For instance, what I'm struggling with is the fact that I've never felt truly loved by anyone. I was with yet. I know exactly what it's like to truly love unconditionally, and not just say it, but show it every day. And in everything I do so that the appreciated every moment and I know that that love has got to feel amazing. It has to feel good to have someone love you that way. And I just want to know with that feeling like that. I wanna be loved the way I love even for just an hour or a day. Is that being still who give me the ask? I'm starting to think that maybe I just don't deserve it. That's why I ever felt it. I have never had it.?

First off, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this question, I created this account solely to ask this. If there is a better place to post this, please let me know!

I'll try to keep it brief, but I am only looking for Christian answers. Respectfully, if you do not believe, please don't respond to this just to say something like, "it's because He's not real." I am looking for real answers to help me with this. Thank you! :)

For some background, I am 17F and I started following God when I was 14. I don't want to sound conceited or arrogant or anything, but I feel like I have always had a direct phoneline to God or something. I feel like every prayer I pray is answered. Even if it's not in the way I want, it's answered for the good of me. I feel like I am so connected to God, and He is so good to me, and always showed up for me, but in a way this is why I'm struggling? I know that doesn't make sense, but let me explain.

About 10 months ago, I prayed and asked God for a boyfriend (Stupid, I know right.) It actually happened a few months later, and he is such a good Christian bf and I love him so much.

A few months ago, probably in May, I started having thoughts about God I never did before. I'm not sure what provoked these thoughts, I just started having them. It started small at first, like "i wonder why God doesn't stop this," or "why does God allow this," and i know the answer of free will, but it still bothered me.

Recently, these thoughts have escalated to the point I cannot talk to God or pray without feeling guilty. Like why did God answer my STUPID prayer about a BOYFRIEND and not the pray of a girl who's being abused in a hole somewhere? I feel guilty for even enjoying the blessings He gives me, knowing people are going through much worse. Why did God answer me but not starving kids?

These thoughts are taking over my life, what do i do?

I am having a really hard time with my life rn and I always see that people are being saved by god I just have a few questions iv always kind of wanted to believe in good but i just couldn’t I have a bunch of trauma from my childhood im 18 now but my parents were really bad and my mom passed away when i was 13 and i just moved away from my dad this February so iv always had this thought that if god saves why didn’t he save me a child from all the suffering im not going to go into a sob story but my life has really sucked the past 5 years less abuse and less trauma but nonetheless i still have mental health issues and i feel as though they are getting worse again so im wondering maybe i can try and fix it with the help of god but iv never really been religious before so i don’t know anything about this sorry for
anything that sounds offensive i dont mean it im just looking for help

Context:

A family member offered my spouse and I the following - 20% down payment for a new condo that my spouse and I would own and profits are split when the condo is sold. The condo is very reasonably priced considering the current real estate market in Ontario Canada. However do to unexpected circumstances that occurred the down-payment is no longer guaranteed.

My spouse and I (mostly me) kinda romanticized/day dreamed of what it would be like to live there, it would be closer to my spouses workplace he could walk to work, we are looking to start a family in the next year or so and the condo is a 2 bed it would be ready to move in the fall of 2027. The location of the condo is also great close to amenities, and in walking distance from my family memeber, we don't see each other often as we live in opposite ends of the city.

Do to the extenuating circumstances the conversation I had with my spouse is this, we should pray to God about this condo, if its in His will then he will make a way for the 20% down payment, if it's not His will then may He not allow it to happen.

I have anxiety issues, I feel way too nervous and anxious to fully believe that something will come to pass if I do not know for sure how or when it will, ai hate not know how oong something will last, like for example if I going through sowmthing causes me suffering or hardship I want to know how long it will last so I know when it will end. Obviously more often then not I do not end up knowing. This my thorn in flesh you could say 😅

I trust and have faith in God that can do all things, He is the ultimate provider, but I know God is not a genie that grants wishes.

I don't want to believe and get excited that He will do this for us, to be disappointed when He doesn't (that had happened far too often). I feel like I just need to grieve that this will not happen so I don't feel even more disappointed for believing that it will, and then it doesn't. At the same just because I don't see how we can get 20% ($60,000) by the end of the year or by March 2027 the latest, doesn't mean it God can't He can do all things.

