What does God add?

I live a pretty great life if I do say so myself. I'm not going to go into the details of everything, but let's just say there's little I can complain about.

Now, I hear from quite a few Christians that my life is missing something...something I don't seem to notice myself but that they routinely insist is there.

So theists, not just necessarily Christians, what does God add to your life?

I don't ask this to be confrontational, I ask this purely out of innocent curiosity. I'd just like to know exactly what your deity of choice adds to your life that can't be found elsewhere.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


Maybe god has added something to their lives that they didnt have before, Maybe you've allready found that happiness in your life that theve found in theirs Through god.
God or Belief in god just isn't needed in some cases

reply to post by madnessinmysoul

I'm glad you have a nice life, some of us haven't. Some of us wouldn't be here if we didn't have God in our lives.
I swear to you sometimes He is the only thing that keeps me going in this life. I want you to understand something, the way you talk about God is so ambiguous, like he's so far off and has little interest. NO! He's right next to you whispering to you heart. He desperately wants you to know Him. I PROMISE if you just open yourself to the idea of God he will set up shop inside your heart and you will never want to let Him go. We were designed to have fellowship with our creator. And don't go by what 'religion' says...religion is a man made thing, go by what Jesus said because that's how God has bridged the gap between God and man. You can literally have God living inside you and there is no better thing in the world.

Often times I find myself mad at Him, I'll say something like 'God why did this bad thing have to happen to me?' And I can't stay mad at Him long because His loves draws me back to Him every time. You just have to open your heart to Him. You could even ask Him to reveal Himself to you.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul
madnessinmysoul,

I have a friend who also found as I have the problem you are asking about. My friend is now a retired engineer and has had plenty of means and a great retirement income. He has told me I have done everything I ever wanted to do and get into in quest for satisfaction and happiness. Nothing he said ever somehow did not fill my longing that never was filled in all those things but only kept me from thinking on it for awhile. I asked him if he had come to any conclusion what was missing. Well he said I knew it couldn't be found in this life regardless of your means whether you got into women, drugs, boose etc. What he found was missing is asurrance beyond the now. Somehow I knew man is to have more than a few years and grow old and die. He said I felt like I was being drawn. He said then in desparation I went to some Christian meetings that he knew some great and kind people asked me to try, and found the drawing he had was from God, Yahweh.

He no longer searchs for the pleasures so called of this world as they don't fulfill.

Well my story is basically the same but I was in and out a couple times and the emptyness really got me hard the second time. I want to tell you God is my life. What does He add to my life? Asurance, that there is more, far more. This life will never give you what you need, it is too short and too painful. Old too soon and smart too late like the saying goes. I lead a wild life for many a year and it is no good. No I wasn't a drinker or a drugie, but the best times are in a beautiful forest along a mountain stream with the wild flowers all around and beautiful birds with beautiful songs. A peace and tranquility would come over me as this is what I want to experience forever.

His Word proves He is and that His Redeemer is true also, yes it's the right interpretation of the prophecies, they are true to the last point, none have ever missed. What is missed is man's interpretation, they won't let the Word do the interpretation. I've laid out one or two here but to no avail, something else is made of it. Long held opinions of them hold sway.

What I have now is a peace that settles me, It's like little peeps getting under the mother chickens wings even though the little peeps don't realize the old fox could still get them, well under His wings there is no fox big enough even to ruffle one feather.

I won't burden you to read no more, you asked and I tried.

Truthiron.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
I live a pretty great life if I do say so myself. I'm not going to go into the details of everything, but let's just say there's little I can complain about.

Now, I hear from quite a few Christians that my life is missing something...something I don't seem to notice myself but that they routinely insist is there.

So theists, not just necessarily Christians, what does God add to your life?

I don't ask this to be confrontational, I ask this purely out of innocent curiosity. I'd just like to know exactly what your deity of choice adds to your life that can't be found elsewhere.

The only thing that God can add to your finite life is eternal life. Do you want eternal life?

If you're looking for a concrete answer (with pictures ), it's probably going to be hard to find.

