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  • boys, girls being a young youth i am most fimiliar with the feelings which u are describing and the only thing i can say is that the bible teches us, that all things can be overcome by pray & fasting.
    if u can move mountains with it, im sure this can be overcome,
    i know it can be...
  • Hi guys I'm actually new here and just wanted 2 say that ur forums are amazing!!


    [quote author=G.J.I
    link=board=1;threadid=295;start=30#msg2610 date=1085662211]
    all things can be overcome by pray & fasting.
    if u can move mountains with it, im sure this can be overcome,
    i know it can be...

    look i agree wiv u, but it may seem impossible at times, I have been through these things myself, and have ended up hurt, and prayer and fasting didnt help me overcome it in the first place, so how can someone overcome it with prayer and fasting before its too late?

  • i gotta say something. around a year ago during the summer i began to go to church a lot, and i got really REALLY close to God, to the point that in my prayers, when i asked him for ANYTHING it was given to me. then there was a problem that i had that i decided that if i fast for 3 days and pray it would help, and i decided to do that. by the third day i felt the devil fighting me sooooo much. i fell into soo many sins. What did i do wrong? I fasted and prayed, and the temptation got soo hard, that i couldn't take it. I feel that this is because i fasted. Is there any advice on fasting or and guidance or "manual" that should go with it?
  • acutally Paul the closer you think you got to God the more the devil will fight you. Sounds strange doesn't it!!
    well here is what i think is going on. First of all the devil can't tempt or test or do anything without God's permission (A few different priests and speakers said that and a perfect example is of Soliman in the old testemant) so the closer you get to God the harder the devil will fight you, why you ask? because God gave them a permission to do that so you would get closer and closer to Him and that you would know that you are not strong because of your own strength but strong because of His strength. To prove this point more there is one of the saints whose name escape my mind right now who was praying one night and armies and armies of devils showed up to him so he asked them why are you all here to fight me because i am weaker than the smallest one of you. The saint knew that he had no strength and the strength is from God, he was also humble in heart to know that he is not strong
    Hope that helped and if anyone know the saint's name please let us all know it
  • Paul, you prosper in the Spirit through getting closer to God and getting closer to God is sometimes fighting and battling sin, think of it as a school, the further u get the harder the subjects and tests will be but in the end you will graduate and you will be happy, because the prize is worth the cost, my friend! Hope this helps!


    Defender
  • i understand exactly what u guys mean, and thanks.

    God bless,
  • Giji its neva too late,
    ask God for strength,
    think of all the ascetic monks who u can read about in the "paradise of the monks" who have fought against lust, and desires for 12 or so years, but they over come it, it may feel like it doesnt work, but if u open up ur heart to it, and mean wat u say in ur prays theres no way it wont work,
    the devil is a tricky little devil, hes very clever he can make us believe that were doing all we can, but were not, he can make us love the sin so much, that it makes it even harder to repent, but its never to late to repent.
    another methood of overcome these feelins, is very powerful, and i suprised i forgot to mention it,
    prostrations (mataneeyas)
    im sure any priest would recomend it.
  • Sorry to get back into this, but one more question. I never really understood the meaning of the Prostrations. I know its a sign of repentance and change, but how is it supposed to affect you spiritually?
  • I'm wondering about that ???

    Could some1 help??


    Defender
  • [quote author=Paulh link=board=1;threadid=295;start=30#msg2621 date=1085688707]
    i gotta say something. around a year ago during the summer i began to go to church a lot, and i got really REALLY close to God, to the point that in my prayers, when i asked him for ANYTHING it was given to me. then there was a problem that i had that i decided that if i fast for 3 days and pray it would help, and i decided to do that. by the third day i felt the devil fighting me sooooo much. i fell into soo many sins. What did i do wrong? I fasted and prayed, and the temptation got soo hard, that i couldn't take it. I feel that this is because i fasted. Is there any advice on fasting or and guidance or "manual" that should go with it?


