Does God Care?

1 Peter 5: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." 6Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (NIV)

Is God crying today? Is Jesus weeping for His children? Is the Holy Spirit grieving? Does God care about us? Does God care about what is going on in the world? Does God care whether there is war on earth? Does God care whether man is on the brink of self-imposed massive death and destruction? Does God care that so many no longer care about Him or try to walk in His ways? Does God care whether people destroy their minds and bodies with drugs, alcohol, and destructive life styles? Does God care, that in the U.S., nearly one in four babies conceived is murdered through abortion before the baby is born? Does God care that so few people pray to Him? Does God care that man is trying to become more powerful than He is? Does God care that the forces of darkness have swept over the earth and are destroying millions of lives and souls? Does God care at all, about anything or about anyone?

In a world that has rejected God, these are legitimate questions to ask. However, these questions are not legitimate to ask if you love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might. We ask these questions on in a rhetorical or a satirical sense. We ask these questions because we want to see the power of God revealed in a dramatic way to convert the world to Christ. However, only those persons who do not have Christ living and alive in their heart would legitimately ask these questions. In a world caught up in the chaos of sin and darkness, a thinking person who does have a sense of the desperation running rampant in the world would ask if God does care.

Even for those of us who daily put God first in our hearts, it is so easy to say "Yes, God cares." It is easy when we are not the victims of the darkness. What each of us must do is go beyond the easy answers and look at the heart of God. When we look at the heart of God we see not only our precious Lord Jesus weeping for His children, we also see a Father God who is both sad and angry. There is anger in Heaven because of what so many of God's children have brought upon the world. God is angry that so many have turned away from Him. God is angry that so many have rejected the Love of Christ. God is angry that so many people have filled their lives with sin and darkness when these very people had a choice about how they live.

Yes, God is weeping, along with our Precious Savior, over the suffering and pain of His children of the earth. How long must His children suffer at the hands of those who inflict the suffering? God has patience but His patience will not last forever. God is weeping over the pain inflicted upon His children by cancer, AIDS, ebola, and all the many infestations of the body by viruses and diseases.

Yes, God does care. The fact is that God cares more and is in contact with the suffering more than any of us could know or imagine. It is the very nature of God that causes God to care. God never turns His back on anyone. God sent His only Son into the world because God cares about each of us. God's love and caring are infinite. It is because God's love and caring are infinite that He was willing to let His Son die upon the Cross. It is God's very closeness to our heart that causes Him so much grief when we turn away from Him. It is God's very presence in our lives that causes Him to grow angry with us when we profane Him and His calling upon each of our lives.

Yes, God cares about both the suffering victim and about the person who inflicts suffering upon others. In our humanity, we cannot understand a God so loving, kind, and tender that He could care both about the victim and about the sick mind of a perpetrator. In God's caring and compassionate heart there is room for every soul no matter what the condition of that soul might be. In the heart of God, there is an infinite love for every person and creature on earth. There is no person who suffers who is not held close to God's heart. There is no person who commits crimes of any kind that God does not love.

We cannot fathom this kind of love. However, we do not need to understand this love because our job is not to understand but to show. It is up to us to show Christ's unfathomable love to those who are lost in sin and darkness.

Yes, God knows your suffering. Your pain, isolation, and loneliness are a burden God carries with you. For you are not alone in this life. Someone is walking with you and beside you every moment you breathe the breath of life. That person is our most wonderful Savior and Friend, Jesus Christ. You will never walk this path of life by yourself. You will never be by yourself. You will not gasp for air in the darkness and pain of living and be ignored. Your muscles and joints may cry out in pain yet your God is always pushing you to live up life as much as possible. Your heart may break at the suffering you endure, but God holds your heart in His hands and your heart is treasured by Him. No life on earth is ever lived without God knowing about it. No microbe lives without the knowledge of God. We cannot understand all of this mystery. We cannot fathom all that God is and does in our lives and in the lives of others. What we can fathom and what we can understand is the presence of God in our heart. We can understand most clearly that each of us has the power to accept or reject the love that is God. Each of us, every second we are alive, does make the decision to accept or reject the love that is God.

What grieves God so deeply is that so many people reject Him. No matter how many excuses we might use to reject God, the fact remains that we are using excuses. Everyone has at least one good excuse to not come to the heart of God. Everyone has at least one good excuse not to lay all of his or her life at the foot of the Cross. Everyone has a resounding reason they can use to say that God does not care. However, God knows that all the excuses and reasons are lies. And, in the heart of every person, every person also knows that every excuse and every reason used to reject Christ is also a lie. We can reject God and have our reasons. We can reject God and have our excuses. Some of us can even blame God for our rejecting Him. However, we all know we are using a lie to not be close to Him. In our relationship with God, each of us knows when we are telling lies. Each of us knows when we are not telling the truth. God also knows when we lie. However, even when you lie to Him, God still loves you. Even when you use excuses, God still holds your life and heart close to Him.

