Devotionals for the Heart: God Cares

God Cares
A devotional by Nanci Rubin

“Does God Care?”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked that question. But I can unequivocally say, “Yes, He does!"

When you’re hurting and you can’t see beyond your pain, His Word brings hope. But the times when our pain is constant and unrelenting, then the assembling of ourselves with one another becomes a healing balm. When our church family is interceding on our behalf, healing can begin. There is no family like the family of God. We need one another.

“Not forsaking the assembling of yourself together, as the manner some is; but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” 

~Hebrews 10:25 (KJV)

I have so many friends who have been wounded and silently sit on the sidelines no longer willing to enter a church. Their reasons are their own. I have survived two church splits in my lifetime, neither was pretty and they left wounds that lasted a long time. Healing comes but as with all things, it came in God’s time.

I’m grateful that I didn’t become bitter. I have a couple of friends who never entered a church again. They have chosen to embrace their pain, to nurse it and rehearse it. The past holds them frozen in time. They no longer trust any ministry. It saddens me to see the wounded remain victims. God created a family and we complete each other. I pray my friends will trust again and allow God to bring them to an area in which they are willing to be healed. We need to keep our eyes on Jesus. Men will fail, He never will.

I was reading a book recently that was conveying how many born-again Christians who are the children of God but have never become acquainted with our Father. An interesting topic and one I have never considered.

I think a lot of us don’t realize how interested He is in each of us individually (not just as a group, or a body, or a church). He is interested in each of His children, and He loves every single one with the same love. I’ve also read that often our relationship with our earthly fathers creates an atmosphere of how we perceive our Heavenly Father. It is difficult for those of us who have had absentee fathers, abusive fathers, or harsh and cold fathers to see our Heavenly Father as the loving, caring Father He is.

In the Old Testament, after the tabernacle was built first and the temple second, they didn’t know Him as Father God. They knew Him as Elohim, or Jehovah. They did not know Him personally.

The enemy doesn’t want you to know God’s love. He wants to beat you down and tell you, your sin is too great and you can’t be forgiven. He calls to remembrance the ugliness of our sinful past before coming to Jesus.

God is not mad at you, He is mad about you! His love for you is so great there is nothing on earth to compare it to. God is love. When we’ve committed sins and remain in isolation from our guilt will eventually cause us to feel He’s not here or He doesn’t care. 

The ruse of the enemy is to alienate us from our Father, but all we have to do is repent, confess we’ve missed the mark, ask for forgiveness and move on. We’re all sinners saved by grace. 

God is not holding a big stick to wield across your back. Jesus made a way for us to cross the chasm of sin and come back to fellowship with our Heavenly Father. We must learn to see ourselves as God does. He sees us as the finished product of love, complete and whole. 

Don’t be down on yourself, God loves you just the way you are. He’ll hide you under the shadow of His wings when you need healing, He’ll carry you when you can’t walk, He’ll fight your battles for you, and He’ll never leave nor forsake you.

It is a privilege to be in service to the King. Blessings to you all.

~*~
Author Bio:

Nanci writes Inspy Amish romance. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and two fur kids, Romeo and Juliet, rescue cats. She is working on her debut novel, Plain Justice.

She retired earlier than planned from nursing to care for her mother, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Her mom passed last year at the age of ninety-nine and Nanci has delved more into her writing.

She is active in an intercessory prayer ministry in her church, belongs to The Woman’s Club, a service-oriented volunteer organization dedicated to the welfare and enrichment of the community and volunteers two days a week at the Mary Washington Museum.

Currently, she's enrolled in Rhema Bible College’s correspondence Bible studies. She belongs to ACFW and RWA. When she’s not working, reading or writing she’s hiking with her husband at Shenandoah National Park.