I've heard all my life, that anytime something good happened, we should thank Jehovah for doing it. If something bad happened, like being attacked by the "demons", it was because a person didn't have the complete "suit of armor" from God. I know many of the "friends" that credit Jehovah God for giving them a sunny morning, a pay raise at work or an end to their cough and cold.....Were you one of those that believed Jehovah was behind everything that happened in your life?
Did You Think "Jehovah" Was Responsible For Everything Good In Your Life?
by minimus 32 Replies latest jw friends
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maybesbabies
No, I felt that big J didn't really care much, or else our strict JW family wouldn't have been homeless for 6 years, and my parents would have cared for me more. I always felt that, if these are big J's people, and this is what he does for them, why the hell would I want to be a part of it??? When I got older and left the "troof", I finally realized that big J had nothing to do with all of it, and that was actually what led me to have a relationship with God!!!!
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shamus
Yes.
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free will
half heartedly - yes. good excuse as any. but my sister totally does. i can almost hear tears over the phone. 'i never could have done this without jehovah's help!' now, i'm thinking - yeah right. with not a little bitterness over the whole being lied to thing. and a little embarrased because maybe, just maybe, she's right.
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minimus
So....did you think the debil was behind your problems?
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free will
it was either that (the debil) or just how things and life worked out.
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maxwell
I thought he was responsible for all of the abilities I had as a human and that he made it possible for me to do things that made good things happen. There were a few occasions when things lucked out my way and I thought Jehovah was responsible, but I never thought he was directly responsible for all the good things that happened in my life. But that was one of the things that went through my mind when I started questioning things. Good and bad things happen much to randomly for one to try to attribute only the good things to some all-powerful being. How would he pick and choose who to bestow the rare good tidings on and how does he choose who to ignore and allow to suffer or die? Supposedly, as we were taught as JW, God is allowing some issues raised in the garden of eden to be settled. Still what goes on now seems a bit much to settle that issue. Suffice to say, that I can see much more cause and effect from my own tangible actions than I ever did from bowing my head, closing my eyes and uttering some words to some all powerful being who would influence things to happen a certain way.
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SanFranciscoJim
Perhaps things have changed somewhat, but back in the 1970s when I was a JW, we were taught that not all good things come from Jehovah because "Satan keeps transforming himself into an angel of light."
This was their way of explaining away such things as the benevolence of some churches to the needy, people like Mother Teresa, etc..
If it didn't directly affect you as a Jehovah's Witness, it was not as good as it looked on the outside.
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berylblue
Yes. And I was responsible for everything bad.
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minimus
If something bad happened, it had nothing to do with Jehovah. If it was good, it was all because Jehovah wanted it to happen. And if you had a birth in the family----thank Jehovah. If you had a death in the family---blame Satan. My mother always says that she thanks Jehovah for "making the way" for anything positive in her life. She is quite sickly but if she can attribute ANYTHING good happening to her, it's because Jehovah cares about her.