For some God (or gods) is the answer to the question they can't answer themselves. For others, God is a loving father who wants the best for them. Some regard God as their caretaker who provides. There are people that acknowledge God, but don't really understand His role or what they have to do with it (most likely the majority). And others see God as a fairy tale used by the scared.

Some people have science as their god. It's just as acceptable.

God is faith. Faith is the unexplainable can be explained.

I understand your curiosity but I would never condescend to answer in the way you expect. I used to think like you. Yes God gives life significance and meaning. Yes God heals, provides and challenges. But God is not a cosmic Santa Clause or self-improvement guru. In CS Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia there is a conversation about Aslan the lion whose character represents God incarnate.

Ooh!" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he -- quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy. "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver.

"Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

He's not safe. Being a Christian is not easy or convenient. It requires dying to self and a degree of suffering.

"And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."(Luke 9:23)

Actually, I see your question as endemic the utter hopelessness of unregenerate man. You ask, “What can God possibly offer me?”, in a self-satisfied manner utterly oblivious to how inane and profane the question is. God created the entire universe by a word, if you know who He is - you simply fall on your knees and worship.

If you want a serious and exhaustive answer to your question by one of the top Christian thinkers in the world I suggest you read The Absurdity of Life Without God

For me, god is the easy answer for everything we do not understand. The universe is complex. My faith is in science so one day we may just understand what god is. We may even find our true self in the process.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
Now, I hear from quite a few Christians

ok lets back up here.. do you mean Theist ? because that covers alot of ground...

You may be being attacked (as you see it) by Christians because you are outrightly attacking them first... Just a thought.

Agnostics are way cooler, they have much grace and maturity to respect all including themselves.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


I cannot reply for me, but I can speak of a friend.
Who has lived a good life, never wronged anyone, sweet lovely, just nice.

But she has a history of depression and also abuse from her dad.
Her family have shunned her, claiming she must be mistaken, the nine years of sexual abuse must be fabricated, because they did not see it.

She has a history since then of deep depression.
I do not believe in god at all.
But for her it gives her life reason and hope.
Her family have rejected her and she has no husband of anyone special so I think she replaced her family with god.

She knows I do not believe, none of her friends do.
But I refuse to sanctimoniously discredit religion in her presence, without god I fear she would have committed suicide years ago.

but to answer your question since you ask, I will answer a short reply without going into too many details...

God offers "Hope" amongst other things I never really thought about earlier on, but my relationship with God began with this word.

I have lost enough people that I love and I hope to see them when my world passes...

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


Hate to answer a question with a question but, don't you ask the people who imply something is missing in your life what that might be? It's all very personnel so it would seem a good way to approach it.

I lived for many years as an atheist. During those times, my life lacked peace. I was doing a lot of experimentation with drugs, particularly indole hallucinogens and deliriants.

I have always intuited that there is more to reality than the quotidian parade of sensory phenomena. During my life I have become convinced that there is a potent sentient being directing the world. More than that, this omnipotent being wants me to seek it/him out, and interact. Far from being the remote deity of the "watchmaker" thought-experiment, I am confident that God loves all his creation and desires for it to return to him, and interact with each other on the basis of his love.

I understand completely that many people don't feel this, or have not had this experience, and feel that their lives are as rich (or more rich even) than mine.

I can only guess that they are not supposed to notice anything missing from their lives.

When I saw the subject, I thought it was about maths, lol.

There is no simple answer to your question, my friend. Even as we are all kind of the same, we are also very different. Our backgrounds, our circumstances, our expectations and so forth. So a conclusive answer that makes sense is probably going to remain elusive.

I was raised in a reasonably affluent family in the United States and had nothing to do with God until I was about 12 or so, and, even then, church was a primarily a social event. I have grown, both intellectually and spiritually, in those ensuing 35 years or so, and sometimes my intellect prodded growth of my spirit, and sometimes spirit led intellect.