So I feel conflicted and confused of how to understand Mark 11:24

[24] "Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you."

On one hand I want to be excited and believe God wil I do this and we will get this condo etc but on the other hand its His will over mine, which makes feel like yeah, its not going to happen so I'd rather not get excited just accept that it won't happen, and if does then great and if it doesn't then at least it won't hurt as much.

I hope I make sense, I ask for people to be kind but also direct with what they comment with, I genuinely looking to understand, and if you can share a testimony or prayer, encouragement anything like that would be appreciated.

In Jerusalem’s Old City, a group of Israeli teenagers recently banged on the door of the headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church and asked if there were Christians inside it. They wanted to spit at them.

The boys said it was a religious duty, or mitzvah, to humiliate Christians, or, as they called them, idol worshipers. “We are supposed to hate them,” explained one teen, wrapped in an Israeli flag.

Hi. Are there among you who are Christians but suffering a debt spiral? How do you manage it? How do you remain faithful and obedient to God?

I work in an environment where we are always talking about something, whether it’s life, hobbies, religion, plans for our days off, etc. I grew up Christian, drifted away from it when I stopped living with my parents, and am now coming back to it. A large portion of me becoming religious again was due to a group of my coworkers who love talking about the Lord and everything he has done for them in their lives and I started to see Him acting in my life as well. We have one coworker, however, who gets extremely angry at even the brief mention of Jesus or God or church or any of it. She has literally growled before and stormed off if she hears us talking about it or if we start singing a church song or anything like that. Today at work I had asked one of my religious coworkers what altar call was, since the church I grew up in didn’t have that. We talked about it for less than 5 minutes and then went back to talking about other things. Maybe 10 minutes later, the non religious coworker stormed to the back area where we work and almost shoved through 2 of the religious coworkers and even aggressively told one of them to move. I guess I’m just asking for advice about how to go about all this. I don’t think it’s fair for us to not be able to talk about something we care about so much, but I also hate there being so much tension at work. Thank you in advance for any advice.

TLDR: My work friends and I like to talk about religion at work, but one of our coworkers becomes increasingly aggressive the more we talk about it

I have found there is a widespread misunderstanding about what being "saved" means. So, I would like to address that topic.

Saved means to be put beyond the reach of your enemies, The enemies of mankind are death and sin. ie delivered from sin and from spiritual death.

We are saved from sin by the Atonement and saved from death by the resurrection. If we are still able to die and to sin, then we have not yet been saved. Until the resurrection, no one is saved. But, we can feel the effects of the promise of salvation while in this life. If we repent and turn away from our sins, then we have been promised that we will be saved and we can feel that in our hearts. But, this is contingent on us remaining faithful and repenting whenever we sin. We must endure until the end. (Matthew 24:13) The only thing required of us to recieve this salvation is to call upon His name, ie to repent. (Romans 10:13)

Hell is the English translation of the Hebrew word Sheol, which is the abode of the dead, where the spirits of the dead await the resurrection. Sheol is divided into two parts: Paradise and Prison. Everyone goes to Hell, even Jesus went to Hell. He broke open the gates of Hell making the resurrection possible. Those that do not repent while in this life will suffer in Hell. But that suffering exists for the sole purpose of saving the unrepented.

>1 Corinthians 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Even the wicked that suffer a loss and are burned by the fires of Hell will be saved eventually. The fires exist to help us let go of our sins. Only after we have let go of our sins and caled upon His name can the Atonement of Jesus Christ take affect on us and save us from our sins.

>2 Maccabees 12:46 It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.

We know that everyone will be resurrected and that the resurrection is ony possible after sin has been destoryed.

>1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Everyone will eventually be saved from Hell, this is given by the grace of God. But, after everyone has been resurrected, we will stand before God to be judged based on our works.

>Revelation 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

The standard for Heaven and Eternal life is very high, which is why only a few will enter in. (Matthew 7:14) When Jesus was asked by the rich ruler, "what must I do to have Eternal life?" Jesus's response was to keep the commandments, ie works. (Matthew 19:16–22) Jesus didn't say baptism was necessary for salvation from Hell, but He did say it was necessary to enter Heaven. (John 3:5)

We are saved from Hell by grace through faith and we are saved to Heaven by works. We must learn to live and think like God in order to live in His presence.

