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
IM DRIFTING.......
HELPPPPPP...wat should i do.........
IM DRIFTING AWAY...
AND I KNOW U KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!
IM DRIFTING AWAY...
AND I KNOW U KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!
Comments
if you don't God will miss you heaps and heaps and heaps!!!
and besides He loves you too much to leave u drift too far!!! he'll call you to him sooner then you think!!
and wen he does ur gonna regret u ever left him!!!!!!!
hehe man... God loves us soooooooo much... why do we drift???
Dont ever lose the passion sweets... because if you do... you'll get lost amongst the evil in this world!!!!
take care and Love God with all ur heart... cos he does!!
p.s hope i understood the question right!!! hehe
Go to [glow=red,2,300]church[/glow] and [glow=red,2,300]pray[/glow] vbefore u go to slee/p
Read [glow=red,2,300]saints miracles[/glow]
Just pray and everything will vbe okay
S33 ,..u got the question right!!
but here is the thing...
although i still go sunday skool and church.. I HAVE LOST THE PASSION..and therefore DRIFTINGGGGGGGGGG
:-\
butttttttttttt let me tell you this.... u need to pray for that desire!!!! I dont mean just at night or in the mornings i mean all day everyday look up to the sky during ur day and ask God to return the desire in ur heart!!
have u gone through t D33??
the thing is i just kept saying to myself how much it's hurting my Lord and God by being distant from him... and because i was still serving i knew i was being a hypocrite and i HATED the thought of it!!!
yes i will constantly keep reminding myself of the pain and suffering i am causing him..
anyone else..had experiences or tips :S
FROM BOOK
RETURN TO GOD
BY
H. H. POPE SHENOUDA III
You can read it online..
http://tasbeha.org/content/hh_books/Rtrntgod/index.html
Prayer Is The Means Of Returning
Pour out your heart before God and say to Him: 'O Lord, I
want you. I want to come back to you. Please rescue me from
my state and draw me back to you once again.
Without you I am nothing. When I lost you, I lost my life.
I lost my happiness and delight. My life became without any
meaning or interest. I want to come back to you, O Lord, but
"those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved " (Ps. 13:5). "
Many are they who say of me, "There is no help for him in
God."". (Ps. 3:2).
I lost my strength when I went far away from you. Give me
some of your strength. Please give me the divine assistance to
help me to return to you.
Cast yourself before the Lord and wrestle with Him and say to
Him: 'I shall not get up from here unless I have received
your special blessing and feel that you have taken me back
and count me among your children. I do not just want you
to forgive my sin, I want you to remove from my heart any
love of sin, once and for all. I cannot come back to you, if
there is any love of sin in my heart. What should I do? Should
I wait till the desire to sin has gone from my heart and then
return to You? Yet it is only by You that I can be saved from it!
58
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I come to you with my sin, just as I am. You are the one
who can take it from me.
If it were within my power to abandon the love of sin, I
would have returned to you long ago. Save me from it, so
that you can lead me in the procession of your victory.
Take any desire to sin from my heart and remove any
domination which sin might have over my will. "Purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow" . (Ps. 51:7).
Just as you have given me the instruction to return, O Lord,
give me the strength to carry it out.
Believe me, my friends, the person whose prayers are
successful is the person whose repentance is sincere.
St. Isaac The Syrian was right when he said, "Anyone who
imagines that there is another way to repentance besides prayer,
is deceived by the devils". Thus by prayer, you gain the
strength with which to return to God. So force yourself to
pray, rather than to engage in any other spiritual activity. In
your prayers, wrestle with God, struggle with Him and talk to
Him, even when you are still in the state of sin from which you
wish to be saved.
Be determined in your prayers, that you will get from God
the strength to return to Him.
59
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some people imagine that when they pray they are giving ...
giving God words, time and feelings. But at its deepest, prayer
is a process of taking, during which you feel that you have
gained from God spiritual delight, blessing, strength, help and
holiness in life. In fact, just for you to have made a connection
with Him during your time of prayer, is enough to bring this
into effect.
God is ready to listen to your prayer and to give, but the
problem is this: that many people, in their prayers, do not
wait until they have received..!
