What does it mean to hand your life to God?

[chris416]

The word God has been challenging for me. The idea of some powerful Being passing judgment on our lives. And, deciding who is saved and who is not...

I have been contemplating whether God is the answer or our own minds.

What does it mean to hand your life over to God? What does it mean to be saved?

We create the world in which we live everyday. Every moment, we choose. It’s an act of creation.

We live in a world in which our deep seeded beliefs are what controls the direction of our lives. What we hold most dear is the environment in which we live and grow.

We are powerful indeed.

The challenge is that we have forgotten ourselves. We have forgotten how to choose.

Positive or negative beliefs do not matter in a sense that we invite a particular outcome.

Is this why I am where I am? Why my life has not turned out how I wanted?

Are we in control of our lives? Or is it something else?

Simply thinking about what we want does not materialize a thing, but, it does set a direction.

There is a pull, a tethering that responds in kind.

God. The Universe. The Universal Mind. Whatever you call it. There is an undeniable pull. A sense of something greater. All things being equal, we all want the best for ourselves and the best for others.

I believe the inherent nature of the Universe is good. It derives connection.

Yes, there is evil in the world. There is evil in you. But there is also good in you.

So, surrender. Surrender to the power of creation.

If we can create a life we don’t want, then we can choose create a life we do.

Is this what it means to hand your life over to God?

[ttruscott]

It means that we decide to live according to GOD's plan for us knowing that that plan IS our life if we would only give up leaning on our own understanding and indulging in our selfish desires.

[Divine Insight]

God. The Universe. The Universal Mind. Whatever you call it. There is an undeniable pull. A sense of something greater. All things being equal, we all want the best for ourselves and the best for others.

Unfortunately this doesn't apply to all humans. For if it did there would be no humans doing harmful things to other humans, or even harmful things to animals, or even harmful things to the earth or the environment.

The fact that not everyone "feels" this so-called "undeniable pull" seems to me to fly in the very face of calling it "undeniable".

So, surrender. Surrender to the power of creation.

If we can create a life we don’t want, then we can choose create a life we do.

Is this what it means to hand your life over to God?

The fact that there exists secularists who choose to create a good life for themselves and others pretty much shows that it's not really necessary to give our lives over to an imaginary God. If we are concerned about choosing a good life, then all we need to do is choose it. No God required.

[2ndRateMind]

[Replying to post 1 by chris416]

Can't help feeling that this 'handing over your life to God' is a good sounding sound bite, and not much more. So often I find that those who claim to have thus handed over their lives are really just claiming divine endorsement for their own conservative agendas.

As far as I am concerned, God gave me my life, for which I am very grateful. But it was a gift, to dispose as I see fit. While I am entirely prepared to live it according to fair ethical principles (and would feel niggardly if I did not), I do not feel the need or desire to live my life as a priest, or monk, or hermit, or in some such austere manner. Nor do I feel that those who do automatically own some kind of special moral superiority.

Rather than handing over one's life, lock, stock and barrel, I propose that we simply observe what Micah has to say:

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Micah 6:8 KJV

Best wishes, 2RM.

[marco]

The word God has been challenging for me. The idea of some powerful Being passing judgment on our lives. And, deciding who is saved and who is not...

One of the most dangerous things is to "hand your life over to God," for it is your mind that is taken prisoner. Take the character Abraham who served his God and was willing to murder his own son just to show he would do anything in God's name. And take the suicide bombers today, who hand their lives over to Allah, and praise him after they murder people.

When God knocks at your front door and shows an official "I AM GOD" badge, then you can start packing your suitcase for heaven. Otherwise, live life on planet Earth as an Earthling. Be good to other people and leave God alone.

[Dimmesdale]

The word God has been challenging for me. The idea of some powerful Being passing judgment on our lives. And, deciding who is saved and who is not...

Indeed. An idea of such a being speaks to our own sense of power and control. However, a true conception of God is more allusive I think. Not a Being among Beings but Being itself. That Being does not judge.

I have been contemplating whether God is the answer or our own minds.

We must make the effort, through our minds, but it is Grace in the end that is the prime deciding factor.

What does it mean to hand your life over to God? What does it mean to be saved?

"Not my will, but thy will be done" - I think it has a lot to do with abandoning selfishness and choosing life on the basis of what God wants for it.

We create the world in which we live everyday. Every moment, we choose. It’s an act of creation.

The most important choice is to desist from egoic promptings and pull back, back into the quiet space from which all creation emerges....(I think)

We live in a world in which our deep seeded beliefs are what controls the direction of our lives. What we hold most dear is the environment in which we live and grow.

The environment in which we live and grow is the closest thing to our own selves. Hence, it makes sense we would hold it most dear.

We are powerful indeed.