I really dont know how or think its possible to turn my life around and ive made such dumb choices as a Christian that i cant see any intelligent christian wanting me

I need it and I cant wait till marriage unless it happens tomorrow

I dont even do anything with my life

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I handle doubts and contradictory information, especially when it comes to my religious beliefs.

On the one hand, I really don't think doubt is inherently bad. It kind of acts like a knowledge-deficiency alert—almost like a warning light on your car's dashboard telling you there's something you haven't fully examined or understood yet. Confronting it seems objectively good because it forces you to do the research, which converts a passive "I've just always believed this" mindset into a conviction you've actually reasoned out for yourself.

But here's where I sometimes get stuck and wanted to see if anyone else relates. After you've done the initial assessment, looked fairly at the strongest counter-arguments, and reached a considered conclusion, it is so easy to keep consuming contradictory content. I catch myself sometimes watching ten or more videos or reading the same objections on various Subreddits that honestly recycle the same criticism. At a certain point, it stops feeling like I'm gathering new evidence and starts feeling more like I'm potentially subjecting myself to repetitive destabilisation.

I read an analogy recently that really clicked for me: engineers will stress-test a bridge to make sure it can bear a load, but they don't keep adding weight indefinitely to prove to everyone that they are open-minded. If they did, they wouldn't learn anything new; they'd just be pointlessly damaging the structure. Hearing the same contradictory claim repeated 50 times doesn't mean the actual evidence is growing.

The really tricky part for me, though, is avoiding the other extreme. I definitely don't want to fall into dogmatism or build an echo chamber where I declare, "I've made up my mind, and I refuse to ever hear criticism again."

I guess I'm trying to figure out a healthy middle ground. It feels like the right approach is to keep the door unlocked for genuinely new evidence or substantially stronger arguments. But at the same time, we probably shouldn't sentence our beliefs to a perpetual retrial where we feel intellectually obligated to entertain every single recycled objection that crosses our feed.

Here's some scriptural backing to support my argument:

Proverbs 18:13 — Don't reach conclusions without adequate information.

Proverbs 18:17 — Hear the counter-case.

Acts 17:11 / 1 Thessalonians 5:21 — Investigate and verify for yourself.

Hebrews 5:14 — Develop trained discernment from the process.

Ephesians 4:14 — Don't remain perpetually destabilised by every new claim.

2 Timothy 2:23 / Titus 3:9 — Recognise when further engagement has become futile rather than informative.

1 Thessalonians 5:21 again — Having tested, hold fast.

I don't know; maybe I'm still figuring this out.

How do you recognise when you've reached the point of informational redundancy, and it's time just to set a boundary?

Hi everyone, I’m new here but I need some advice..
me and my husband got married in November 2025, ever since then I’ve always been fanatic of having kids with my husband. Or anyone I knew I was going to choose as my future husband. Fast forward, me and my husband that same week of our wedding, we prayed that we conceived a baby, we had our honeymoon that same week and found out the month after that I was pregnant with my first.
We were both excited, we were both happy to have our first baby despite the fights me and my husband would have.. me and my husband would go to our regular appointments to check up on the baby and everything was absolutely fine.
Until I lost my baby on February 27th, That day I grew angry and had a hatred with God and sometimes I still experience the anger, because I see all these horrible people having kids or popping out babies with no issues. It was a constant battle and struggle where I even had to take therapy for my Post-partum because of how depressed I was. I was treating my husband like complete garbage and I was treating myself like trash. It helped me a little bit but regardless I still was mad at God.
Me and my husband started to try again, and I can say I’m pretty disappointed and frustrated because we just started trying again and I wanted to hope that I would get pregnant again on the first try like I did when I got married. Turns out I did not because my period came right after which made me cry in anger. A few weeks back I did watch the series the chosen and it was impactful because I can really relate to each of the characters. Especially when Eden and Peter wanted to try for a baby but unfortunately Eden and Peter lost the baby. And I felt angry and sad because I saw me and my husband’s footsteps on them. And today I raged in anger to God as to why is it complicated to conceive? Why do I have an ovarian cyst on my left side of my ovaries? I was furious and I still am because I see all the mothers at my church happy with their children or my family members who are unstable and in the meantime me and my husband who are good people we don’t get nothing…
I get more emotional or upset because I have a couple of church members approaching us telling us that they had a dream about us having problems conceiving or me and my husband going to the hospital to pray for women in labor. And it makes me angry and sad because I desire to have a child of my own.. but it feels like a punishment and it just pushes me away from God … and idk what to do …

Hi all! I am a 27 year old female from Melbourne, Australia of Greek ethnicity. I was raised Greek Orthodox and my yiayia taught me all about our religion from a very young age. Growing up in Australia, we didn’t attend church often and as I’ve gotten older I’ve begun to question a lot more about religion in general, not necessarily just about the Greek Orthodox Church.

