I'm 26, single and in a church of about 60.  In 2003 my 2 best friends walked away from God and me and it hurt me bad!  I was mad at God for this and continue to struggle with trusting God and believing that he has my best in mind.  I know what he says but I still struggle.  I have other issues as well with trusting but I wont go into detail.  I was just wondering if any one had any advise or any ideas for great things to study out besides the obvious, trust.

Thanks for your help in advance,   ~Emily

Dear sister,

all my life I've been having problems with trusting people. When I was baptised, these problems I carried to my relationship with God. I prayed - and didn't get answer. I read in the Bible that God will provide for me and didn't see it in my life. My faith has been a struggle.

What helped me - I'm not sure if I can explain it in a small message here - but I'm sure if I want to learn and know God despite all problems I have in my life, He answers. Somehow and some day. I read a book by Philip Yancey called "Disappointment with God". It's mostly based on the book of Job. And this study helped me understand that our life and God are not related in some ways. I mean, if something bad happens to us, it doesn't necessarily mean that God punishes you for something or that He is a cruel God.

And one more thing: do you remember Hebrews 11:17-18 when Abraham sacrificed his son Isaac? And before that God told Abraham that he will have multiple through Isaac and now He tells him to kill his only son. Don't these God's promises contradict each other? They do. But Abraham still believed that what he sees as a contradiction, is not a problem to God or can be something else but contradiction to Him. I realised that if I don't see fulfillment of some of God's promises in the Bible, it doesn't mean that the promise is wrong, or that God lied or that this promise doesn't refer to me. It only means, I believe, that I'm not God and I'm not aware of the whole picture. I'm now learrning to be humble enough to remember this truth: I'm not God and I may not know something.

I hope my experience can be of some help to you. I will gladly have some further talk with you via private messages if you wish or pray that you find your way of having relationship with God.

Thats great, luchik, what you shared about. It helps quite much when to think that there might be things that i dont know or just dont know yet. Because it is so.

When i had hard times with God, i started to look up how God is feeling. I just searched from my bible for scriptures that tell how God is feeling about different situations and marked them. Then i was really amazed about the book Hosea. It describes how unfaithful people are to him. But He wont let us down, He waits that we would cry to Him, not by ourselves in beds. And He will sometimes brake us, but also bind up our wounds. And that He wont give us up, even when sometimes there might be very good reasons for that. He is not a man ) When i got to know more how God is feeling about different things, it gave me more personal relationship with Him.

I know i also still struggle with trust to Him and thoughts what He has for me in life. But its a battle that most go on. Because its worth it. Its worth to battle for love.

Amen, Emily thank you for your openess, its so funny after 13 years in the faith I still think I must be the ONLY one in the kingdom struggling with  quiet/quality/sacred times with GOD and thus my pride makes me the lone ranger and want to hide and not tell anyone. Mark what you said is truly IMpactful, how GOD feels about people who are unfaithful to HIM, yet, how HE shows HIS faithfulness to them in that there is a chance to RETURN to HIM. You guys are great.

With Love,

In HIM,

Adrienne, Charlotte, NC