For example, someone might say a few words in prayer, become
bored quickly, or fed up with praying any longer and so he
leaves it without having gained anything..! God looks upon such
a person and wonders, how he could have gone off so quickly
without waiting to receive even a promise or some comfort.
So hold fast to God, and say to Him, "I shall not leave
you... I shall not let you go, until I feel that you have
accepted me and taken me back into your love."
Prayer requires patience. It requires a struggle with God, in
which you must prove that you are serious in what you ask.
You must show that you are serious in your prayer of
repentance and in your request for help to return to Him, so that
when God answers your prayer and gives you strength, you will
use it well and not waste it.
60
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Talk to God in a very personal way in your prayers and ask
Him: Do the weak fail to reach your kingdom, O Lord? Here I
am, see how weak I am and how incapable of getting there with
my human strength! Hold my hand and do not leave me to my
weakness. Cleanse me and purify me, as you have cleansed and
purified others. Didn't you say, "Ask and it will be given to
you"? (Matt. 7:7) Here I am asking and didn't you say, ".. my
Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.. "? here I
am making my request.
O Lord, I shall hold on to all your promises and ask you for
them. At least I shall hold on to your words. "I will give you
a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the
heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
"I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My
statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them".
(Eze. 36:26-7).
Dear Lord, in my case, where are these promises?
Here I am standing here, holding on to the horns of the
alter. I am not one of those who pray for a couple of minutes
and then leave. I take my stand and wait here for You, O Lord.
I shall not abandon my prayer until I can leave it, feeling that I
have had your grace bestowed on me for my repentance and
until you have taken me back to you.
Nevertheless, dear Lord, please forgive my boldness, for I am
only a child of yours and have just gone astray. Please treat me
as a young son who knows nothing, while You, as a
61
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
compassionate father know how to give your children good
gifts. (Matt. 7:11).
Keep striving with God, as you would with a close loved
one, with persistence, with humility, with perseverance,
with tears and by talking to him and by whatever means
you can, until you receive.
Trust that by such a struggle, you will receive comfort and
enthusiasm, from your prayers or during your prayers and that
you will feel that your state of separation from God is over once
and for all. You will feel, too, that you have not just been
repeating empty words in vain, like the unbelievers, but that you
have been pouring out your whole soul before God, as did
Hannah, the mother of Samuel.
Hannah prayed very hard and wept very bitterly and made very
strong vows and did not leave the temple until she had received
a promise that the Lord would give her the desire of her heart.
(1 Sa. 1:15-17).
Let it be the same for you. Do not leave your prayers,
unless you have formed a new relationship with God and
have returned to Him.
After such prayer as this, it would be highly unlikely that you
would abandon your praying and go off and sin against God!
You would certainly feel ashamed of your prayers and of having
told God, that you would never leave Him.
62
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is how prayer teaches repentance and leads the person
back to God and to His love.
But perhaps you might say: "I don't feel like praying at
all."
My advice to you, then, is to pray just as you are and say to
God, "Forgive me, dear Lord, if I pray without enthusiasm, but
I pray out of the emptiness which is in my heart. It is you who
gives me enthusiasm and warmth. It is you who pours your
heavenly fire into my heart. Accept my prayers as they are,
with all their faults. Things never start off perfect, for
perfection only comes from you.
I am praying, even though it is without any spirit! I believe
that you will give me of your Spirit. I would be mistaken if I
said to you, O Lord, that with my human strength and
willpower I could change into a spiritual person. There is no
way that I could do that, for it is only by Your strength, Your
blessing and grace and by Your Holy Spirit, that I could ever
take on the image which You want me to have. It is only
through Your guidance alone, with You holding my hand,
leading me step by step, as You would lead a little child who is
just learning to walk, that it can happen."
This is how I want you to pray and to receive from the Lord.
Listen, during your prayer, for the voice of God, speaking
in your heart. As David said in his Psalm, "I will hear what
God the LORD will speak, For He will speak peace To His
63
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
people and to His saints; But let them not turn back to folly"
(Ps. 85:8).
