GOD CARES!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 02, 2024.

SUBJECT: GOD CARES!

Memory verse: "Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." (First Peter 5 vs 7.) 

READ: Psalm 103 vs 8 - 14 & 17:

103:8: The Lord is merciful and gracious. slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. 

103:9: He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. 

103:10: He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. 

103:11: For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 

103:12: As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. 

103:13: As s father pities his children, do the Lord pities those who fear Him. 

103:14: For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. 

103:17: But the mercy of The Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him. And His righteousness to children's children. 

INTIMATION:

God has deep interest in all that concerns you and I. We are fragile but God's care is eternal. Too often we focus on God as Judge and Lawgiver; seeing the Greek concept of God that was popular in that Old Testament days—a God with no emotions and no messy involvement with humans, ignoring His compassion and concern for us. When God examines our lives He remembers our human condition. His mercy takes everything into account. God deals with us compassionately. 

God is so caring that even when He forgives us our sin, He separates it from us and doesn't remember it anymore. As east and west can never meet so is a symbolic portrait of how God separates us from our sins when He forgives us. We need never wallow in the past, for God forgives and forgets. 

Our loving Father will never leave us; that is His promise to us (see Matthew 28 vs 20; John 14 vs 18). But the enemy of our souls wants us to doubt God, and to question His ability. And this undoubtedly, is the trick the father of lies, Satan, has used from the beginning of human history. In the Garden of Eden our first parents were set up to live happily ever after, having been placed in a paradise-like setting by a Loving, Caring, and Personal God. They had been given everything they could ever want, but with only one small restriction: "Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." 

We easily will say today, 'What a simple innocuous request and easy to obey.'

But when they were enticed by the “tempter,”—he devil, they fell into his trap of questioning the love and goodness of the One from whom they had only experienced good. What a monstrous lie! But they bought the lie hook, line and sinker! And mankind has been wretched ever since, but for God's intervention through His Son, Jesus Christ! 

We do the same today. We willingly swallow the lie that we cannot trust our Heavenly Father. We allow our unpleasant earthly circumstances, and hurts from parents or others to distrust our view and our understanding of God. Our many feelings, emotions, fears, and human experience effectively block a clean perception, consequently stifling all truth about Him. 

Now, let us look at a scriptural portrait of the caring nature of Jesus. The Scripture says in John 11 vs 33 - 37, “Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping who came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled. And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!” And some of them said, “Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?” (John 11 vs 33 - 37.)

Obviously, we have a God who cares. When Jesus saw the weeping and wailing, He too wept openly. Perhaps He empathized with their grief, or perhaps He was troubled at their unbelief. In either case, Jesus showed that He cares enough for us to weep with us in our sorrow. Here we see many of Jesus’ emotions—compassion, indignation, sorrow, even frustration. He often expressed deep emotion, and we must never be afraid to reveal our true feelings to Him. He understands them, for He experienced them. Be honest, and don’t try to hide anything from your Savior. He cares.

Carrying your worries, stresses, and daily struggles by yourself shows that you have not trusted God fully with your life. It takes humility, however, to recognize that God cares, and to admit your needs, and let God take care of you. Sometimes we think that struggles caused by our own sin and foolishness are not God's concern. But when we turn to God in repentance, He will bear the weight of those struggles, including our sins. Hence the Scripture says, “Casting all your care upon Him; for he cares for you.” (First Peter 5 vs 7.)

Pray that God will help you not allow negative human relationships and experiences interfere with having a close relationship with your Loving, and Caring Father, and hindering your enjoying the never ending and limitless benefits of His care.

Prayer: Abba Father, You are so caring and loving that You gave Your only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sins. What a supreme sacrifice You made for me! Forever You remain my God. Endue me with the spirit of love, compassion, trust, and complete obedience to You, Who has given all for me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!