Prayer for change of heart

Praying for you. I battle with similar struggles and doubts to yours sometimes. Intrinsic value can be hard for our fallen eyes to see.

I think God's love for us is many things: it's that 'cliche' love that recognizes that we are made in His image and thus have priceless value. It's also the love that a father has for his goofy, noisy kids - they can't offer anything to him, but he loves them with his whole heart because they are *his*. And it's the love of a husband for his beautiful bride. He sees her as flawless and perfect - "she walks on water" so to speak in his eyes, even though she knows she's not perfect. God loves us despite our sin, but He also sees us for who we were made to be and what we will be in eternity.

www.unsealed.org/2013/02/would-jesus-die-for-just-one-sinner.html

www.unsealed.org/2017/05/the-blessed-hope.html

www.unsealed.org/2019/08/the-lifted-veil.html (a few thoughts on love under the "What is Love?" section)

Praying for you neural and I pray you will find peace and understanding with what you say above is troubling your heart and soul and God guides you to the answers you seek. I listened to a sermon recently and a very valid point was brought up, actually a few. The pastor was so cautious to present what he did knowing it was a very touchy and difficult topic. Here are the verses he based his sermon on. Ironically much like back then when Jesus actually spoke to the Jews and Pharisees and they wanted to stone him for saying He and God were the same, the pastor received much conflict for his sermon on this topic. He had to have prepared himself for the lash backs which mainly were on social media. I am going to point out a few of the main ideas that were presented. 

34Jesus replied, “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’b ? 35If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken— 36then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? How then can you accuse Me of blasphemy for stating that I am the Son of God?37If I am not doing the works of My Father, then do not believe Me. 38But if I am doing them, even though you do not believe Me, believe the works themselves, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father.”

The word Jesus uses for gods is: From Strongs: 2316 theós (of unknown origin) – properly, God, the Creator and owner of all things (Jn 1:3; Gen 1 - 3).[Long before the NT was written, 2316 (theós) referred to the supreme being who owns and sustains all things.]

Jesus is referencing to Psalm 82:

1God has taken his place in the divine council;in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:2“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked?

Selah

3Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
4Rescue the weak and the needy;deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
5They have neither knowledge nor understanding,they walk about in darkness;all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6I said, “You are gods,sons of the Most High, all of you; 7nevertheless, like men you shall die,and fall like any prince.”
8Arise, O God, judge the earth;for you shall inherit all the nations!

The pastor brought up an interesting idea. We are in a way a part of or an extension of God. Think about a child for example.They are fully human, just tiny, limited in their knowledge and understanding of the world and especially the knowledge of good and evil at younger ages, and are made up of their parents DNA and cells. They are a physical and genetic extension of their parents. If never taught however, a child is not aware of the dangers of getting into cars with people they do not know and what that could lead to or that walking out into the road can be very dangerous. Their ignorance is also their innocence and can be a double edged sword. Children act as a reflection of their parents. They mimic and see themselves through their parents. They experience themselves and base their reality on their parents and what they are taught as they grow. They are innocent of evil and the knowledge of it until they are shown or experience it. This is no different for us and God.

If we are given an image of God that is only wrathful or that our sins just tip the pot for him and that he cannot get past them, they we are going to experience Him this way and reflect Him to others this way. This representation of God keeps us separated from Him and also our unique oneness with God in being created in His image. This is not being presented to say we are gods worthy of worship or on the same level as God or that we can make ourselves like God, which was the lie that caused sin when told to Adam and Eve. Some say that unbelievers are not children or offspring of God until they accept Jesus as their savior. Once they believe Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, then “poof” they are children of God. As you say above it is almost like the lost or unbelievers are viewed at a lower or different level. I do not say this directly just to or at you, just an observation of how "they" are viewed more times than not. This difference in views of dividing unbelievers as in an essence bastards, and believers as the children of God is a tragedy. It has caused such a rift and placed a line between humanity experiencing the gospel. This is not said to condemn anyone at all. We are all guilty to judge and hold ourselves over something or someone all the time. Sometimes intentionally and sometimes not.

Paul in Acts however paints a very very different picture of who unbelievers and the lost are. In Acts 17 Paul is addressing the city of Athens, which was full of idolatry, pagan gods and so fourth. Notice what Paul calls them and refers to them as. Children of God. Some versions say offspring of God. He does not condemn them for their pagan beliefs and immoralities, but tells them WHO THEY REALLY ARE and to repent from thinking gods can be made and shaped by human hands or needs our participation and devotion to achieve and earn their (idols or even Gods)love, will or ways.