Abstractly, for example, deeper knowledge of mathematics made me wonder about the nature of universal constants. Pi... an eternal absolute that doesn't exist, it's just understood. Nothing there that forces or proves God, but things like that led me to contemplate him, and to realize that my picture of God was stunted, silly and insufficient.

When my father-in-law died in 2008, his Notice of Mass was headed with his personal motto of "Peace and Contentment" -- when you would leave, rather than saying "Goodbye", he would often say "Peace and contentment to you." As an American, inundated with messages of commercialism, selfishness and the constant struggle to attain more, whether it be power, money or stuff, I think that what God brings me most is the ability to have that peace and contentment. I have tried to manage that myself in the past, and it is a struggle, because although everyone seems to think that such a life is noble, no one (not even the church, often,) seems to actually encourage or enable it.

Selfishness seems to breed discontent, while selflessness seems to bring contentment. The seeking of personal gain seems to bring with it nothing but the desire for more. For me, at least, my faith and the power of God have allowed me to recognize that, in a world that encourages self gratification, doing good, desiring good, being good, these are all that matters. Others may be able to accomplish such things on their own, but I guess that I'm shallow enough that I need help. As the saying goes, Torah gave us the Law, told us what to do, but it didn't empower us to do it, hence Christ.

There is the eternal life piece, of course, but for me, the rationalist that I am, that's an abstract piece that's kind of hanging out there. The death of my wife is mitigated, in some manner, by the belief that she's okay and that we'll be together again, but that doesn't seem to take away the grief, and it's often only in times of prayer or quiet contemplation that I feel that inner warmth of peace and contentment that I view as God's presence in my life.

So it is the integration of faith, values and hope in my daily life that is the tangible "add" for me, evidenced by the spirit of God, in me, and me, reflecting the spirit of God to the rest of the world. God has made me a better person and, as a result, I have made (well, tried to make) the world a better place. If I am wrong, and God had nothing to do with me becoming a better person, the end result, a better world, still stands.

Originally posted by Cosmic.Artifact

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
Now, I hear from quite a few Christians

ok lets back up here.. do you mean Theist ? because that covers alot of ground...

You may be being attacked (as you see it) by Christians because you are outrightly attacking them first... Just a thought.

hate to quote myself but.. is this not worthy of an answer ?

I understand your struggle with the madness MMS, but there is one thing I must point out begor you do answer. if you ever do. I will point this out early so you may not feel I am trolling you...

The first step in becoming a Theist is speaking only the "Truth"

bump... for response from MMS

Originally posted by Cosmic.Artifact

The first step in becoming a Theist is speaking only the "Truth"

I see. So Madness may be a theist and you're an atheist?

Maybe you miss the joy you used to have?? Sometimes something I cannot explain just pops up and makes me feel like years ago and it always is such a joyful feeling. I want it to stay. I don't know what you could be missing, I had a similar experience in the thread about Atheists just a moment before. To regain the joy of your youth. I pray for you.


What God does in my life. I like to create uplifting energy.
I donnow. I know there is something great I can become.

I don't know if you are missing something MIMS. I am your friend.

It's funny, I always here people say things like "god saved me" and my life was terrible and unfortunate until God came.

For me personally I have had a lot of ups and downs (more ups in the last 5 years than previous) and through the down times when life seemed pointless the only thing that got me through was my faith in myself and my ability to pull myself through. Not some faith in mystical being.

It just seems a little backwards and self d efeating that people would attribute pulling themselves from the bad times to a god and not themselves.

Maybe that is why people never quite get out of that cycle of bad luck. Because they don't know how to take responsibility for their actions, both good and bad? I don't think this is something that is specific to religion, more the human condition, but I also can't see how a 'god done it' attitude helps break the cycle.

What happens after you find god but something bad happens again.. you feel depressed that god has abandoned you, or you feel as though you did something to deserve it or that god is testing your faith?

For me attributing your good fortune/change of luck to yourself , acknowledging where you may have made wrong choices and knowing when life just sometimes sucks for no good reason helps build your self esteem. It also gives you the tools to deal with the next potentially bad situation a little better as well as a greater appreciation for the good times.