I’m a very traditional and conservative person in terms of my values and political beliefs. I feel drawn to my roots in terms of religion, however I struggle to connect with it at the same time.

My real struggle comes from the fact that throughout my education (I’m a lawyer) I’ve been exposed to the idea that religion is a cult and was created as a means to control the masses. This really offended me when I was first introduced to the idea, but as the years have gone on I can’t help but see that in every aspect of religion.

I’m looking for input from a highly educated perspective (I mean that in the most respectful way in terms of I don’t want to just be told to have faith and be quoted scripture). I find it difficult to understand how I can connect with faith when science and other aspects of education shed light on where religion falls short and how it’s just a way to control the masses.

I get very frustrated when religion is used to explain things away and I often find more people who are uneducated are more religious and that’s what further pushes me away. Again, I don’t mean this in a disrespectful way, I’m just trying to be honest so that I can be properly understood and if anyone has or is experiencing the same can shed light on their experience?

I think I feel as though if I do start to delve into faith that I’m contradicting my intelligence which is something I pride myself on. The idea that (and not going into any specifics just a general proposition) there is a higher power that requires prayer and responds if you just have faith and all the cultural practices surrounding the icons such as praying to a certain saint if you are having say fertility issues, etc just seems like it can so easily be explained by logic. It feels like pseudo science and the people who really push it then are usually the type of people who believe in astrology and who then fall for ridiculous conspiracy theories and don’t seem to use much critical thinking. Certainly doesn’t apply to everyone but in my experience that’s been the majority. I don’t want to be lumped in with them

I was feeling dreadful when something in my mind said "Delete your account"

Which that account has some childhood memory in it

I felt fear and dread when I kinda refuse to do it

I kept praying to God if it's was HIS will

I experience sadness and grief

Eventually I said "let this cup pass from me"

Then it disappear, I'm scared now I don't wanna lose faith

I feel very sad because I am going through a few things at the same time.

I dated this guy for a while and told him I want to wait until marriage. he's an atheist, so he doesn't understand my pov. but the thing is I pushed him away a few times because I could feel he didnt like this, but he wanted to stay and see if he could do it. he then decided he didn't want to but basically he molested me, I won't go into any detail.

the second thing is I just discovered someone else, unrelated to this person, is making fun of me with people I barely know about me wanting to wait until marriage (I don't even how he knows this) and about me being Christian.

I feel very sad and defeated. I know Jesus is with me. I just feel sad.

I had to leave a current friendship/ relationship when he desperately needs me at his side even as friends. Currently he’s going through a tough time. And it breaks my heart that I have to do something that hurts. God spoke to my aunt saying that someone was stealing my blessings and that I needed to stop talking to him. We are evangelical Christians. My guy’s name is Sebastian. We started off as friends and then we turned into much more. It’s a very complicated situation. My aunt told my mom and she doesn’t want me to speak to him ever again. I feel heartbroken leaving him when he needs me the most. He’s Christian but he strayed away but he has promised me that he will look for God. Because I tell him everyday. I tried speaking to my mom and she’s not allowing it. Because she doesn’t trust him. He’s a good guy. He’s never forced me to do anything I don’t want. I know that when God says no it’s no. I feel heartbroken because my mom doesn’t want me to stay as his friend. And is even threatening to take away my phone. I am very fearing of God and what he can do if I don’t listen. He hasn’t spoken to me personally. But I’ve been praying for the situation to get better. If I can’t be with him that’s fine I wish to stay as friend because I know he’s not having a good time in his life right now. I told him I needed him to be strong and he feels heartbroken he might never hear from me again. I would be happy with offering him my friendship and he’s always been there for me in terrible times. I’m 23 years old but I don’t see why I’m not allowed to be friends with him. I need help.