22Then Paul stood up before the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and examined your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.

Therefore what you worship as something unknown, I now proclaim to you.

24The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples made by human hands. 25Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man He made every nation of men, to inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands. 27God intended that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. 28‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’a As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’b 29Therefore, being offspring of God, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by man’s skill and imagination. 30Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all men everywhere to repent. 31For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice (righteousness in the Greek according to strong's and some versions use righteousness) by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead.

>>>> The word in the Greek for children/offspring in the above verses is 1085 Genos: family/offspring. Whether we believe or do not believe, we are a part of Him. 

Notice what Paul doesn’t do. He doesn’t say believe the gospel or forever be destroyed or experience eternal tormented in Hell. He doesn’t give them an ultimatum or tries to plead with them to believe what he is telling them or their souls are on the line. HE SAYS NON OF THAT! He calls the men of Athens, who were notoriously homosexual and extremely promiscuous and worshiped a different god for everything, children of God and reassured them that God is not far from any of us.

neural Your value is that you are you and there is only one you. Your value is you are not afraid to ask questions and seek meaning. God is not offended by our ponderings and even confusion. Creation has not or is not failing. It is in bondage yes and in disorder being under the bondage of sin, because of humanities pride and arrogance. It is this very pride and arrogance that leads to our evil choices and ways. But creation is also not finished or in its finality. God is not all and all yet. There is another chapter yet ahead for His creation and his children are included in this next chapter.

There has been somewhat of an error in teaching and understanding (imho and I am certainly not a know it all or a pro at really anything) that all of humanity is destined to be destroyed or worse because of the first sin and the only way to avoid that is making sure you know Jesus is your savior and that this outcome was known by God before creation and he went ahead and made us anyways. According to majority of the Christian teachings most of Gods creation is destined for hell. HOW FREAKING DEPRESSING! To think God created us just to see if we would love Him and if we didn’t, were subject to eternal torture or doom either by His hand or allowance or His inability to love us enough so we would love back enough and believe in Him. Do parents base their love for their children on how much their children love them first or if they do at all? 

Many believe and teach it’s the enemies goal to keep unbelievers as unbelievers and dead to their sin and possibly damning their soul forever and think this is the most evil thing to be an unbeliever on purpose and unbelievers are wicked. To keep someone from believing in Jesus for their salvation is cause enough to torment them forever and ever. Like we are an item to be collected in a jar...However maybe is it more effective for the enemy to convince us God created us but that we are worthless and a lost cause to Him unless we in an essence have our information and facts straight on what is and isn’t the gospel among the myriads of denominations that now exist. Better pray to God as an unbeliever the church they decided to finally attend was the right one! Because we are taught that we are so full of wickedness and evil that we are practically helpless to our sin. Not saying that we we are not to an extent. The saying “you are what you eat” is very appropriate here. If we are fed constantly that we are so absolutely horrible, vile, worthless and broken, we are going to believe it and act on it. Wouldn’t it be more effective for the enemy to cast doubt and fear on us about Gods love and forgiveness. That at some point He gives up on us and cast away those who decided to not believe. To deceive us that Gods love and forgiveness does have limits and we are the deciding factor on His love, mercy, salvation and forgiveness. This deception is based on unbelief as basically being the unforgivable sin. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is discussed as the unforgivable sin and understanding that is a whole study course in itself. 

Say someone is an strict atheist. Absolutely believes in science and facts only. However they devote the much of their freetime and income visiting third world countries feeding starving children, opening an orphanage for them, and helping mothers to care for their children and teaching them things for their health and safety. I have an old friend that does this. She travels all around the world getting waitressing or any job she can and saves up enough money to travel from country to country helping homeless and starving children and families, volunteers in the orphanages, and teaching the importance of clean water, hygiene, health, child care and sex education on how STD's and AID's are transmitted and that these diseases can be transmitted to babies when born and so fourth. She is part of a small non profit organization. Pretty much her entire life is devoted to loving and helping the poor, outcast, and those in dire need. She has caught Malaria twice from sleeping in such remote parts of the jungle and from staying in small villages and similar. She is also an atheist. I really cannot see that if she died today as an atheist and stood before God that He would say this to her:

"You have devoted your life, time, and money to helping the poor, rejected and unloved and having minimum personal or material items. You lived among them expecting nothing in return. Even though you served many and sacrificed your own comforts, wellbeing and health to give and help, you did not believe in or accept Jesus as your savior. Because of this you are condemned and will serve eternity in hell" (either as being destroyed to eternal dust or sent to unimaginable torment based on whatever one believes). 

