Blessed Are Those Who Hunger - Tim Conway 

I have a question. Scripture says worrying is a sin. Does that mean that someone with chronic anxiety, several depression, and other mental health disorders,who love God and believe whole heartedly that Jesus Christ is their Savior, God in the flesh,are somehow cast away into hell because they can't turn some magic switch off in their head?

I know Jesus says in Scripture that God can make vessels to honor,and some to dishonor, and to a Christian that cry out to God for mercy that's great news. Till you start to feel like the slop jar because you are under demonic oppression or suffering from unrelenting mental illness. "Whosoever will" starts causing doubt to creep in at that point. Especially lying in bed in mental and psychological pain at every night because your mind constantly feels like it's being torn apart. Peace becomes a rarity. What Scripture can you offer to someone whose crushed for decades under these conditions,all while praying constantly,trying and failing to produce Spiritual Fruit,and looking for an answer? Nobody on this earth will ever convince me Jesus Christ isn't who He claimed to be.

@@louispittman7367 Hi Louis, I'm not sure where you are spiritually, I'll address both comments but I just want to say and clarify again, its not the individual sins that sends people to hell. Unbelievers who struggle with anxiety will not go to hell because of their anxiety, but because they reject the Christ. For believers, we must remember that once we are born again into Christ, we are His children. Surely a Father's best interest is to take care of His children. Once you become His child, I don't see a reason why God would be against us, but Satan loves to make us question His love. Since we are on the topic of anxiety, there is one hymn writer by the name of William Cowper, famous for writing There is A Fountain, a hymn that has been sung in churches for hundreds of years, he spent his life in crippling depression, yet near the end of his life, he produced that hymn. I recommend reading bios about him. I am an anxious and depressed ridden person myself left to my own devices. On some days the anxiety is so great I shut down, I just lie in bed, not wanting to contact anyone, my heart feels sour and I'm on fight or flight mode all the time. But days where I cannot feel God, I cling to His word and what He promised. Many times God would come to me in a way that he would remove the anxiety I have that day, showering me with supernatural joy and peace. Does that mean I don't struggle with anxiety and depression after? Not really, seems like my flesh is good at finding new things to be anxious or depressed about. But because I know I'm a child of God, secure in my identity, I know what privileges I have in me because what He did for me, in my worst days I hold on to Hebrews 4:16 let us boldly come to the throne of grace to find mercy and grace in time of need. Yes I am prone to depression and anxiety, but everyday I know I have been given power and authority to choose to have peace in Christ. This power and authority comes from the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. Thats why if we are His children, why should we act like he never gave us power in the first place? My question to you is: how confident are you in your adoption? Do you know the things he has promised you, and do you believe they are FOR you? Can you say in your heart God is not against you? The devil is good at making us question His love. Being exposed to reformed theology, the devil can try to confuse me by bringing hypercalvinist ideas. IN the past, I would be so anxious thinking if I'm of the elect or not, am I predestined or not, am I really His child? Not anymore, because if I know I believe and received the gospel, I am His child. I am regenerate. The Holy spirit is not a fickle being that comes in and out of a person's heart. He stays. God is a husband to our souls. After being a Christian for many years, I can say number one hindrance in a Christian's peace is, assurance of salvation, assurance of His love. I also recall the story of the paralysed man at the pool of bethsaida. When Jesus asked him if he wanted to be healed, he didn't say yes or no, he gave so many excuses why he can't. I think we can be like that, Jesus is SO ready to heal, but we are so caught up in our own condition, we can't even bring our eyes to LOOK AT Him. He is standing at the door and your eyes choose to be fixed on your circumstances. Isaiah 50:10 says Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on their God. When anxiety and depression make us walk in darkness, we have His name to trust, and His name is like the brightest torch. Psalm 107 says "for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron." Sometimes we put ourselves in the iron bars of unbelief. Ask Him to break it.

