So many people really don’t realize that God cares for them, but He truly does. 1 Peter 5:7 (NLT) tells us, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” This is a tremendous comfort. There are many verses like this in God’s Word, but if you don’t read His Word, there’s a good chance that you might never know the depths of His love for you. Many people believe that God doesn’t care about them because they’ve made more than their share of mistakes in life. They are ashamed or feel inadequate, but the truth is that none of us can make ourselves righteous, and all of us mess up from time to time. Some of us even mess up royally and not only set ourselves back, but cause others to experience suffering or pain. God sees this, and He knows that we’re going to make a mistake or a misstep before we do it, and He still loves us.
He wants to do a work in our lives. In Romans 12:1(NLT), He tells us through the Apostle Paul, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” Heavenly Father doesn’t just want our hands, legs, or feet; He wants all of us, every part. Notice that Paul said, “I plead with you…” This is Heavenly Father lovingly begging us to present ourselves to Him. He’s not going to be a body-snatcher, and take us without our permission. He created us, and He certainly can do what He wants with us, but He’s a loving and caring Father. He made us in His own image. He has free-will choice, and He has given us this gift as well. We get to choose whether we will trust and follow God through Jesus Christ. He will not make us.
God asks us to give ourselves over to Him. We should let this marinate in our consciousness a bit. The Creator of the universe is asking us to allow Him to bless us. This is almost too much to take in! We should also pay close attention to how He wants to accomplish this. You see, He created us to live from the inside out and not the outside in. The action begins internally, this is the reason Jesus Christ sacrificed his life for us, so that we could have God’s Spirit on the inside of our beings.
Our souls contain our hearts, minds, and wills. The heart and the mind are the gateways of the soul. Through them the soul receives and gives out. So, we can see very clearly that God designed our hearts and minds to have an impact on the quality of life that we live each day. Proverbs 4:23(NLT) tells us, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” What does it mean to guard something? To guard is to keep careful watch over a person, place, or thing, and to protect access. In other words, when you guard something, you are careful about what goes in and what comes out of it.
God tells us that we should guard our hearts because they determine the course of our lives. That’s huge. Again, this is the way He created us to function. When we come to God, we come as we are. Some of us are weary, others of us are wounded and sad. When we are broken down, discouraged, and disillusioned with life, feeling like we can’t get ahead, we are not in a position to make the most of ourselves or to help anyone else do the same. We are not operating in faith, and our hearts and minds are not in the greatest condition. Because of Christ we don’t have to stay that way.
In Matthew 11:28-30, The Message (MSG), Jesus Christ extends an invitation to us. He asks, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Jesus knows how challenging life can be sometimes, and he describes the need that we all have. He knows we have burdens, but he will give us rest from all the heaviness that we carry. He does this because he loves us. He wants us to walk light so that God’s love can shine from our hearts.
If we continue in a state where we were feeding our minds and hearts the negativity from the world, our lives will take on a tone of negativity. Things will start to look and feel very dark. In John 12:36 (MSG), Jesus said, “Walk by the light you have so darkness doesn’t destroy you. If you walk in darkness, you don’t know where you’re going. As you have the light, believe in the light. Then the light will be within you, and shining through your lives.” We were created to be children of the light, shining from the inside out.
God is concerned about us. He cares about every area of our lives, and He wants to work in all of us, in all of these areas, so that we are blessed. Philippians 2:13 tells us that He works within us to will and do of His good pleasure. He’s placed His Spirit inside of us so that He can help us transform into the people He knows we can be. We can’t do it on our own, but if we will trust in His care, and give Him our everything, He will make a masterpiece of our lives. ■
Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
“God Cares” written by JMack. 4theChristianMan.Com© 2017. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.