Would God send someone to hell or annihilation for this? For in many ways acting like Jesus did and wants us too. She certainly does and acts more like Jesus than I ever have in my life. Is she evil or wicked for her disbelief? Anymore than those of us who do believe? No she isn't. I know the usual response to this is "well that's a nice thought and all but she will pay the price for her disbelief no matter what she has done with her life or what she dealt with as a child." That was her choice to not believe is the general attitude. 

I really admire and look up to my friend and her devotion and love for others. She grew up in a very torn and sad home as a child and spent the majority of it by herself. Both of her parents owned a shop and when she came home from school and on most weekends was home by herself for hours. They usually did not come home until 8 or 9 pm and sometimes later. She was an unexpected baby to parents who were older. She had a couple much older siblings who lived out of town and had families of their own. Her loneliness broke my heart and hers so much more. When I would spend the night at her house in my early teenage years I would wake up hearing her crying in another room. I would go and sit with her and she always talked about how alone she was and how much she hated it and that she felt like an outcast and accident whose parents did not have time for. It didn't help that she lived in the middle of nowhere so there was no other kids or neighbors she could visit without taking a hike. She took her very painful childhood and turned it into something very beautiful and humble.  

Paul says the exact opposite above. God is not served (or relies on) or is complete because of our deeds or actions because He does not need anything from us to give life and provide all things because only He alone can do that. His will does not wait on ours. We have been taught for hundreds and hundreds of years that our existence started off as futile and is headed for destruction or worse unless God at some point in our lives exposes us to the gospel and we believe it. We have been convinced we are a basically a mistake and God is continually trying to fix us and sent His Son to mend a mistake. But that is not so. God is working on and with us and is always for us. He is not against us and not so offended by our sin that we are repulsive to him until we believe in Jesus. God is continually helping us to become more in His image. Humanity isn’t there yet clearly because we are constantly trying to fix ourselves and control everything, even the things we cannot control. But Paul very clearly says above that we are in Him, live because of Him and have our being because of Him. Even though my friend is an atheist, God is the driving force behind her decision and very generous and giving way of life. She is a child of God. When we understand this and see our fellow humans in this light, we stop seeing a "they" amongst humanity. The dividing line that is created by seeing and "us" and "they" dissolves away and God is seen more and more in everyone. He is seen in the unbelieving Muslim moving boulders and parts of a collapsed building due to being hit by a bomb to save whoever he can ignoring his own injuries in the pursuit and hope of saving a life. He is seen in the lesbian first responder weeping behind the ambulance at the sight of seeing a child dead from child abuse and wheeling away their little body onto the ambulance or the wiccan volunteer devoting their free time to holding premature babies who would never get held in the local NICU. Babies who need that comfort to thrive and grow.

These people are not utterly wicked in their unbelief, they are lost and do not know who they are. But God does and regardless of their ignorance He works in and with them to do good. 

This was a lot longer than I intended it to be. I don't expect anyone to agree with me nor do I think my point of view is better or right. Honestly sometimes I feel like the village crazy lady around here. But I do know one thing with every fiber of my being and that is this.  

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin..... 35The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

1. No debating core doctrines of the Christian faith. <<< Didn't do that.
If you are participating here you should be a committed Believer. Seekers and non-Christians are more than welcome also, but this is a forum that honors God's Word and therefore arguments against His Word aren't for this forum... questions are welcome though! For purposes of this forum, "core doctrines" are considered to be the historic tenets of Christianity:
One self-existent God, <<< Believe that
the Trinity, <<< Believe that
the Incarnation, <<< Believe that
the virgin birth, <<< Believe that
the full deity of Christ, <<< Believe that
the substitutionary atonement, <<< Believe that
the literal and physical resurrection of Christ, <<< Believe that
salvation through faith alone in Christ alone,  <<< Believe that
a literal and future bodily resurrection of the dead, <<< Believe that
and a historical-grammatical interpretation of Scripture. <<< This is debatable and not a core doctrine, just a way of understanding and reading. More opinion than anything honestly 
Premillennialism, <<< Believe that
a literal rapture of the Church to Heaven, <<< also debatable and certainly not "core" doctrine. Believing in a literal rapture has nothing to do with ones salvation. This is again opinion/theology related. 
and a literal/historical interpretation of Genesis 1-11 are also considered core doctrines.
 <<< Believe that

Not seeing were I broke any rules here other than maybe not completely agreeing or possibly opposing your personal beliefs/theology and you taking that as rule breaking or that what I was trying to express was misunderstood and maybe I need to clarify or write it out better? 