    [quote author=wfhanna1 link=board=1;threadid=295;start=30#msg2626 date=1085695547]acutally Paul the closer you think you got to God the more the devil will fight you. Sounds strange doesn't it!!
    well here is what i think is going on. First of all the devil can't tempt or test or do anything without God's permission (A few different priests and speakers said that and a perfect example is of Soliman in the old testemant) so the closer you get to God the harder the devil will fight you, why you ask? because God gave them a permission to do that so you would get closer and closer to Him and that you would know that you are not strong because of your own strength but strong because of His strength. To prove this point more there is one of the saints whose name escape my mind right now who was praying one night and armies and armies of devils showed up to him so he asked them why are you all here to fight me because i am weaker than the smallest one of you. The saint knew that he had no strength and the strength is from God, he was also humble in heart to know that he is not strong
    Hope that helped and if anyone know the saint's name please let us all know it

    Hi all,

    I think this assesment is fine as an overall view of spirituality but it isn't as a applicable in Paul's case. What you have to realise Paul is that when we start to seek God we find the road is very easy and the sometimes we find it to be too easy and this is dangerous because it gives us room to over-estimate how spiritual we really are. In the event of this God allows the devil to come and tempt us very severly so that we start to fall and realise our weakness and that we aren't as holy as we think we are. This is a common thing that happens to all of us for a few reasons, an example is from the life of moses the black. Remember the story where he visited his confession father 11 times in one night? This what when he experienced what you have experienced. It teaches us how weak we are and it comes back to the two vitures I was speaking about submission and patience.

    One of the fathers in the philokalia writes that God allows the devil to tempt us in the begining so that we realise how weak we are and we learn to run to Him whenever we get in trouble. An important part in this is also learning HOW to run to Him, that is submission.

    St. Anthony also said that God in the begining God will come with a person and offer an incredible amount of grace to that individual so everything is easy. The God will depart to see how that person handles it, if they fight alone or seek Him.

    One of the very deceptive things is we think we are so submissive but when we analyse our thoughts we learn that we are not submissive at all!

    All I can say is read the book I posted earlier or if you want information ask me specific questions, I'm not very good at outlining issues.

    God bless you all,

    CS
  • [quote author=Paulh link=board=1;threadid=295;start=30#msg2655 date=1085710736]
    Sorry to get back into this, but one more question. I never really understood the meaning of the Prostrations. I know its a sign of repentance and change, but how is it supposed to affect you spiritually?


    Again (for a third time) this is an act of submission. :)

    You are bowing before God in repentance and laying down your own will and stating to God your weakness and sinfulness and need for Him to come and heal us. Its part of our loving submission we offer Him, seeking to be reconciled with Him. A prostration should emotionally involve a mixture of sorrow and thankfulness, this is a sign of perfected repentance.

    It is also an aknowledgement of humilty that we are showing Him how we believe that all good that is in us comes from Him alone.

    God bless,

    CS
  • Hey guys!
    One of our priest used to say if you think that the relationship between you and the person will soon exceed a friendship (and of course it is the wrong time or isnt the right person person) then you should try to think of the negative characteristics that person possesses and think of all the reasons he/she isn’t someone you want to be emotionally envolved with!

    PLEASE don’t ever do that to anyone unless lol absolutely necessary!
  • hey guys i have a question... i thought this disuccion was about not occupying ourselves with other (guys/girls) more than God... howd we get to resisting the devil n stuff?.... anywayy i have another question for anyone who can answer it.... should the person know that you ahve feeligns fo rthem or should you leave it unsaid and continue being normal friends?
  • well first of all when you have feelings for a person it is really hard to act as a normal friend because you will care for that person more than your other friends either you like or not. Second i don't know how old you are (and you don't have to tell me) but if you think you are old enough and ready enough to start a realtionship that will end up with marriage than yes tell that person how you feel.
  • But why is it impossible to start a relationship with a person and then protect it till the right age?? I've heard of people youst's age that liked someone and continued to like thme without sinning (touching) and got married in the end...

    defender
  • if you think or know that you are strong enough with the help of God to protect yourself from sinning for the x amount of years than by all means go for it. But keep it under the supervision of somebody, because not always what you think is right is right.
  • Yes but I could be friends with someone that likes me and I like thme yet stay away from dating or touching but only hanging out together until the time comes when we can start dating, get engaged and even get married...


