OK. The reason I was asking for more information is this: when people are just “attending” the church without being active members, they are not developing their spiritual side properly (at least not in the content of the particular church’s teaching). Such people need to have different guidelines than the people that are actively involved in their faith. First, they need to dive deep into Orthodox Teaching (in case with Orthodox Church “attendees”). This would definitely provide them with countless number of similar to their situation examples from the history of the church and from the lives of Christians throughout the history. And what is important, such attendees would get an instant resolution to their questions by just observing what others did when they were in the situation similar or just like their.
I do not believe that God is punishing you for leaving one church and joining another simply because I do not believe that our LOVING Heavenly Father punishes us at all. God’s punishment should be a different topic here and I hope that one day I will get to that topic as well. Yes, He warns us about the consequences of our bad behavior and cries with us when we are hurt, but He is not the One to impose His will upon us. We need to voluntarily submit our will to His and ask (again voluntarily) that His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.
I am not suggesting that jumping from one church to another is a good thing because it is not. In doing so, we deprive ourselves from spiritual guidance and spiritual development. We always are ‘newcomers’ and never become ‘elders’. There is only one reason that would be good enough for switching the churches – if after proper study and consideration you STRONGLY believe that you will find salvation in that church and not in the one you are in right now. This refers to the newcomers to the Orthodox Church as well!
Personally, I believe and I know that I CAN find salvation in Orthodox Church because there are countless number of lives and witnesses starting from approx. 33AD who being active members of the Orthodox Church did find salvation for their souls! Therefore, I am an Orthodox Christian and became an Orthodox Priest so that I could witness Jesus Christ’s salvation to others.
Going back to God’s will be done on earth as it is being done in heaven…
When we ask for this and as a result entrust ourselves into God’s hands, we need to humbly accept everything that happens to us because it happens for our own good (God knows what it takes to humble us and He does it as loving Father). Sometimes, we need to learn to accept this…and start growing spiritually.
Therefore, if your spiritual growth stopped (or if you started to block God’s blessings) at the time when you started to attend different church, then this can be the case The reason I am telling you this is because since then things have seemed to go downhill. However, this can happen also to anybody within the Orthodox Church without ever leaving her boundaries! I am sure that there are many Orthodox Christians who go through times of trials and tribulations, through plenty of physical as well as spiritual turbulence just as you and I do!!! Suffering is not something we can avoid in this world, but it definitely is something we can use for our own spiritual benefits!
I would suggest to read lives of the saints especially those in the beginning of Christianity, who endured lots of sufferings and were blessed with lots of blessings! Yes, even saints suffered and still suffer. The difference between their suffering and our suffering is very easy to understand – they were accepting it as the will of God to improve their spiritual side. Some of the Desert Fathers even cried and wept when they were well and were not affected by some kind of physical infirmity. They believed that God has forsaken them. When we submit ourselves to the will of God and then have any kind of physical or emotional trouble (and by ‘we’ I mean Christians), we pray to God more frequently, we ask God for forgiveness, we entrust ourselves into His hands and we learn to be humble sons and daughters who is willing to serve Him in His house even as servants (parable of the prodigal son). God embraces us and provides healing because we are able to receive it particularly at the time of our return.
Please, forgive me for such a long reply, but I wanted to show you that we need to co-work, co-operate with God in making our life a success (translates as finding our salvation). I would suggest you start reading some writings of the saints and you will learn a lot from them. Unfortunately, Lutheran Church rejected Church Tradition altogether including writings of the early church writers. You can try to find it in your local library or look around on the internet. I will post a _link_ on this website to Early Church Fathers and even this _link_ can give you a good start. There is a lot to read, but it is worth to do it! May God bless you on your journey!