Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Categories
- All Categories 13.8K
- General Category 10.9K
- General Announcements 184
- Faith Issues 3.4K
- Coptic Orthodox Church 2.5K
- Personal Issues 1.4K
- Prayer Requests 423
- Random Issues 1.8K
- Introductions 294
- Non-Orthodox Inquiries 232
- Youth Corner 606
- Hymns 2.5K
- Hymns Discussion 2.5K
- Technicial Difficulties 368
- Technical Topics 368
why am i never satasfied?
not with the past i cant close it because the people i have lost in my life and did not to get to make up for the mistakes i have commited and life has no meaning at times idk why im like this no matter what im alwaysbothered by the past why
Comments
Please correct me if I'm wrong
Personally, I have a lot of regrets from the past which I know I can’t correct. Not only do I have many sins that I committed in my past life, I still sin every day in my weakness. :'( :'( :'( Sometimes I see the magnitude of my many sins at their full scale and wonder what would make God accept me. No one can understand the grace of God, but only accept it with gratitude. In my despair I reproach myself and turn to the only source of comfort – Christ our Savior. :) :) :)
One thing you have to watch for is not to let your regret drive you away from God. Satan, which in Hebrew means The Accuser, always accuse us of our many sins and tells us we are not worth. We should be able to say “Yes, we are not worth, but the blood of Christ makes up for our weakness”.
Bigeee, God forgives us our sins and accepts us as his sons. Therefore we should forgive ourselves. Let our regrets be an opportunity to realize Gods grace not to blaspheme against his grace. Remember both Peter and Judas Iscariot denied and betrayed Christ. What greater sin could there be? But Peter wept in regret and seeks forgiveness while Judas assumed his sin is unforgivable and therefore rejected God’s grace. Peter in his despair turned to God while Judas, also in despair, hanged himself. Let us ask our self what we do in our despair. Do we ‘hang’ ourselves or turn to God and accept his grace?
Bigeee, when we are renewed becoming closer to God He closes our tainted file and open a new chapter for us. We are given a chance to make up for all the years that were wasted. God says “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten” Joel 2:25.
“I believe therefore I am greatly afflicted” Psalm 116:10
Let us strengthen each other in the Lent.
Pray for me, and my many sins.
In Christ
Theophilus
i agree with theophilus1
also in your hard time, remember to also encourage others, you may not realise that they are also struggling. if you have nothing to say, just tell them how glad you are to have a friend like them and how they are unique and precious in God's sight.
when things are really bad, flee to a friend's place and ask them to pray with you. i did this last week, although i felt bad to burden my friend with my problem she was really sweet and was actually pleased the God used her to cheer me up!
may God give you wisdom and guidance
not with the past i cant close it because the people i have lost in my life and did not to get to make up for the mistakes i have commited and life has no meaning at times idk why im like this no matter what im alwaysbothered by the past why
Hi bigeee,
I've heard about such problems before. What kind of mistakes did you make in the past??
hurting people and losing them cause of my hardship in life and when i lose people i lose them for good and it hurts cause they remember the bad not the good even though i said harsh things to them but still im not such a person
Regret in general, is a good thing. If you do a sin, and you do NOT regret it, then abouna will not give you the absolution.
But, perhaps what you need is closure. You need to perhaps apologise to those you have offended. If they accept your apology, that's great - if not, then you cannot keep on feeling bad.
I think there's a distinction between Regret and Guilt. You shouldnt continually feel guilty if you have repented and confessed it, but you will always regret the sins you have done. FOREVER.
Have a great day
If we have repented then the past is done with. We must concentrate on what God calls us to today and look to the future He is leading us into.
I am sure that St Moses the Black would have wished not to have committed all the sins he did, but it strikes me that he used his own past as a means of learning humility towards others and before God. He did not keep on allowing the past to present itself before him and accuse him. Even St Paul had things in his past which he would have wished had not happened, but it was out of those circumstances that he was moulded by God to become the great Apostle which he was. The one who is forgiven much loves much.
We should not allow Satan to tempt us by saying - because you did this in the past you can never be used by God. It is not true. The lives of the Saints show us it is not true. The Scriptures show us it is not true. Thanks be to God we can say - Yes, It is true I was such a person. It is no surprise to God. But He calls me by His own name and has forgiven me so you cannot throw these things back in my face. Accuse me of being lazy today certainly, but do not dare to accuse me of things for which my Lord has suffered and died to forgive me. Take these things up with the Lord. I have asked Him for forgiveness and He Himself has carried them away.
