New Faith

Holly J · Post by **Holly J** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 11:54 am

I have recently decided to let God into my life. I bought my very first Bible and I am reading it and i really enjoy it. I have recently had a relapse. My depression and anxiety are coming back like how i used to be. I am on anti depressants but was thinking that I may need to up my dose. But I am curious. . . Has anyone's faith In God and prayers helped you tremendously with their anxiety and depression? I want to get baptized soon and I am hoping that my new faith will help me overcome this war in my head and wondering if i could hear some positive stories about your faith helping traumatizing situations. Thank you!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 12:18 pm

Hi Holly!
Gee, I'm so proud of you!!! I think this will help you a lot.
It may not help in ways that you imagine. But God's ways are often myeterious. (to us).
Yes, I will share some spiritual experience with you.
First of all , let me say that I went to Sunday School as a child.
But the home I grew up in was somewhat dysfunctional so I REALLY DIDN'T KNOW that God would or could help me. I know that doesn't make much sense. But somehow I didn't know that.
I had heard God preached about.
I kind of pictured God as a fierce ole man in the sky who was just waiting to zap me. I mean to say that I knew that I wasn't "good". I didn't understand about love, really , when I was a kid. Because the emotion that I most frequently witnessed was anger. I did love my family. All my siblings and parents. But in no way could I express it. But that probably isn't part of my story.

I became an alcolholic. Although I didn't believe in 'drinking'. I was an alcoholic for years. I didn't want to be. But it gave relief from (for a time) from depression and
anxiety.
So time went on and I found AA.
And I was introduced to a new kind of God. This was a God of love.
Who could and would if sought restore me to sanity.
It didn't happen overnight. But in some time I could quit drinking. And it helped a lot to have a real faith. But that, too , was a process for me , just like the program. A little at a time I became less fearful. It happens faster for some people. I got put on antidepressants for my depression which was my promary problem.
I'm still learning to trust God . I learn something all the time. I step backwards a lot.
But then I go forward.
The stories on here from people help my faith.
I have more faith now than I did in '07 when I got the program.
Books on faith help.
And hearing from others who have faith helps.

yes, Faith in God has slowed down my anxiety a lot.
I am a believer.
I want to get an even closer walk with Christ.
I know that there is more for me. I sense it.
I am so glad to know people like you!!!

I do think that you will benefit.
I am so happy that years ago I heard about this loving God that wants us to be healthy and happy.
I just wish the very best for you. I am pleased that you are going this route. I don't see how you can lose.
my best to you, Holly.
love,
maryJane

Holly J · Post by **Holly J** » Sat Mar 21, 2009 7:23 pm

Thank you very much Maryjane for sharing that with me. I appreciate it so much!!! I am just beginning my journey with Christ. I am new to this. I used to not believe and now i do. my boyfriend is a non believer and he says that he will never believe and is very weird about me becoming Christian. He was trying to debate with me today. he asked why Christianity and not another religion? I told him that I believe that Jesus died on the cross for us. And I just know it. I know I am not Buddhist, Jewish ect. . . And there is nothing wrong with those religions at all to me. I just kinda know that I am Christian. Does that make sense? Anyway my anxiety and depression have been so terrible lately. I get up and down. I feel hopeful one sec and the next i feel hopeless like this will never go away. I hope God answers my prayers.

Mom of 6 · Post by **Mom of 6** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 12:48 pm

Holly...Welcome to the "family of God"!!!! I am overwhelmed with JOY for you, my friend

The Bible, you will soon discover, is your life instruction manual. Everything that you have and will experience has been carefully written by the MOST HIGH! Every mountain and every valley is documented in this great book! There is and will be a way out of EVERY circumstance as long as we focus our eyes on God! YOU are NOT ALONE! You have the Lord of ALL creation guiding you and watching you, and MOST of all, PROTECTING you! Life will give us joy and heartache, mountains and shadows, BUT we must NEVER give up! The Bible is filled with promises and guarrantees, IF we choose to follow it's message. Faith is to believe in something that is not seen, and Holly you have that by simply stating " I told him that I believe that Jesus died on the cross for us. And I just know it." Holly, take it one day at a time. Jesus KNOWS your heart and he knows what your going through. HE sought you out first! AMEN.. Welcome to your NEW life girl!!! I will pray with you and for you and I will also pray for your dear boyfriend

...This journey is an AWESOME one, Believe me!!!!

Be patient with yourself, as Jesus is patient with us and take it one day at a time!

God bless you
Robin

GOD bless you

Mom of 6 · Post by **Mom of 6** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 12:53 pm

oh and YES!!!!! Anxiety and depression has decreased TREMENDOUSLY since I've given my life to God! I still have ups and downs(currently) BUT I am functioning and I have hope! I look at things differently and I am certainly more optimistic. My thoughts and old habits are changing..all because I surrendered my life to Jesus...I'm letting him "take the wheel".