I am autistic Christian, I was baptized then I was a baby, and I have found out some time ago that I didn't had actual faith, the words written in Bible would be sweet for me as honey, but they aren't, I wasn't singing worship hymns because I have find out that your heart needs to be connected to worship and mine wasn't, I go to Church because I believe that not going to Church is sin (I wrote this in case this would be needed for my question), my prayers feel dry, can I still have faith while probably having alexithymia? And if yes, how can I learn it?

Hi there. Good day. I’m looking for some Christian perspective because I’ve been struggling with this mentally and spiritually.

For years I practiced Law of Assumption/LOA. I genuinely believed that my thoughts, assumptions, emotions, and beliefs could create my reality. Because of that, I became really afraid of fear itself. I was taught that doubt, negative thoughts, or fear could manifest the things I didn’t want.

Recently, I got much closer to God. A big part of that happened after I got my genetic results and it honestly felt like a stab in my heart. After years of caring for my mom, I found out I too.. have the genetic expansion associated with Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 2 (SCA2). I know exactly how horrible it is. It’s a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects movement, coordination, speech, swallowing, etc. My mom has gotten to the point where she can’t walk, feed herself, needs help with basically everything, has a g tube, dementia and she’s in a nursing facility. She's only 43.

My repeat count is also high, and even my doctors don’t really understand how I have no symptoms. One doctor literally told me, ""oh you should have been in a wheelchair 10 years ago.”" So even though I’m asymptomatic, my results have been very confusing. Imagine hearing that..

Now I’m pregnant, and there’s a 50% chance my baby could inherit it. I had an amniocentesis specifically to find out if my baby has the gene or not, and right now I’m just in limbo waiting for the results. And this is what scares me so much. 50% feels like a LOT to me. I already feel like I got on the wrong side of the coin myself, and now I’m waiting to see if my baby did too.

And I know people might say “but even if she has it, there are treatments/research/etc.” but this disease is horrible and I can’t just pretend it isn’t. Children who develop severe/juvenile SCA2 can have devastating disease, and some affected children do not survive into adulthood. That’s something I have to sit with while waiting for my baby’s results. I’ve watched what this disease does to my own mom.

At the same time, I’m getting attached to my baby. I know she’s a girl now. I’m getting free diapers and baby girl clothes from people and I’m genuinely happy about it. I’m excited and I want to prepare for her. But then I get scared and think, “What if something happens? What if I get too attached? What if she inherited it?” And then my old LOA beliefs immediately come back. I’ll think, “I can’t think like this. Fear attracts what you fear. What if I’m manifesting it? What if I’m doubting too much?”
I practiced LOA for so long that this is genuinely ingrained in me. It’s hard to just stop thinking that way.

Getting my genetic results actually made me realize how much I had been trying to believe I was the creator of my own world and that I could control everything. When I got a result that I absolutely could not control, it felt like that belief completely fell apart. I don't know why I got this news.. but I know it actually brought me closer to God. I realized I don’t want to be responsible for controlling everything. I want to trust God.

But now I’m confused because many Christians say “do not fear,” - if you fear you're doubting God. Then, I hear people say you need faith, even faith the size of a mustard seed. So what am I supposed to do when I’m genuinely scared? Is being afraid itself a lack of faith? Is having a fearful thought a sin? Because I don’t want to keep policing every thought I have because I’m scared that one wrong thought will somehow cause something bad to happen. That feels like LOA all over again, just with God involved, and I don’t want that.

I want to actually surrender this to God instead of trying to control everything. I know I can’t control the genetic outcome. I know God isn’t a manifestation technique. But I’m still scared, and I don’t know what genuine Christian faith is supposed to look like when you’re waiting for something this serious. How do you trust God while still being afraid?

TL;DR: I practiced LOA for years and became scared of fear because I believed negative thoughts could manifest bad things. After finding out I have the SCA2 gene expansion, like my mom who is severely affected, I became much closer to God. I’m now pregnant and there’s a 50% chance my baby inherited it. I had an amnio and I’m waiting for the results. I’m terrified because I know how horrible this disease can be, but I’m also getting attached and preparing for my baby. My old LOA mindset makes me scared that even having fear or doubt could somehow cause something bad to happen. I want to trust God without turning Christianity into LOA. How do you have faith and surrender to God while still genuinely being afraid?