The Holy Spirit Himself says...
Hebrews 10:17 "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."
So we should not allow Satan to keep reminding us. We cannot change the past. We can learn humility from it. But it is in the present that we are called to serve. Satan gains great pleasure and power from making a Christian think that he can never really be forgiven some sin. But it is another of his lies.
Hebrews 8:12 "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."
God has not only forgiven our sins, He has forgotten them. He is not the one who reminds us of them.
Psalm 103:8-14 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
God knows what we are like. If we cannot shock a father of confession then we certainly cannot shock God. He has taken our sins away, even though He knows better than any priest how bad we are. We should never allow Satan to tempt us to despair by the remembrance of our sins.
When he does remind us, then we should just say, 'Such a man I once was. Thanks be to God today is a new day and a new start. I am not that man. The one I sinned against has forgiven and forgotten. I will not judge another because they sin, nor even spend time judging myself.' As St Paul says..
1 Corinthians 4:3-4 Indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.
We are not able to even judge ourselves. We end up spending ages agonising over something in the past we think is a terrible sin, but do not even notice the more serious things that we have done or neglected to do. We walk past the unnoticed beggar on the street while we are in turmoil over whether we looked at a scantily clad woman for too long. It is impossible for us to judge ourselves. We are not objective. Only God's judgement matters. And when He has forgiven and forgotten then we should not allow Satan to disturb our peace.
It is hard enough to be spiritual today. We can do nothing about the past or the future. Indeed we do not know what the future holds.
Matthew 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Regret can be positive if we allow it to strengthen our resolve to live today for Christ. But it can also be negative, a life-sapping sense of being worthless and always contaminated. The first is certainly that which St Paul and St Moses allowed to challenge each day. The second is of Satan and seeks only to prevent us being transformed by the Holy Spirit.
If we have repented and received absolution. If we are receiving the Holy Mysteries - for the remission of sins and eternal life - then we can be sure that God will never bring our past back to haunt us. Today is the day of salvation. Not yesterday. And He still says to us all - Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.
I could not live if I always lived in the past. Even this morning there are things I would wish undone. But I must make amends now in the present. The past is already gone and cannot be changed. Indeed having repented it is forgotten. How will I live now? That is what counts. Looking backwards only to learn from my mistakes so as not to repeat them. Not being bound forever by my weakness.
In Christ
Father Peter
I would counsel against allowing anything in our past to dominate our present and future.
I think I will use that quote in my profile. I second that. But I think bigee needs closure. No, but that does not mean he (saint Moses the black) did not regret what he did. That's precisely my point Father. We can all regret, but I stress on the dangers of feeling guilty over what we have repented about. It is truly regretful the things that we have done in life. And of course, Saint Paul, no one knows the amount of regret he had. I agree that we should not allow Satan to keep reminding us, but we should have the humility to never forget. This is very Orthodox Father: the rememberance of our sins should be what we use to remind us of God's love and our corruptible nature. To better explain myself: if we forgot our sins - then what would we learn? If we remember our sins and they depress us and cause us misery, then either our repentance is not complete, or we are too proud to accept Christ's forgiveneness. Yes. This is pride. He makes us feel that we were too good to have sinned and makes us feel doubly awful about it that we cannot really forgive ourselves. And at worse. Its quite a serious topic in fact. He plays on our pride also to make us think that our sins cannot be forgiven. But, as I said, our FoC clearly told us that to forget your sins is very dangerous. Yes. Christ forgets your sins, and throws them in the sea of oblivion, but that's no reason for you to forget them. Christ treats you as if you havent committed the sin when you repent and He forgives you. But, for you to forget your sins is just asking for trouble. If the memory of your sin depresses you, your repentance is not complete. Your pride could be in the way. In fact, your pride could be in the way of even admitting the sin completely. But - just one small second here - Christ has forgotten them, yes. He has treated us of the 11th hour as those who were working in the field since the 1st hour. We get the same wages as the workers in the vineyard who were working all day. That's how he treats us. But should we forget that he employed us in the 11th hour?
Should we forget that?
What SHOULD happen when we remember our sins??