Congratulations and God bless You

Lawgirl01 · Post by **Lawgirl01** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 1:07 pm

Hi Holly,
I am so glad to here about your new found faith. I've been Catholic all my life, but unfortunately at many times have put God on the back burner. However, I always seem to find myself going back to him, especially in times of trouble. Jesus loves you and will never betray you. Will you have tough times? Yes. Will life be perfect? No. But if you ask for his help, he will always be there with you, helping you through. I thought I would include a poem that I enjoy and comforts me when I'm feeling down. Anyway, congrats and God Bless you.

Footprints

One night I had a dream--
I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord and across the sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints,
one belonged to me and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of my life flashed before me,I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that many times along the path of my life,there was only one set of footprints.

I also noticed that it happened at the very lowestand saddest times in my life.
This really bothered me and I questioned the Lord about it.

"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,you would walk with me all the way,
but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life there is only one set of footprints.

"I don't understand why in times when I needed you most, you should leave me."

The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child,
I love you and I would never, never leave you
during your times of trial and suffering.
"When you saw only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."

Sister Creepy · Post by **Sister Creepy** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 3:30 pm

Hi Holly and welcome! I was reading the post about your b/f not being a religious person and it reminded me of a teaching cd I was listening to by Joyce Meyer.

She was done with her three day teaching and it was time to do the alter call where people go up to be saved. There had been a women and her b/f there at all the teachings and you could tell she was really into it. The b/f on the other hand was not. He heckled her and made fun of her when she wanted to go up and be saved. Finally the woman had had enough. She looked the boyfriend straight in the eye and said to him, "your either going to Heaven with me...or your going to hell by yourself!"

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 6:42 pm

Sister Creepy...That was a great post...I can only imagine how her b/f felt when she replied in that manner...I couldn't help but laugh at her reply...The girlfriend let him know mighty fast, huh???? Good for her...She made a very wise decision...Thanks for sharing this...God Bless

GIL · Post by **GIL** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 1:29 pm

Originally posted by Holly J:
I have recently decided to let God into my life. I bought my very first Bible and I am reading it and i really enjoy it. I have recently had a relapse. My depression and anxiety are coming back like how i used to be. I am on anti depressants but was thinking that I may need to up my dose. But I am curious. . . Has anyone's faith In God and prayers helped you tremendously with their anxiety and depression? I want to get baptized soon and I am hoping that my new faith will help me overcome this war in my head and wondering if i could hear some positive stories about your faith helping traumatizing situations. Thank you!

Hi Holly J,

I was so delighted to hear of your decision to follow Jesus and be baptized. I'm sorry to hear about your relapse, but no matter what happens to you in this world, if you have Jesus, you have everything. God does not always stop the storms in our life, but He is there watching over us and riding through the storms with us. I believe that your new found faith will help you overcome things that you are not even aware of right now and that this war in your head, as you state it, could even be a catalyst to doing so. Your post has me reminiscing about the time I bought my first Bible and how a short time later I was baptized. By the way, If you do not already know it, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."--Rom 10:17. If we want to grow and become stronger in faith we need to continuously read, study, and meditate on the Word of God.

I would like to share a quote that a friend of mine shared with me some years back.
"Keep your wants, your joys, your sorrows, your cares, and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; you cannot weary Him. He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children. "The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." James 5:11. His heart of love is touched by our sorrows and even by our utterances of them. Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe. Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel. No calamity can befall the least of His children, no anxiety harass the soul, no joy cheer, no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest. "He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." Psalm 147:3. The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share His watchcare, not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son."

In reference to your asking about some positive stories about faith, I'll will copy and paste something that I had written a few years back. I will call it "My Anchor."

I believe the environment in which one is born and raised can have a great influence on the type of person one grows up to be. But, regardless of the advantages or disadvantages that your environment may have brought your way, if you simply go through a routine of living the best you know how and do not have a clue as to why you are living and who you really are, things can grow to be rather empty. No doubt, as I was growing up, my attention and well-being was occupied by a naïve, childlike wonderment of the immediate world around me.

I was born and raised in the large city environment of Detroit. I did not grow up with any kind of religious background, but I had parents that were strict and they kept a close eye on my four brothers and me. I can be thankful that I made it through without getting involved with the gangs, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and brawling in the streets, etc. I am, however, saddened to say that at the age of 19, when I was in the Army, I started to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes. You see, I no longer had that childlike wonderment that kept me distracted from the real issues of life. I was on my own and the impact of who I was and what this world was really all about began to weigh heavy on my mind.