---

This post was created by someone who is experiencing a pretty heavy spiritual battle and having conflicting emotions and understandings regarding several things. I am not trying to convince him of anything or prove anything. I have had these very same thoughts many times myself as have many others. My intent was to show a way to possibly view those who are hard to love in a more positive way by giving an example from scriptures and give real life scenarios to think about, encouragement and hope. How did I do anything other than that? Was it because I pointed out that Paul did not say anything about Hell or annihilation? I am not making that up, he did not even hint at such a thing and something of that nature would be completely unknown to Pagan Greeks. I think I presented this very appropriately, lovingly and with many examples from scriptures and then you come in and accuse me of rule breaking and then go on picking certain parts of scripture examples given to fit your view point and pretty much ignoring the rest of what Paul was saying because he is actually being pretty straightforward to those in Athens about what he is saying in regards to them being the offspring of God, we only exist and come to being because of God, God breathes His very life through us, all things exist through God, God doesn't need anything from us to do anything because He provides everything, idol worship is meaningless, there is only one God and Jesus was raised from the dead to prove all that Paul was saying. Jesus is able to love all, restore so many who were hurting, sick, or possessed without them doing anything to receive it, and look upon them with pity, love his enemies, and always forgive and have understanding for our bad decisions and wicked ways because of what Paul is describing who we are to God. 

If you want to believe that someone is not an offspring or a child of God until they believe Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead for our forgiveness and overcoming death then that is your personal choice. That is not however what Paul is saying above at all. He does not say only believers are offspring or children of God or that you  will or could become a child of God, but that we (as in addressing the pagan Athenians) are offspring of God because He created us and we only live because of Him. How is that wrong? Isn't that what makes a child a child? Because their parents created them? A child does not one day decide that they are a child and their parent are really their parents. That is nonsense. He was giving the Athenians encouragement! 

The OP is asking for prayers on not seeing people is such a dividing way as "us" and "they" the unbelievers and why God loves him and for understanding regarding that. Your attitude in your reply to me was really unnecessary. I am misunderstanding your tone in your response than I apologize.  

Jesus did not attack people when he walked this earth for individual sins, he did not go after or condemn homosexuals, adulterers, thief's, pagans, and even those that he pointed out to not believe who he was, he asked them to believe what he did was because of God. He actually spent a lot of time with those who were considered "sinners" and looked down on by society. The only things Jesus condemned, hated, accused was the organized, controlling, and corrupt religions and that people would rather believe their own lies verses the truth. He pointed out their lying and loveless hearts, false self's, arrogance and the burdens they placed on people who wanted to worship and love God, with their rules and laws that the majority of the religious leaders didn't follow themselves. Jesus hated mans actions and thinking that their works and abilities gained their salvation and forgiveness and when the religious leaders heard this wasn't the case, their lies and thievery pointed out, and their religion being threatened as completely pointless, they hated it and hated the one telling the truth. He hated the lies, the falseness, the religion, and the hardened hearts, not the people.

Never said she would have salvation without Christ and if that is how it seems to be presented that was not my intention. I am presenting something I have struggled with myself and this is a scenario that I have been angry, frustrated and confused with at God in the past and in regards to our purpose in this life, and the purpose/reason of the gospel, the good news. Thinking our eternity is solely based on a handful of decades of life, limited knowledge and understanding, it experiences and choices and that’s it, to me is not that great and clearly according the OP’s post, I am not the only one who has struggled with such reasoning. 

You pointed out one of the variables in the context of that section of Acts when there are many variables that are presented for the context given by Paul. 

Upon reading over Acts 17 again, I think where the problem is is that Paul is quoting one of the Greek's poets who wrote that they are God's offspring. Paul then is basically saying if that is so then God is not like one of those idols they have created. (Earlier in the passage he told them who God is). Paul is not saying they are all God's children; the poet said it. Paul is trying to point them to the truth.