    Defender
  • well what were you thinking of doing in dating beside hanging out and talking without touching. I guess it again comes down to you defintion of dating if you have one. does dating to you means sitting in mcdonalds and eating and talking (without touching) or does dating mean to you sitting in a very fansay restuarant isolated from everyone and doing whatever you want.

    It goes back to you and your own judgement on how to handle things.
  • [quote author=youst718 link=board=1;threadid=295;start=30#msg2690 date=1085774577]hey guys i have a question... i thought this disuccion was about not occupying ourselves with other (guys/girls) more than God... howd we get to resisting the devil n stuff?.... anywayy i have another question for anyone who can answer it.... should the person know that you ahve feeligns fo rthem or should you leave it unsaid and continue being normal friends?

    Hi Youstina,

    Unfortunatly resisting the devil and not thinking about boys is really the same thing. Part of having a relationship of love with God is having a relationship with others. You need to learn what sorts of thoughts these are. Are you in control of these thoughts? Are they in control of you? If they control you it is a battle with the devil and I have to harp on submission once more (sorry). :)

    My advice is to look at the situation and see if you are in control, if the thoughts dominate you and start to move you in ways you don't like then it is important you tell God this. You should just try to be normal friends, this is very good. Say to God that you want to be their friend but your finding it hard because of the throughts and trust that He will fix it. If things get worse then we know that we have to submit further and learn more about how very weak we are without God's help.

    I would advise you that you don't tell the person you have feelings for! In this situation you don't know how they will react because you are trusting some very personal information and making yourself very vulnerable around them. They might use this to take advantage of the feelings you have! I would advise your confession father of these feelings, I know its hard but he can give you good advice and when we do it we put the problem before God and its okay, you don't usually mention names.

    Basically to fix problems like this or any problem we need to know that we have to put in a submissive effort and in the end God will bless the work and make it sucessful. :)

    God loves us and intententionally exposes us to feelings like this so we know our weaknesses and so that we learn to run to Him when we get in trouble so He can heal us and help us. The other thing I want to point out is that these thoughts or feelings aren't coming from the real you, they're coming from Satan and we have to fight them so that we can think God's thoughts the thoughts that Jesus Himself thought. Be very careful, if you don't resist these thoughts then they will become part of you and they'll much harder to get rid of but don't worry Jesus is much stronger than any problem we have and His death on the cross is His guarentee of unconditional love for any sin both in its forgivness and healing.

    God bless you,

    CS
  • [quote author=CopticSoldier link=board=1;threadid=295;start=45#msg2728 date=1085789558]
    The other thing I want to point out is that these thoughts or feelings aren't coming from the real you, they're coming from Satan and we have to fight them
    I disagree with you CS on that point because feelings do come from God. They are not alawys from satan because if all feelings are from satan than love to your family and friends are from satan and feelings to you future wife or husband are from satan too??
  • Obviously feelings are given to us from god. However these feeling of lust and thoughts that cause a person to constantly occupy your mind are not feelings from god. if you are in church, a place where you should be praying to god, and your mind is occupied with strong feelings of a person; THESE feelings are from Satan because they are causing a gap between you and god.
  • [quote author=wfhanna1 link=board=1;threadid=295;start=45#msg2729 date=1085790741][quote author=CopticSoldier link=board=1;threadid=295;start=45#msg2728 date=1085789558]The other thing I want to point out is that these thoughts or feelings aren't coming from the real you, they're coming from Satan and we have to fight them I disagree with you CS on that point because feelings do come from God. They are not alawys from satan because if all feelings are from satan than love to your family and friends are from satan and feelings to you future wife or husband are from satan too??