David began the Psalm with a request, then after feeling God's
response, he ended the Psalm in thanks. He said: " O LORD,
do not rebuke me in Your anger, Nor chasten me in Your hot
displeasure " And at the end of the Psalm he says: " Depart
from me, all you workers of iniquity; For the LORD has heard
the voice of my weeping. The LORD has heard my
supplication; The LORD will receive my prayer "
(Ps. 6: 1&8-9).
This is the sort of prayer which indicates that you feel that
the barrier which has been between you and God has
disappeared. You feel as if the angels are climbing the steps to
heaven with your prayers and bringing back down to you what
you have requested. (Ge. 28:12).
You feel as if God's hand is stretching out to wipe every tear
from your eyes and as if the prayer of the Prophet David, in his
great Psalm, is being brought into a reality within you. " Let my
supplication come before you". (Ps. 119:170). You feel, as if
one of the twenty four priests has taken your prayer and placed
it in a golden brazier and raised it as purifying incense to the
throne of God. (Rev. 5:8).
You feel as if one of the Seraphim has taken a burning coal
from the altar and touched your lips with it and has said to
you: "Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged ".
(Is. 6:7).
64
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Truly, I say to you, by such prayers you can return to God. Let
us cry aloud to Him, saying: " Restore us, O God of our
salvation," (Ps. 85:4) and "Restore
our fortunes, O Lord, like streams in the South." Then our
mouth was filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing ...
" and we will say, The LORD has done great things for us, And
we are glad '" (Ps. 126:2-4).
The Life of Repentance
and Purity
BY
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III
http://tasbeha.org/content/hh_books/Repentan/index.html
Maybe you should buy it..
God help you sister!
Perhaps I may be drifting too.. I need to pray more with understanding..
One thing that happens when you drift away, (and it happened to me) is you will start falling into temptation much much easier. If you love God with a passion, it is much harder for the devil to let you fall into temptation. But If the devil first takes away your desire to love God, you become much weeker and this makes the devils job so much easier, you fall into temptation so much easier.
Stay close to God, Pray, Remember that God almighty who sits on the throne of heaven and is worshipped by all the holy powers, loves YOU.
becuase i said to myself that i will get there eslowly and gradually..
nomatter hoew long it takes..the only thing is that i improve..never GET WORSE...
However, if that's not the case ...then you just have to focus on the passion of Christ! that always gets to me...when i remember what he went through for me... ??? why an Almight God would humble himself to this unutterable and lowly state to save meee...alwways think of your relationship with God on a personal level. In the beginning you might feel obligated to pray/ go to the mass/ do agpeya prayers...but you just have to contemplate on the words ...they're beautifullllll....and in due time you'll feel God's presence in your life, and your relationship will be restored once again.
does that work...
its funny, coz we just had examz and in that time my relationship with God was strengthenned, i felt Him working in my life and it was AMAZING.. you can guess hwat hapenned when my examz were over.
& as soon as we dont need Him to help us, it's like we never knew Him.. it's like we were never close to Him, like we never felt Him touch our heart. && if we let ourselves get away with things like skipping prayer or Bible reading, then we begin to forget what it was like to be loved, what it was like to be close. But theres always the day when we wake up to ourselves and realise what we've done. that's Him bringing us back.
'Why', you've already taken the first step, dont get caught up there.. keep going, yur capable of much more than you know. && dont let yourself forgett that your aim is eternal life. if you find it overwhelming, try escape from your own life and look at the bigger picture, its only temporary.. try surround yourself with the right people & the right environment.. YUR FRIENDS HAVE A HUGE INFLUENCE ON YOU SO MAKE SURE YOU"RE HANGING OUT WITH THE RIGHT ONES!
dont worry...
my friends...they are beautiful... although their influence is debatable i know thaey have made me a better person from inside..
dont worry people..
i have descised to wake up to myself...LIKE BADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD...
But i know its gonna take time..ALOTTTT of time..and i want to do it GRADUALLYYYYY...like seriously slow..
but i will update u on my progress and make a ANNOUNCMENT..when im there...HOPEFULLY IF I GET THERE!!
and hizz_chilld---------> WITH THE HELLP OF MY BEAUTIFUL FRIENDS!!!!!
i second everything she said!