I have been a Christian for 3 months

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on email
Email
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp
Share on reddit
Reddit
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on email
Share on pinterest
Share on whatsapp

Question:

I have been a Christian for 3 months, and I feel like I want to give up – but I also don’t. It is like depression is outside my door. I believe the Bible, but I keep sinning.

Answer:

There is only one Person that can help you, and that is God. And the good news is, He wants to help you. I’m just not sure that you are allowing Him to help you. You seem to be so fixated on trying to help yourself, and then of course, failing miserably, that you are not giving God a chance to help you. Here is my advice: make sure that you have a few hours, say at least three, free without disturbance. Maybe that means that you have to get up at 3 in the morning. Make sure you are awake, put a pillow next to your bed, and kneel on it. Then, open up your heart to God. Tell Him what you told me, and just let it all out. Talk to Him, shout at Him if it makes you feel better! But get it all out in the open with God. Stay on your knees until God’s peace comes over you, and after that, let God help you and change you, don’t try and do it yourself! It may take a few hours, but when God sees your great need, and that you are serious, He will give you His peace.

Some tips about praying. The first thing to do is to ask God to enclose you with Himself, to be your fortress, so that the devil can’t get in on the conversation. The devil will put thoughts in your mind to try and get you away from God, because up to now he has filled you with negative thoughts, and you have allowed it. But if you ask God to be your wall, floor and roof around you, the devil cannot get to you. Then, just talk to God, until He shows you by His peace coming over you, that He cares. How do I know He will do this? Because I know God, and I know that He loves you as much as He loves Jesus, and He has done it for me.

John 17:23 (NLT)   I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.”

You can stop reading here and first talk to God if you want to. But here is the reason that I know that God will help you. The Bible says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). It doesn’t say God is loving, but that He is what love is. And that doesn’t mean love in the way that TV portrays it. He knows we are sinners, and He still loves us 100%. That is the only way He can love – 100%. God the Father loves us the same as He loves Jesus, and the same goes for Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God cannot love us less if we are disgustingly sinful, and He cannot love you more if you are the best guy on earth. He hates sin, but loves the sinner, unlike us humans. So, relax, God loves you!

But even though God accepts you as you are, He does not want you to stay as you are. He wants to transform you so you can once again be in His image, as He planned for humans to be in the Garden of Eden. We cannot change ourselves, and that is why you have failed. You tried to do it yourself, and that is impossible. Only God can change you, so let Him do it. He wants to!

Romans 12:2   And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Philippians 4:13   I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Philippians 2:13    for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

God is totally focused on each one of us, and not on Himself. Love is unselfish and sees others as more valuable than self. God regards the life of each one of us as worth more than His own, and that is why Jesus came to die on the cross, to pay the penalty for every sin ever committed by every one of us. The Bible says that He took upon Himself our sins, to the extent that He became sin. And the big reason is that He loves us and wants us all to be with Him forever.

Isaiah 53:6   All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.

2 Corinthians 5:21   For He (God the Father) made Him who knew no sin (Jesus) to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

If we can get to the point where we accept, and know, that God is love, everything that you have ever been told about God, must line up with that picture of a loving God. The devil has been so successful in spreading lies about God, that many people have been totally deceived. If there is anything that you have been told that makes you wonder if God really is love, then that is obviously a deception.

Now, most importantly, this amazing God wants to have a personal, close intimate relationship with each one of us. That means that He wants you to get to know Him as a close personal Friend and Father, to open up your hearts to Him completely in prayer, and to listen to Him through His love letter to you, the Bible. As we all should be aware, relationship is all about time and about communication. There is no shortcut, if you want to have this wonder-ful relationship with God, He has to be number one in your life, and you have to make time to talk to Him, and allow Him to talk to you. Make a time every day to meet with Him, and keep it. Preferably, get up when there is no other disturbance, and meet with Him. The Bible says that eternal life is to know God, in the sense of a close personal relationship. The most awful words that anyone could hear, would be Jesus saying, “I don’t know you. Depart from me”.

John 17:3   And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Matthew 7     21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew youdepart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

 

Also, a God of love never forces anyone. He gives each one of us, as He gave to Adam and Eve, the power of free choice. And life is full of choices. God never forces us to choose Him, but He will never forsake us when we do reject Him. God never condemns us for our bad choices, but continues to love us and woo us to Him. The devil, on the other hand, will use lies, deception, force, temptations, etc. to draw us away from God. In the end, God will allow us to receive the result of our choice; if we choose His way, we will receive eternal life, and if we reject His way, we will receive total destruction, forever separated from Him in eternal death.

John 3     16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Hebrews 13:5   ... For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Joshua 24:15   “… choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve  But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

John 10   The thief (devil) does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

Remember, we do not get to heaven by what we know, but Who we know! God paid the price of our salvation, through the death of Jesus on the cross, so we must know Him personally.

Everything else flows from this. If we know that God is love, that He loves us with an ever-lasting love and will never leave us nor forsake us, the basis is laid. How much does He love us? The cross answers that question, and also gives us the gift of salvation through the blood of Jesus. Therefore, it follows that we should start and grow a close personal relationship with Him, which we will continue for eternity. Tell Him that you can’t stop sinning, ask Him for forgiveness, and let Him take care of it. But you have to be dead serious, because God can read your heart. And then watch what happens, as He starts to change you.

God bless as you study this!

Share on:

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on email
Email
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp
Share on reddit
Reddit
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on email
Share on pinterest
Share on whatsapp

John 17:3

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Got a Question?
Ask a Pastor!

Are you wondering what the Bible has to say on a topic? Maybe you are at a crossroads and don’t know which path to take next.

Whether you want to know why there is suffering in this world or you want to learn how to save your marriage. We will do our very best to bring you sound biblical answers. Completely free, just ask away:

Find more answers