inferred definition of what God is to you.

Clearly, it also makes you happy to hear other people’s stories. It gives you a sense of belonging, just as my crazy group gives us mentally ill folk a sense of belonging and an identity that is centered around a rather amorphous concept that primarily is based on the pain we deal with or have dealt with and that came close to killing many of us.

God is still an idea that frustrates me horribly. But your stories provide a sparkling clarity, and I think they give people who are believers and non-believers alike something concrete to go to when we are trying to communicate. It is, I have believed for a long time, a way around the horrible arguments we have in our meta-conversations about religion. If you focus on actual experience, no one can take it away from you. But once you call it “God,” the experience goes away and is replaced by a word that no one can define. Then all hell breaks loose.

In other words, if we stuck to our experiences, I don’t think these religious arguments would happen. But we always have to abstract things. That is our downfall. That, is where the idea of hell comes from.

@wundayatta This is a song written by who I believe to be one of the all time greatest bands RUSH. They explain I believe why many people such as yourself feel the way you do. These are the lyrics of the song:

RUSH
”Armor And Sword”

The snakes and arrows a child is heir to
Are enough to leave a thousand cuts
We build our defenses, a place of safety
And leave the darker places unexplored

Sometimes the fortress is too strong
Or the love is too weak
What should have been our armor
Becomes a sharp and angry sword

Our better natures seek elevation
A refuge for the coming night
No one gets to their heaven without a fight

We hold beliefs as a consolation
A way to take us out of ourselves
Meditation or medication
A comfort ,or a promised reward

Sometimes the spirit is too strong
Or the flesh is too weak
Sometimes the need is just too great
For the solace we seek
The suit of shining armor
Becomes a keen and bloody sword

A refuge for the coming night
A future of eternal light
No one gets to their heaven without a fight

Confused alarms of struggle and flight
Blood is drained of color
By the flashes of artillery light
No one gets to their heaven without a fight
The battle flags are flown
At the feet of a god unknown
No one gets to their heaven without a fight

Sometimes the damage is too great
Or the will is too weak
What should have been our armor
Becomes a sharp and burning sword

And this is a quote that someone else wrote on songmeanings.net. this explains it better than I ever could…

“In moderation, religion can be a potent ward against the terrible things that happen in the world. Believing that a higher power really is out there and that everything really will work out in the end can help people through difficult times. In this way, religion acts as armour, protecting us from the general misfortunes of life.”

“Unfortunately, there often comes a point when religion stops being about loving God (or the higher power(s) of your choice) and turns into a reason or excuse to hate and persecute others. Fanatics stop using religion as a defense against life’s hardships and instead use it as a justification to destroy those they hate, fear, or oppose. This kind of thinking breeds discrimination and even outright assault, as evidenced by countless past bombings and policies. Christians bombing mosques, Muslims bombing churches – it’s all the same: religion gone wrong, trading armour for swords.”
© of rampagingpoet

I do not believe God is a metaphor. If you did understand the Bible it tells us a lot, like we were made in God’s image, and that Jesus was God in human form and if God did not want suffering in the world or for us he would surely not have suffered. The Bible to me also shows us evolution, because it talks about in the beginning were Adam and Eve and Adam ate from the tree of knowledge and when God came into the garden of Eden Adam and Eve had covered themselves up, and God asked them why they did that and they said it was because they were naked. So that to me says that the knowledge they received at that moment was like evolution because before that they were “dumb” so to speak. God basically told them that having knowledge will be like a burden I suppose for lack of a better word. Now that we have evolved into knowledgeable humans there are so many other factors that play a burden in our lifestyle because of knowledge and the need to know everything.
God also shows us in the Bible that he gives us choice, He is a loving God, we are part of Him and He wants to be part of our lives. But He also shows us that denying him will lead to total isolation from Him in the afterlife. It shows us that this life right now is the time to accept him. If we choose not to then we will accept eternal damnation and total isolation from Him in the afterlife and tbh He already knows our path.

That is a lot of information I’m sorry if you feel anything negative from it. I am not trying to be negative or push my views on you, I’m just sending out the info as I understand it.