For the next ten years I went running to the oblivion of alcohol. Not having any kind of mental anchor point of which to even start figuring out what this world was all about, I guess I just wanted to somehow escape from it all. It may sound silly, but I was probably trying to find out what life was all about by running from it. A big part of my life was spent in bars and night clubs and I can tell you that there’s nothing to be found at the bottom of an empty whiskey glass except more emptiness. There was a popular TV show called “Cheers,” which centered around the bar scene. It had a theme song that talked about a place to go where everybody knows your name and how everybody is glad you came. I can relate to that, but the sad reality of it all is that it’s just a bunch of people trying to escape their miserable lost condition. The TV program doesn’t depict the real world of alcohol and the death and destruction it brings to people.

I finally got to the end of my rope and was not interested in hanging on any longer. I would often entertain the thought of killing myself (Like I wasn’t already doing it with the alcohol and cigarettes for the past ten years). I was no longer cautious about being arrested for things like driving under the influence. My behavior was becoming more bizarre while under the influence of alcohol. I just didn’t care about anything anymore. I never used to like going to sleep because I reasoned that I would just wake back up again.

As a Naval Aviation Electronics Technician, I was working on an aircraft one day with a co-worker named D. J. He had known about the “hot water” I was in because of my drinking. Things were pretty quiet between us and then he simply said that he had a friend named Jesus that could help. It was at that point that I started to realize that maybe there really was a God and I became interested in what the Bible was all about. Shortly after this I ended up going through the Navy’s six week “in-house” alcohol rehabilitation center. Everyone was assigned to a group with a counselor in charge. The main thrust of the group sessions seemed to be based on the idea of you being out in the middle of the ocean on a boat that had a rock on board. If you didn’t get rid of the rock the boat was going to sink and you would drown. The idea was for you to discover what your rock was and to get rid of it. Your rock, of course, was some major thing in your life that you needed to deal with and get rid of. When the six weeks were up and it was time to graduate I still had not discovered what my rock was and the counselor told me, point blank, (for what ever reason), that she didn’t think that I was going to make it. In other words, I was destined to end up in the gutter, prison, or dead because of my drinking. But, as I look back, I can be thankful that I did end up finding my rock and it was a solid rock. It was, however, not a rock that I would want to throw overboard in the boat of life--that rock being Christ Jesus. The Bible mentions God as being a rock because He is a fortress, a stronghold. I discovered Jesus to be that anchor that I didn’t have before. Jesus was my answer to what life was all about. The Bible speaks of Jesus as being the way, the truth, and the life.

As I had started to realize that Jesus was a friend that could help, I started to have special moments of seeing rays of hope shining through. I had become aware of the darkness that I had been living in. Even the things of nature looked and sounded different now. Things were bright and alive. To discover God meant that I had to discover that I was a sinner. I had to come to grips with the cross of Calvary where Christ died so that I might live. This is love in the purest sense. The Bible says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” I can recall the time when I was at a bar, soaking my brain in alcohol as usual, contemplating what this world was all about. I was thinking about what would be the greatest or most powerful thing in the world. I thought about people, with their position of power, money, military strengths, and nuclear power, etc. After the mental dust of all my thinking had settled it occurred to me that love had to be the greatest, most powerful, thing. Even though I couldn’t put my thumb on the definition of love, I somehow reasoned that this had to be true. I was quite elated to discover, later on, that the Bible comes right out and says, “God is love.” It was this power of love that was able to take upon all the sins of the world. At the crucifixion the people shouted, “If you are the Son of God come down from the cross and save yourself.” But love says I can’t do that. Love is totally absent of anything selfish. The nails were not holding Christ to the cross, He was holding the nails. Jesus loved us too much to come down from the cross. It was the power of love that took our sins and buried them in Christ’s death and it was the same power of love that couldn’t keep Christ buried in the tomb. This is why in Christ we can die and be raised up anew.

I’m glad to say that it has been over 22 years since I had a drink or smoked a cigarette. But, it’s about more than just having victory over some addiction or bad habit, it’s about an on going and growing relationship with God. It's not about just looking back to some point in time when you were baptized, but it's as the apostle Paul said, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."--Phil 3:14. The storms in life may be many and I may have to continue to throw unneeded baggage overboard in the boat of life, but I’m going to make it through by hanging on to my Rock and knowing that I have my sure anchor in Christ Jesus.

May the Lord richly bless you on your new journey with Him.

Mom of 6 · Post by **Mom of 6** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 3:25 pm

Gil, thank you so much for your post. It'a amazing how one post can affect so many others! Your story is similar to mine. It touched me deeply. God is good, isn't he? I've posted my favorite song on this forums a number of times and it is "I will praise you in this storm"(Casting Crowns" and that I DO! He is my ROCK, my SALVATION, my BEST FRIEND!!!!
God bless you, my friend

Blessings~
Robin