    Hi wfhanna1,

    Don't get me wrong I'm saying that these kinds of feelings only come from either the devil or God, lets put what I said in its correct context. Youstina is 13 and thinking a lot about a boy. Does that sound like its from God to you? I'm making a reference to the nature of the thought not the thought itself.

    Lust, hate, love and every emotion has a place in every virtuous Christian but only when put in its correct context. St. Isacc the syria actually says that man can feel no emotion that doesn't come from God. In light of that any feeling which is part of our fallen nature can be wrong if it is part of the malfunctioning of our nature, that is why I said from the devil and not from God.

    God bless you,

    CS
  • thanks for clearing that up CS
  • Mark 12:30

    The First Commandment

    "And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength."

    [HR]

    If any mere thought stops you from loving God with your COMPLETE heart, soul, mind, and strength, then its a sin.
    Remember, you can't have 2 masters. You can't be a servant to a guy/girl and to God. And when i say servant to a guy/girl, i dont mean helping them out when they need you. I mean thinking about them day and night, and practically making them the center of your life. Your pretty much putting them above God. Big sin!! Your directly breaking the first commandment. This is not from God. But like CS said, you have to put everything in its right context. Don't get confused, in NO case are u allowed to put anybody above God. He's supposed to be the center of your life.
  • so basicalllllyyy..
    its okay to have a crush, because we all have hormones, and we've all been through that... but it's not okay to think about them on a constant basis where they take up all ur mind spirit soul and heart...
  • so basicalllllyyy..
    its okay to have a crush, because we all have hormones, and we've all been through that... but it's not okay to think about them on a constant basis where they take up all ur mind spirit soul and heart...

    Hi SMS,

    Thats not really okay, its actually NOT natural either. It is something that is common and happens very easily but its not natural.

    There is no point in killing yourself if it does happen because the devil tempts all of us but if it does happen then we have to be very aware of where a small feeling like this can lead and we need to submit it before God and in confession.

    Every huge sin starts out with just a small voice that seems innocent like this but when it does happen we need to flee to Christ for help.

    You can't blame it on hormones because that means that God designed us with a tendancy to sin. We DO have control over our hormones in Christ who came to renew our nature. Relationships are based on love (a desire to give and share with someone) not a call to lust (a desire to use another for ones pleasure).

    God bless you,

    CS
  • ianother thing u can do, if u have theses feelins or lusts is visualise christ's wounds before u, that aplies to any sin... think of the pain christ went through 4 u, and believe me if u do it right and feel it in ur heart, u will almost neva sin, because u will feel like ur betraying God, hammerin another nail in to him.

    but dont get me wrong, at a time of sin its really hard to pull urself away and visualise this.
  • I think we have been here before. Let me share an experience with you. I had a crush on a girl before ( actuall more than one but that is besides the point). And because I was nieve, I thought, maybe this person can be my future partner, maybe we could work out together, maybe...she is the only one I ever reall like...etc

    Reality my friend is that at this age (teenage that is), yuo will like more than one person and it doesnt come to you are much older and Maturere that you understand what real commitmant is.

    Well you might ask, well how does this help me at this age?

    If you keep what I said above in the back of your mind and not take crushes seriously or too far, then you wil surely grow out of it.
    In the meantime, do not get intrested in one person in particular, but try to look at the opposite sex with the aim of understanding them (one day) and look at how they work ( think relate to others, etc.)
  • u guys, i totally agree with u guys...
    but i just recall being at a convention, and on more than one occasion it was asked to more than one bishop if it was okay to have a 'crush' and the bishop alwayz answered as long as it remained as a 'crush' it was okay because of the whole puberty deal... i hope i dont have to go into detail here lol
    but what the bishop and person mean when they say crush, they know that what they have is immature feelings, and even if we often cant control those feeligns, or have a very hard time controlling them... those of us that call it a crush, know better than to take it to the next step...
    thats just what i learned from the questions and answers sessions of the several bishops that give lectures...
    (well not the only thing... but one of the many lol)
  • Thats cool, it not a good thing but it is something hard to control.

    God bless you,

    CS
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