@@louispittman7367 I also wanna share something that happened to me. Around 2020 I was dealing with habitual sin that made my heart hardened. Was not hungry for the word, couldn't pray, was anxious and depressed back and forth. He brought me to a state so miserable, I was so done I thought, you know what, I have nothing to lose, I'll open the bible and pray. I still felt nothing, but I know what my sins are. Part of it is lust, but another sin I uncovered was unbelief, which was the root of my anxiety. Isn't it so sinful, when God has promised good things to us, and because of unbelief, we don't believe its FOR US? When he says he is the source of Joy, we say he's not by our actions, when he says he gives peace, we look for it elsewhere, when He said we are redeemed and elect, we say we're not? God led me to read Jeremiah 2 outloud. From feeling nothing and numb, I was instantly hit by an avalanche of conviction, its one of the worst "breaking" I've ever felt. But like a surgeon, God does not dismember but heals, though surgery is painful. Afterwards, I experienced one of the greatest flood of peace I've ever felt in my life. It produced such a contrast in my mental state it was like a switch from night to day. I was victorious over the sin that had plagued me for years like never before. I thought sinned grace away, I thought He was leaving me, I thought He was done with me, I somehow undid my adoption. I thought I stopped caring. In the middle of that pitch black numbness He delivered, despite feeling "fruitless". But even He is a God who gives hope in the midst of fruitlessness. Habbakuk 3:17-18 says 17Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls, 18yet I will exult in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!… Our Father is rich in Mercy. I don't know how you pray, but sometimes we can pray yet our heart is not "open". We pray with a dagger in our heart, we pray with defense. We pray but our eyes are not on Him but on us. We need to pray defenseless, pray like a beggar. Remember where you came from, the cross. A few weeks ago, I was doubting His love, and for 1 week from different sources, from friends, from sermons or books, he gave the same verse Isaiah 43:3 Because you are precious and honored in My sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you and nations in place of your life.… But my darned unbelief, I didn't think that verse was "for me", I was like: really God? Then I said, SHOW ME how I am precious and loved? Immediately he impressed on my mind the image of a bloody cross, a bleeding Jesus with crown of thorns. I wept with conviction that I had questioned the love of my God who spilt DIVINE BLOOD for me. Why should I question my preciousness when it was bought with something so exorbitantly priceless? Then a hymn played in my mind: Blessed Assurance. These lyrics made me weep even more: Heir of salvation purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. He was confirming I was indeed born of His Spirit and washed in His blood. I believe despite your spiritual condition, God is greater than that and His greatness is FOR you. I'll pray for you.

@@a.krishna3924 I love what you wrote so much. Wow been the same with me

Yes, theres a conversation between john piper and tim keller where they talk about this. John Piper goes you can’t “pay your debt” of sin back to God by being “righteous” or through righteous deeds. That is because God himself gives us the power and strength to be righteous in the first place. So the more righteous we are the more “in debt” we become because God is giving us the ability to be righteous in the first place. So the closer we get to Him the more “in debt” to Him we become. And that shows with the closer we get to Him the more we rely on Him and the more we strive for righteousness.

I really hope it's not true that "all you do is sin". The entire chapter of Romans 6 was written to dispell the myth (and OXYMORON) of the "Christian sinner". So was 1st John chapters 3 thru 5. Have you read them?? What do you think of them? If you haven't experienced a 180 transformation in your life then how can you be "born again"?? If Jesus is not indwelling then you're reprobate (according to 2 Corinthians 13:5) and if he IS indwelling through the Holy Spirit then obviously he makes all the difference. "And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (1 Peter 4:18) "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Titus 2:11-12) "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a NEW creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become NEW" (2 Corinthians 5:17) "But God be thanked, that ye WERE the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. For when ye WERE the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness" (Romans 6:17-18, 20) "when we WERE in the flesh" (Romans 7:5), "and such WERE some of you..." (1 Corinthians 6:11), "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Galatians 5:24), "And you hath he quickened, who WERE dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walkED according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all HAD our conversation in TIMES PAST in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and WERE by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Even when we WERE dead in sins" (Ephesians 2:1-3, 5a), "ye who sometimes WERE far off" (Ephesians 2:13), "Be not ye therefore partakers with them, for ye WERE sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:7-8), "Who hath DELIVERED us from the power of darkness" (Colossians 1:13), "And you, that WERE sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled" (Colossians 1:21), "Who was BEFORE a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious" (1 Timothy 1:13a), "For we ourselves also sometimes WERE foolish, disobedient, deceived..." (Titus 3:3), "In which ye also walkED (Colossians 3:7), "who was BEFORE a blasphemer and a persecutor...(1 Timothy 1:13), "FORMER lusts" (1 Peter 1:14), "seeing ye HAVE PURIFIED your souls" (1 Peter 1:22), "For ye WERE as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls" (1 Peter 2:25), "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you OUT OF darkness INTO his marvellous light: Which in time PAST were not a people, but ARE NOW the people of God: which had NOW obtained mercy" (1 Peter 2:9-10), "in time PAST...we walkED in lasciviousness, lusts..." (1 Peter 4:3b), "having ESCAPED the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:4b, 2:20a), "he was PURGED from his old sins" (2 Peter 1:9b)

What do you mean you "can't do them" so you "rely on the grace of God"??? It's a FOOLISH (wo)man who hears Jesus's words and doesn't do them. That's what he says in Matthew 7:26! Grace means POWER. Power to live righteously! Jude warns that grace DOES NOT mean licentiousness (Jude 1:4). "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Titus 2:11-12) And have you ever used Ephesians 3:20 regarding sin?? "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" It sounds like you're in unbelief if you doubt the power of God to enable you to OVERCOME (a much used word in 1st John) sin. Or maybe you're one of those who simply love your sin more than God. [I see you quote no Scripture and are simply relying on your own ideas and feelings].

Hello Andrew, I just checked our church listing page and it seems we have nothing near Aurora illbehonest.com/local-church. The previous link also has links to other church listing pages that you could consider viewing.