Granted, the OP was worded clumsily. But if the premise had been "What drives you towards alcohol", I think we can all agree that it wouldn't be helpful for me to waltz in and announce that "I've never been drunk, never even WANTED to get drunk, the Bible says not to get drunk and besides, getting drunk is CLEARLY bad for your health!" 😇😃😊
Mind you, all that is 100% true, but would be 0% helpful. It would be better for the OP to hear from someone who has been where he is and might have insight into the problem. I realize that experience doesn't always equal insight, and insight doesn't HAVE to come from experience.... just saying that I know from unfortunately personal experience that the standard happity-clappity "Smile, you have no reason to be angry!" platitudes aren't gonna cut it for this issue. People threw those at me for years and they only made things worse.
Sometimes it seems like modern churchianity expects us to just fake it and hope we make it...... 😣
Please tell us, if you would be so kind, exactly who came "waltzing in" here with the types of announcements that you described/alleged? I know, of a certainty, that it wasn't me, and, from what I have read in this thread, it wasn't anybody else, either.
Like it or not, the OP has behaved himself like a petulant and immature hypocrite on this thread. In other words, from the get-go, he has not only been unreasonably and childishly ill-tempered towards other members here, but then, as his crowning achievement, he had the audacity to portray himself as the victim here instead of as the great offender that he truly is.
I cannot speak on the behalf of the other members here that he has mistreated, but I will give a very quick, and far from exhaustive, recap of my initial dealings with this poster.
For starters, he asked the open-ended question "What are you mad at God for?," and I answered thusly.
Honestly, I am not mad at God for anything, and my life has been anything but easy. In fact, it has been very hard.
Anyhow, I know that God is not to blame for any of it. My problems have always stemmed from Satan or demons themselves, from wicked people, or from my own foolishness.
I have reduced the last variable tremendously over the years, but the first two remain constants.
Right now, after years of walking with God, I am definitely sure of one thing, and it is this:
Jesus is Lord.
As any objective person can easily see, I did not "waltz in" here with an announcement of how I never even WANTED to be mad at God, nor did I utter the standard happity-clappity "Smile, you have no reason to be angry!" platitude that you mentioned, nor did I utter anything even remotely related to what you called modern churchianity's "fake it until we make it" suggestion. Instead, I honestly told him, right off the bat, that my life has been anything but easy, but rather very hard instead, and that God was not to blame for any of it. I then placed the blame where it truly belonged, and part of that blame was upon myself.
His response?
That’s great dude. Then this thread is not for you. So please move the —— along.
Tell us, what word or words do you suppose he intended those dashes to represent? I will tell you what he meant. He told me to move the F*CK along. There was nothing unreasonably ill-tempered (petulant) or childish (immature) in that response, right?
At the same time that he posted that (just check the timestamps), I was posting this.
Btw, if I might ask, what are you mad at God for?
In other words, I was sincerely and politely seeking to gain some insight into his situation so that I might possibly help him.
His response?
why are you asking? Maybe I should titled it, “what have you inquired very hard to God about?”
He answered my question with a question. Personally, I would normally be okay with that because, in fairness to him, he does not know either me or my intentions, so I believe that, at that time, it was a fair question for him to ask. However, as our dialogue (more of a monologue where he spewed venom at others) continued, I asked him, more than once, and after explaining my motivations for asking, what exactly he has been praying for, and, of course, he never answered me.
Please tell us how anyone could truly offer him insight in relation to his problem, as you rightly suggested that we should, when he won't even tell anybody exactly what the problem is?
Anyhow, when I saw his response where he basically told me to F*CK OFF, I rightly said the following.
That's an attitude that you definitely need to work on.
His response?
Look, y’all are not in the focus group of this thread, so why are you here? It’s not intended for you. Go find another super happy pre-destination thread or something.
You know, there was only one member here who agreed with his ridiculous response, and that one member was YOU. Please tell us why he was justified in telling somebody who was only trying to help him that I should go find another super happy pre-destination thread or something? For starters, he is totally ignorant of my beliefs surrounding predestination (and I have publicly voiced those beliefs on this forum). On top of that, as usual, he behaved himself like a petulant child.
Why would you agree with him?
You are not obligated to answer, but if you are going to pass around your judgments on others here, then please give an account of your own actions.
Thank you.
P.S.
Please do not wrongly think that I am being passively aggressive in this post. Tone can easily be read into an online post where it was never intended. I genuinely would like to know the answers to the questions that I asked here. Did I ask them in a straightforward manner? Yes, I did, but not in an intended "aggressive" manner. I am just pretty direct. I hope that is okay.