God Cares for You
“.
. . casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He
cares for you.”
1 Peter 5:7
How do you point one to God when the events of life seem to indicate
that God doesn’t care? Personal issues of broken relationships, abandonment,
abuse, shattered dreams, financial collapse, and depression often take ones’
eyes off of the Word of God and directly onto the temporal world. Focusing on the temporal world, the evidence seems to be there that God just
doesn’t care.
How do you explain those who are tormented daily by diseases, suffering
leading only to death; miscarriages and the death of infants and children; the murder
of a loved one in a drive by shooting, at the hands of an irate former employee,
or by a drunk driver? Beyond death, how
do you explain a caring God in light of the trauma of rape, sexual assault, spousal/child
abuse, child molestation, the sex-slave trade, and starvation around the
world? What is the answer to the
devastation of tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, famine or disease? Tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands
of people, already with few worldly possessions, are killed, injured or
homeless in an instant. Each of these
cases of disaster, death, injury, and illness make it difficult to see that God
cares, unless we turn to The Word of
God to learn the truth.
The
truth is there is no grief deeper than that of God’s in all of life. This world is His – He made it, every item
and every person has been made for His glory.
Where He made light, beauty and peace to be, darkness and evil have
encroached. Each of those impacted by
the darkness are known by Him intimately, some He literally indwells with His
Spirit, feeling what they feel as they feel it.
He knows the fullness in Him each participant was made to
experience. He knows fully that which
has and is being stolen from them by Satan, and He grieves, deeply.
The words
of Jesus as He looked over Jerusalem gives us a glimpse into the heart of God
as He looks upon the world: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones
those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together,
the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.” Matthew
23:37 God desires to protect His children as a
mother hen protects her chicks. He wants
them close to Him, under His wings. But we are tempted to judge Him as we do
others because we don’t understand.
Jesus
knows the temptation to accuse God of not caring. “For we do not have a high
priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted
in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews
4:15 Jesus sympathizes with us as we wrestle with
the evidence of a fallen world, as we
wrestle with a wrong focus.
Finally,
God feels the price He has paid for the redemption of each individual
person. He sacrificed His Son, poured
out His blood and is actively involved in the redemption plan each moment of
each day. There is no doubt He cries
with those who cry, He feels their pain and has given them the indwelling of
His Holy Spirit to bring comfort, peace and meaning to life (John 14:16).
How
do you point one to God when the events of life seem to indicate that God
doesn’t care? You acknowledge their pain, affirm their compassion, and refocus
them on the truth. Focusing on God,
realizing who you are in Him, acknowledging His presence, power, and provision
will not take away the pain or allow tragedies to make sense in human
terms. Indeed, it might even make you
more sensitive to the pain around you. Yet
such a focus will keep you rooted in the knowledge that God cares, He feels
more deeply your pain than you can comprehend, He can bear all your anxiety. He Cares for You!
© Written by Dr. Richard L. Roberts,
Founder/Director of Life Focus Ministries.
You can reach him at
Richard@GrowLeaders.org or (423) 790-4994.
