God Cares – Part 2 — Morning Devotions

• Read God Cares – Part 1

Most people say they believe in God. But we have a tendency to see God in different ways.  For example, you may see God as someone who:

• looks like an old man with a long white beard
• is invisible and ghost-like
• is far-removed and distant from us and uninterested
• is the ‘Big Guy upstairs’, our buddy, the ‘man upstairs’
• is mad and only wants to punish us
• if you pray to him, he will intervene so that your team will win the Super Bowl.

So, who is this God we are in search of? I hope you will not underestimate the importance of this, because if the foundation of a building is inadequate, the whole structure is weak. If our concept of God is inaccurate, then all that follows is inaccurate and weak.

Today we will begin to piece together the puzzle of what God is like. We start with a foundational truth: God cares about you. He does. We may never fathom the depth of his love for us, but there are some ways we are shown that God cares for us.

Evidence of God’s care for us

Two words from scripture give evidence and describe God’s care for us. The first is a ‘churchy’ word; the other is a rather common one: salvation and strength.

Salvation—being forgiven and in a right relationship with God; knowing that your sins are forgiven and that you are a Christian and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Listen to what Paul said to the church in Rome (Romans 3:23-26) but listen to the full text. God really does care for you!

God knows and he does care. Please believe that! He not only knows and cares—he understands, he is touched, he is moved. And he longs to sustain and deliver us. Jesus Christ himself experienced the maximum impact of loneliness, as he hung on the cross. His friends had already fled. One had betrayed him. Now for a period of time the Father turned away. In the bottomless agony of that moment, the Lord cried out—he literally screamed aloud (Matthew 27:45-46).

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About three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “My God, My God, why have You left Me alone?” (Matthew 27:46 -NLV)

The loneliness of those dark moments as the Saviour carried our sin cannot be adequately pictured on paper. Cold print cannot convey it. But is it any wonder that he is now able to sympathise and enter in as we battle feelings of loneliness? Those who bear the scars of that silent warfare need no explanation of the pain—only an invitation to share in the wound and, if possible, help in the healing.

When we are lonely, we need an understanding friend. Jesus is the one who ‘sticks closer than a brother’. When we are lonely, we need strength to keep putting one foot in front of the other—Jesus is the one ‘who strengthens me’. When we are lonely, we need to lift our eyes off ourselves. Jesus, the ‘Founder and Finisher’ of the life of faith, invites us to fix our eyes on him and refuse to succumb (Hebrews 12:1-3).

God is a specialist when the anguish is deep. His ability to heal the soul is profound—but only those who rely on his wounded Son experience relief. By turning from the loneliness of sin and unbelief to faith in Jesus Christ, you can have confidence that God cares for you. The Gospel of John says:

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 – NKJV).

Let me illustrate it with this story about a 28-year-old woman named Carla Ardonge. After hearing from her doctor the joyous news that she was pregnant, she was given a hard choice. It was a choice, she was told, between her life or the baby’s life. Carla and her husband spent many hours in prayer and discussion and they decided to save the baby.

Nine months later Carla slipped into a coma, and her son Stephano was delivered by caesarean section. Eight hours later Carla died. As Stephano grows up and begins to understand what his mother did for him—she gave her life so he could live—do you think there will ever be a question in his mind as to whether his mother loved him? I don’t think so.

We can put our trust in Jesus

Jesus Christ did that very thing for you and me. He willingly gave his life so that we might live. He did it because he loves us and because of God’s great love for us and comes to us when we trust Jesus to be our Saviour. Jesus is the only door to life and life eternal in God’s presence—you must trust Jesus to enter that door.

You trust people every day—by flying in a plane you trust the pilot to get you there safely; at the pharmacy you trust they will give you the right prescription; when eating at a restaurant you trust the chef will not sabotage your meal.

Salvation is putting your trust in Jesus Christ as being the only one who can get you into heaven. It shows God’s great care for us.

Strength—another word to remember that proves God cares about you: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)

There comes a time when we all realise our own strength is not sufficient. You have serious health problems, you lose your job, your kids are near the edge, there is death in your family, your marriage is in trouble, your finances are shot—these things happen to us all.

When we feel helpless God shows his care for us when he holds us up in times of distress. He gives strength to fainting hearts and courage in fearful times.

Again Paul gives us this insight in his letter to the Corinthian church:

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9 -NIV)

Source:
Charles Swindoll