I’m a Christian, but I never experienced anything I would call a proof. To me a belief is not the same as a fact. A spiritual truth is not the same as truth in first-order logic. To me God is the best ultimate explanation for our being, and religion the framework that gives our lives structure, meaning and purpose. Rituals serve the purpose of helping us cope with life, fit in with our peers and live in our communities. Even Fluther uses rituals, for example celebrating 10000 Lurve points. The online world in general has developed many new rituals.

I believe in Jesus and he is my savior. Jesus reminded us that we make ourselves very unhappy when we hate other people. This reminder saves us from living a miserable life. To me that’s the most important aspect of being saved.

Who is Jesus?! He is the second person of the Trinity, the first being the Father and the final third being the Holy Spirit. What in human understanding is the Trinity? It is very hard to explain or to understand, as I believe. It is a mystery of the greatest degree. I believe that God is good and wants only good for us His children. I also believe that any bad that happens in our lives does not come from Him but from ourselves. I do not say this with anything but sincerity and truth in my heart. You see I was married for over 40 years and have 4 sons and one daughter. I have not heard from two of them in over 6years, one only a couple of times and two who I am blessed to have a relationship with. I am guilty of thinking I had all the answers by myself yet I know now that I truly know nothing on my own. HE has given me worth, hope and acceptance. Something I have always wanted but never knew that it was there. If I only listened, instead I went looking in all the wrong places. HE is my Savior, HE is my Rock. In HIM I trust. I am sure that I may not be making any sense to many but I love HIM and could never live without HIM. I can only go up for I have lived in the pits most of my life and realize that it is not just me—I love HIM for simply being who HE is. I am never alone!

@Grama Awesome answer and welcome to Fluther :)

@Grama Thank you, for me also, it is about the peace I find. It is about never being alone. When things are too much, when there is no logical answers (as many humans try to find logic) the illogical happens. I find peace, that surpasses all understanding. My understanding that is. Wisdom is better than logic. Some have said the Bible is an old book, talking about those days. Yet, all the time I see words that are relevant to me now here in this time and space. That is wisdom.

The AA Book was said to be God inspired, and truly no one can find fault with it. They have tried.

I love the feeling wisdom creates. It is also kind, to the point and simple. It is when we complicate things that we lose focus. Sometimes I will take a verse and study each word, it is almost like Shakespeare in its depth and complexity. It is almost like words and meanings beyond words and meanings. When one is not blessed with the holy spirit the book becomes dead. The book has no meaning, you cannot read it nor understand it, therein lies the secret.

@Grama What answers did you think you had all by yourself? How did you come to experience self-worth? What did it feel like not to be worthy? What was going on in your life? Then what happened to bring you a feeling or worth? What changed in your outside life at that time (not your thoughts, but concretely, in outside life)?

My brother loves to spread the word of god. He will go out and tell other about it. One time I went with him to spread the word and we found a man who loves god too and he gave us a meaningful message to us. I just wanted to hug him because it was beautiful. It changes people. My brother changed when he became a full Christian. He use to be cold and distance and would do horrible things to me but now he gives so much love and understanding. He reads the bible everyday to feel the lords presence. There’s no such thing as a good person only the lord. I thank god for changing my brother. He’s teaching my little sister too :) I believe there’s god. Every painting has a painter. Something can’t appear from nothing. Right?

He has given me the strength I couldn’t find within myself to face the intrusive thoughts, flashbacks and nightmares of PTSD in ways other than putting my brain in low gear with morning to night cannabis use. Or, he showed me where to find it in myself. Either way, I praise Him.

Is it existance or existence?

Existence

I’ve now survived my third auto accident that should have killed me. Last Tuesday I went to a local club that is live and local entertainment, and had a wonderful time with friends. On the way home, however, I hit a metal light pole and totaled my car. I had another seizure while driving. Because it was 9months after my last accident I had my license again. It was my first seizure after regaining it. I saw the car after the accident and I shouldn’t have lived. I will probably never drive again, but I’ve never hurt another person and I’ve lived. I think that God exists and was definitely in
control of the situation. I don’t think He caused it, but He was there with me protecting me.