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1) If I get a terrible thought in my head involving bad behavior, is that sin? No, it is merely temptation. To reduce the amounts of tempting thoughts, begin to saturate your mind with positive stimuli. We rent tapes and books for that reason. Also deal with any lingering anger, jealousy, fears and other self-defeating attitudes in your life. 2) If God is so powerful and loving, why does He allow such disasters like 911 to take place? God has made it such that we have a free will. We can either choose to do right or we can choose to do wrong. His ultimate goal is for you to become His friend, but that is a choice you must make. If He didn't create us with our own wills, we would merely be robots doing only those things we were programmed to do, with no emotion attached to it. 3) If God wants to heal us, why is it that so many people die? As stated on the main page, God has ordained it that we come to him in faith. Most people don't know how faith operates and they pay the consequences for that. To learn Bible faith, you must go to where it is being taught. You can go to a church in your area that teaches faith (approx. 5% of the churches in any given areas teach Bible faith concepts). Or you can listen to teaching on the radio or watch it on TV. You can also rent teaching tapes from this website for the purpose of learning and developing your faith. 4) If my spouse abuses me, should I just stay in the relationship believing that it will get better? Each case must be dealt with on an individual basis, but basically you should never stay in an environment that is hurtful to you physically or emotionally. By staying in that environment, you are sending a message to the perpetrator of the pain that it is ok to keep doing what they are doing. The same thing can be applied to adolescent or adult aged children. If they are causing you needless emotional or physical suffering, take steps toward finding them alternate living accommodations. 5) What is the biggest deciding factor of whether or not somebody has strong faith? To me, the biggest deciding factor of a person with authentic Bible faith is peace. When you have peace you have greater control of your actions and thoughts, which lessens the possibility of you believing and saying one thing, but doing something else. It is important to patiently believe the right thing, say the right things and continue doing the right things, until the desired answer to your prayers come to pass. 6) Will God forgive me if I attempted suicide? Absolutely. Many people in the Bible wished death upon themselves, but God got them through. Attempting suicide is especially forgivable because unlike most other sin that is voluntary, the act of suicide is in many instances involuntary. When a person reaches such depths of despair, the automatic response becomes suicide. Again, I will reiterate that God knows that the world we live in is a difficult place to be, and so He offers grace to many who find themselves contemplating suicide. If you have attempted to take your own life, do not despair. Decide today that from now on you are going to give your life to Jesus. And you do that by giving yourself completely to reading and obeying God's holy Word, the Bible. Do that, and watch the difference it makes! 7) If I pray to God to ask Him to take away my negative thoughts, will He? Yes and No. Occasionally, God will do a supernatural work of emotional healing, but for the most part He expects us to use His Word to renew our minds as stated in Romans 12:2. The latter is even better, in that, if you were healed supernaturally the first time, and depression came on you again, you wouldn't know what to do about it and you would be in limbo waiting for God to heal you supernaturally again. But if you attained wellness on your own using God's Word, you could heal yourself again, at any time. Basically, your mind is like a garden, and God expects you to tend to it each day so that the good plants are free to bloom beautifully and fruitfully. 2 Cor.10:5b says, We take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. It is we who round up all those unhealthy negative thoughts and throw them out, by replacing them with Bible quotes. It is your job to monitor what thoughts come in your mind and to judge them as either being good thoughts or harmful thoughts. To get rid of harmful thoughts, you must boldly assess what the thoughts are telling you, and then confront them with the truth, and then you keep meditating on the truth until the truth feels more true than the lie you were believing. For example: "I feel like a failure. I must be a failure." Now you search for verses in the Bible that prove this statement wrong. Using Joshua 1:8 which says, Do not let the book of the Law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful., You now can say to yourself, "I am not a failure. I keep the Word of God in my heart and speaking through my lips continually, and by doing this I am finding success." The Bible is packed with good verses to be used to change the way you think and believe. Keep on using God's Word until your mind is renewed (Rom. 12:2b), and you have total peace. For more verses to meditate on, see the bottom of the How Do I Conquer Fear page. If you have a question that you would like answered, please click on the link below.
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