It is time each of us owns up. In owning up and telling the truth, we must first confront the truth that God does care about us. We must confront the truth that God does love us beyond measure. We must confront the truth that God holds each of us close to Him as well has holding each of us accountable for what we do and the decisions we make. It is because God loves us so much that we must not lie to Him. It is because God loves us so much that we must turn away from our old lives of sin and darkness. It is because God loves us that we lay all we surrender our lives and place all we are at the foot of the Cross.

What God wants for each of us is an earthly life full of hope, promise, and Light from His Son. Even at the very last hour of our life, God wants us to live out that hour with hope for Heaven. Even in the very last hour of life, God wants us to be full of joy at the prospect of seeing Him and His glorious kingdom. However, millions today reject His hope. Millions of persons reject His love and care. Millions of persons, knowing full well what they are doing, refuse to go to Him and live as God and His Son have called them to live. Not only have people rejected God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, many of these people openly and with forethought are promoting the darkness without conscience or regret.

It is because so many people are openly and with forethought rejecting God, that God's wrath will be poured out upon the earth. How long His wrath will be held back we do not know. It is because God has so much love and wants so much goodness from each of us that He will indeed pour out His wrath upon the millions reject Him. When we look at God and see His love, we also see that when His love, care, and compassion are rejected there comes a time of wrath. God will not pour out His wrath on the people of the earth because God does not love us. God will pour out His wrath upon the earth because God does love us and so many have rejected His love. God's wrath will be visited upon the many because God cared so much about them and about the children of the world, yet they rejected Him.

Perhaps you believe that God will not really vent His anger and wrath upon us. However, look at what is happening at this moment upon the earth. At this moment, you see people who either do not care about God at all, or people who are openly working against God and His hope-filled agenda for each of us. In their stupidity, men and women not only make themselves the victims of their own decisions to reject God, they also make others the victims of their decisions. What grieves God is that each of us, every single person on the earth, knows about the consequences of their rejection of God. We must not make excuses for ourselves or for others. Every person knows the consequences of walking away from God. Even the persons who have never heard about the saving grace of Christ, all know on a spiritual level, they are walking away from God when they make decisions. Each person has an innate sense of right and wrong, else no society could stay in tact. It is this innate sense of right and wrong that is pinged by the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that touches the conscience of the person lost in sin, to come to Christ who died upon the Cross.

At this moment in history, we are all without excuse. We are without excuses because God does care about us and we know it. No matter how much we hurt, we know God does care about us.

Yes, God cares about the corruption in governments and in the hearts of leaders around the world. God cares and is grieving about this corruption. God expects those in leadership positions in every group and nation to reflect His love and His authority. When leaders fail, God's wrath builds up.

Yes, God cares about the use of substances that corrupt and corrode the human body. His love extends to persons who abuse substances just as His love extends to those who are victims of the substance abuser. However, God demands that each person stop the abuse of their body. God demands that each person cast their whole being before Him and give Him thanks and their love and obedience. When men and women do not care, then God's wrath comes pouring out into the soul of the abuser and the abuser lives a hell on earth.

Yes, God does care about so many of the world events spinning out of control. When war is waged, God is weeping. When men, women, and children die in conflicts of ideas, theologies, or just plain hatred, God does care.

At this point in this message, most of you have another question. That question is, "If God cares, then why doesn't He do something?" If you think about it, you already know the answer. You know in your heart, whether you are for God or against Him, that God will do something. You know that God will not sit back and watch as the darkness of Satan continues to prevail. You know that the anger of God is building up moment by moment. You know that God's wrath will pour out upon the earth.

What is most important is the question, are you prepared? Are you eager to see His nail-scarred hands? Are you ready to see Jesus today? Will you stand before Him without blemish or excuse? Will you stand before Jesus as He appears in the eastern sky with joy in your heart? Can you withstand the persecution of the darkness of Satan with a hope for a future full of glory? Are you ready today to breathe your last breath with a heart full of joy?

Your preparation for your meeting with the Savior is instantaneous. When you look back at your life and you can see how you have not lived as He wants you to live, you can turn to Him, apologize to Him, and commit all you are to living for Him. When you give your life to Christ you get a new life back. You get an eternal life full of hope and glory…because He cares about you. He loves you. Open your heart today to receive His love. Open your heart to Him and all things become new. Open your life to His touch and all darkness disappears.