--> We should love Christ more than before for forgiving us for many sins.
--> If we remember the sin and fall into depression and dispair from the memory of it, it means our repentance is not complete, and we have not truly admitted that we need Christ's blood that takes away the sin of the world. It is really a statement that indicates that we were depending on our own righteousness to absolve us from our iniquities, rather than Christ's ultimate sacrifice. This is pride and it should be dealt with through repentance and confession - with the guidance of an FoC.
I'll give you the biblical proof below. That's right - he will not accuse, and even the rememberance of your sins, AFTER repentance is a blessing. It is not accusatory in its nature or its effect. Its effect is humility and tolerance towards others. Father Peter,
Christ rose from the dead. He resurrected from the dead.
We are dead when we are in sin. Our resurrection is our repentance. There is a parallel with baptism and repentance: In baptism, we also die with Christ. The tears of my repentance can be a symbol as the water of this 2nd baptism.
As Christ rose from the dead, He conquered death by His death. He nullified it. The trauma, the sadness, the pain, the endless suffering of death all was wiped away when He gave us eternal life. His resurrection was a miracle. He rose from the dead.
Likewise, our repentance is a miracle:
Before my repentance - the thought of a sin only brought me sadness and guilt. After repentance - THE SAME MEMORY of that sin, the same thought of it creates in a humble heart that is more forgving towards others and the love I have for God is greater (for much was forgiven!).
By not thinking about the sin IN CASE that it depresses me - is EXACTLY the same as not wanting to look in the tomb of Christ IN CASE He hasn't really resurrected. Why do I have condition my mind not to remember an act, when the memory of it is only a testimony of Christ's love?
Christ wants US to remember our sins:
He asked us to say "Forgive us for our tresspasses as we forgive those who tresspass against us".
In that above verse, He is asking us to remember our sins - DAILY.
It is like this Father Peter:
Imagine yourself as a young man just out of Uni. You get a credit card, and you just spend it a few times. The bill comes and you discover it is VERY expensive. You had NO IDEA that using purchasing these things would have been so expensive. You assumed the price of the articles to be moderate, and yet, when the VISA statement arrives, you see that they are asking for tens of thousands of pounds.
EVERYTIME you look at that statement, it bothers u.
You leave it lying around in the kitchen, or on the table somewhere at home, and you do NOT want to see it. Yet, in the back of your mind, it is weighing heavily on your heart. Just seeing it disturbs you.
You then take it to your dad, who owns a beautiful apartment in the heart of London. Your father sells that apartment to pay off your debts.
The Visa Statement comes back with the amount, and in a huge red stamp around it, you see the words "PAID <DATE>. Thank you for using VISA".
When you see that - the Visa statement that once scared you and caused you distress NO LONGER causes you sadness. Rather than remember your debts, ALL you see is the love your father had for you. In fact, your Visa statement becomes a symbol of your father's love. It reminds you of the sacrifice He made to free you from your debt.
So, you take that VISA statement and you get a frame built for it, and you hang it up on your living room as a souvenir to yourself and to everyone - as a testimony to the love your father had for you.
When we take the cross, and hang it up on our walls - we do the same thing. We remind ourselves of Christ's love for us. When I see the cross on the wall - I remind myself of the price He paid to free me from my debts.
Our debts were paid for, but if I forget my debts, what may happen is the result of someone SELF-RIGHTEOUS - who carelessly forgets about what his father had done to rescue him. And we forget easily when someone is indebt to us. AND THE ONLY WAY SOMETIMES TO FORGIVE THOSE WHO HAVE OFFENDED US, IS TO REMIND OURSELVES OF WHAT WE WERE FORGIVEN OF!
That story is mine.
I made it up.
If you want to use it in any of your sermons, please mention me.
Thanks
A friend of mine gave a sermon on the book of Ecclastises..(sp).. and if you have ever read this book in the bible you will understand the truth behind King Solomon.that want of satisfaction never comes.. it only comes by the way of the Lord.
For instance i will speak from my own personal experience..I have tried and tried and tried to reconcile with my past and from people of my past. But some of those friends do not wish to reconcile.so i leave it up to God and pray.I always leave it up to GOD. and always Pray, it is one of the strongest weapons and tool you have given .. and you will be amazed by the outcome.And as far as satisfaction.. ask that the holy spirit give you comfort.
GOD BLESS!!