We are the masters of each moment, as Paramahansa Yogananda has said.

The challenge is that we have forgotten ourselves. We have forgotten how to choose.

Indeed. For, "happiness is not a dependency, it is a decision."

Positive or negative beliefs do not matter in a sense that we invite a particular outcome.

I would agree. We are not wholly responsible for our lives, as opposed to what some New Agers would insist upon.

Is this why I am where I am? Why my life has not turned out how I wanted?

Are we in control of our lives? Or is it something else?

It is God who does everything, ultimately. But we are always in control, insofar as we can rationally "choose" every moment of our lives to live and exist on the basis of freedom.

Simply thinking about what we want does not materialize a thing, but, it does set a direction.

There is a pull, a tethering that responds in kind.

If one is serious about wanting a thing, that does indeed set things into motion....

God. The Universe. The Universal Mind. Whatever you call it. There is an undeniable pull. A sense of something greater. All things being equal, we all want the best for ourselves and the best for others.

In our best moments, this is the case....

I believe the inherent nature of the Universe is good. It derives connection.

Yes, there is evil in the world. There is evil in you. But there is also good in you.

I take it the truth lies somewhere in the middle....

So, surrender. Surrender to the power of creation.

If we can create a life we don’t want, then we can choose create a life we do.

Is this what it means to hand your life over to God?

I think you may not have nailed it on the mark, but have hit somewhere in the ballpark!

[Divine Insight]

I have always sought for goodness. That has simply been my nature. Apparently this is not the nature of all humans, and clearly all humans are not the same.

So is seeking goodness the same as handing your life over to a supposedly "Good God"?

If so then clearly religion and dogma would have nothing to do with it and be totally unnecessary. Also the idea that some demigod would need to be crucified to pay for the sins of those who seek good would also be absurd.

On the other hand, if seeking goodness is not sufficient and there is something else this God supposedly wants or expects from us, then it's up to this God to make that clear.

If one thing is crystal clear, it is that religious dogma is not. Therefore we can't look to religious dogma for answers. And without an actual God to converse with then doing the supposed "will of God" is impossible since no human can possibly have a clue what that would entail.

In short, religious fanatics who want to proclaim that we must hand our lives over to some God had better come up with something more than just a bunch of vague dogma that even they can't agree on. They need to come up with an actual God, not just tales of an imaginary invisible one that no one has ever seen.

Religions based on imaginary invisible Gods that cannot be produced should be considered to be the epitome of man-made scams.

[jgh7]

To me, handing your life to God means being willing to give up everything for God.


Matthew 16:24-25
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross , and follow me. 25. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

[steveb1]

The word God has been challenging for me. The idea of some powerful Being passing judgment on our lives. And, deciding who is saved and who is not...

I have been contemplating whether God is the answer or our own minds.

What does it mean to hand your life over to God? What does it mean to be saved?

We create the world in which we live everyday. Every moment, we choose. It’s an act of creation.

We live in a world in which our deep seeded beliefs are what controls the direction of our lives. What we hold most dear is the environment in which we live and grow.

We are powerful indeed.

The challenge is that we have forgotten ourselves. We have forgotten how to choose.

Positive or negative beliefs do not matter in a sense that we invite a particular outcome.

Is this why I am where I am? Why my life has not turned out how I wanted?

Are we in control of our lives? Or is it something else?

Simply thinking about what we want does not materialize a thing, but, it does set a direction.

There is a pull, a tethering that responds in kind.

God. The Universe. The Universal Mind. Whatever you call it. There is an undeniable pull. A sense of something greater. All things being equal, we all want the best for ourselves and the best for others.

I believe the inherent nature of the Universe is good. It derives connection.

Yes, there is evil in the world. There is evil in you. But there is also good in you.

So, surrender. Surrender to the power of creation.

If we can create a life we don’t want, then we can choose create a life we do.

Is this what it means to hand your life over to God?

It can mean several things. Someone can hand their life over to God because they feel "under the gun" from parental and church pressure.

For me, handing one's life over to God simply means being open to the inward experience of the divine, as sometimes happens spontaneously, or as the result of a search, or as the result of meditative and contemplative methods. It's trusting in one's relationship with God. Like any other successful relationship, it means thinking about the relationship either at random times, or at specific times set aside for precisely that purpose. Jesus supposedly said, "when you pray, go into your closet" - pray privately, away from the mores of world and culture. Be alone with God, engage in "the flight of the alone to the Alone".

[ttruscott]

The word God has been challenging for me. The idea of some powerful Being passing judgment on our lives. And, deciding who is saved and who is not...

One of the most dangerous things is to "hand your life over to God," for it is your mind that is taken prisoner.

GOD promises to renew our free will and free our mind's desires from being taken over by evil... That is a promise many cannot consider nor abide...