Does God Really Care About How I Feel?
When sad and depressing times come, we often seek someone we know truly cares for us. We long to talk to and be heard by someone who is genuinely concerned, truly caring, and sincerely wants to understand us without judging us. Many of us run to a trusted friend when that happens, but many of us forget that we have someone who truly cares for us at all times: The Lord who made heaven and earth.
Caring for you
Many of us treat God as a last resort. We run to Him when we run out of options, when we realize that there's no one who truly cares, and feel like we're all left alone. We will always put Him last in the list when we feel like He really doesn't care about what we are feeling or going through – as if they don't matter to Him.
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This isn't true. God is far more concerned with us than we are with Him. Peter encourages us: "Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you." (1 Peter 5:7 NLT)
Many of us think that God isn't concerned with all the nitty-gritty details of our lives. That He isn't concerned about what we feel at the moment. Of course He is. Consider what Psalm 34:17-18 tells us: "The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and saves the contrite of spirit." (emphasis mine)
Close to the broken
God is indeed close to the broken. Consider the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the best and perfect example of how close God is to the broken and hopeless:
- Christ Jesus was rejected by the people He reached out to. Have you been rejected by the people you merely wanted to bless? He understands you.
- Christ Jesus was a carpenter. Is your job hard labor? He understands you pretty well.
- Christ Jesus was betrayed and abandoned by His trusted friends. Have you been betrayed? He knows what you feel.
- Christ Jesus was slandered, maligned, brought to court on false charges, and was sentenced to death through injustice. Have you been a victim of injustice? He understands you perfectly.
- Christ Jesus lived again, and yet people keep trying to destroy His beautiful name. Have you repented of your sin and done your best to follow Christ and yet experienced ridicule or worse for doing so? He sees what you're going through and understands you so well.
Come to the Father
Friend, I encourage you to come and approach the Lord. He knows how you are feeling. He is concerned about you, and desires to encourage you. He is the God of all comfort (see 2 Corinthians 1:3-5) who longs to comfort you and quiet you with His love (see Zephaniah 3:17).
I leave you with this final exhortation:
"Since then we have a great High Priest who has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who was in every sense tempted like we are, yet without sin. Let us then come with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16 MEV)
