Does God Care?

He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me. Psalm 144:2

As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God! Psalm 40:17


People often ask: Why is it that  God does not always deliver His people as soon as they ask? What do people suffer through horrible diseases? Why didn't God stop the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting? Why do we have national disasters such as the 2010 earthquake in Haiti? Where is God when people are suffering? Granted, people throughout the ages have experienced God's delivering power from pain, diseases, and all kind of troubles. But why do we still hurt? Did God promise relief from all troubles in the next world, but relief from only SOME troubles in this life? Why does it take long suffering before God makes a move? Didn't He promise to never forsake us? Didn't He promise us the abundant life?

Assuredly, we are never nearer to God than we are in pain. He is always near. God does not work as we do. Remember, the Word of God in Isaiah 55: 8 says ""For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD." We have to learn to lean on God and not our own understanding. God has a plan/purpose for each one of us and we must learn to yield to God. We cannot live the abundant life by resisting God. It is only when we submit to God that we will see His glory.

Some questions will never be answered here on this earth. But what I know for sure is that God  is true to His Word. He promised that He will always be with you than rely on it. Faith in God is the only way to get to the abundant life that God wants you to enjoy. Whatever you are going through, you can be sure that God is with you. He is the One who is helping you through it. You will get to the next level. You will overcome. Listen, pain may come. Sickness and disease may come, but the love of God will last always. He created you. He knows intimately. He loves you completely, and He is committed to you eternally. He will never leave you. God cares. He is concerned about every area of your life.

 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38

Praise the Lord!

Obey God!

I said, ‘Obey me. Then I will be your God. And you will be my people. Live the way I command you to live. Then things will go well with you." Jeremiah 7:23

But Lord," Gideon replied, "How can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family! ” The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.” Judges 6:15-16

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"This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome…" (1 Jn. 5:3

"So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter" (2 Thess. 2:15)

"What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 1:13).

Clearly obedience is of extreme importance to God. In fact, obedience is mandatory It is not a suggestion but a command. In the old days people who disobeyed God were harshly punished. We seem to have a nonchalant attitude when it comes to obedience nowadays due to the fact we are living in covenant of Grace; but friend, you and I must take God command seriously. First we obey God because we love him and because we know He has our best interests at heart. You and I must understand that God established those commandments in His Word to guide lead us the right way and to keep us from experiencing hurt and suffering because He knows the consequences of disobedience and when we hurts he hurts because he loves so dearly. But also there are great benefits attached to obedience: starting with salvation and eternal life (jn 5:24) as well as other blessings such as: financial prosperity (Dt. 28:11). Success (Joshua 1:8; and long life (Dt. 4:40; 5:33; Prov. 10:27) to just mentioned a few.

Let us pray: Father how grateful I am for your love and your grace. I realize that I really don’t deserve anything and yet you keep blessing me. Just this morning you woke me up again. Thank you father for who you are. Thank you for continuing to work in me. Thank you for this word today. Don’t let it depart from me. Father “I” want to obey you. “I” want to follow all of your rules. Please help me stand firm in my walk with you and if I stumble, help me get back quickly Father for you know my heart. My desire is to please you and to honor you soul, body and spirit. I praise you Father God. I honor your name for only you are worthy. Only you are holy and only you are God.

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 71

Psalm 71

In You, O Lord, I put my trust; Let me never be put to shame.
2 Deliver me in Your righteousness, and cause me to escape; Incline Your ear to me, and save me.
3 Be my strong refuge, To which I may resort continually; You have given the commandment to save me, For You are my rock and my fortress.
4 Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. 5 For You are my hope, O Lord GOD; You are my trust from my youth.
6 By You I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb. My praise shall be continually of You.
7 I have become as a wonder to many, But You are my strong refuge.
8 Let my mouth be filled with Your praise And with Your glory all the day.
9 Do not cast me off in the time of old age; Do not forsake me when my strength fails.
10 For my enemies speak against me; And those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together,
11 Saying, “God has forsaken him; Pursue and take him, for there is none to deliver him.”
12 O God, do not be far from me; O my God, make haste to help me!
13 Let them be confounded and consumed Who are adversaries of my life; Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor Who seek my hurt.
14 But I will hope continually, And will praise You yet more and more.
15 My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness And Your salvation all the day, For I do not know their limits.
16 I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.
17 O God, You have taught me from my youth; And to this day I declare Your wondrous works.
18 Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come.
19 Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You?
20 You, who have shown me great and severe troubles, Shall revive me again, And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
21 You shall increase my greatness, And comfort me on every side.
22 Also with the lute I will praise You— And Your faithfulness, O my God! To You I will sing with the harp, O Holy One of Israel.
23 My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing to You, And my soul, which You have redeemed.
24 My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long; For they are confounded, For they are brought to shame Who seek my hurt.

Praise The Lord!

God of all Comfort!

 

No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Joshua 1:5

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It is hard to admit that we are lonely because religious people would assume is because we are living in sins. David, a man after God’s heart had moments of loneliness. Jesus was lonely the night of his arrest, that’s why he asked the disciples to stay with him. Friends, make no mistake, the reality of the matter is that we have all experienced moments of intense loneliness. I am going to be candid with you; there were times in my life when my loneliness was so intense and severe that it hurts. That’s right, loneliness is not a fun feeling, it can reduce us to tears and despair. There are times in our lives when we longed to see or hear those we love. Other times we longed for the company of those we love and most of the times those we love do not want to be with us. That is why rejection and loneliness go hand in hand. It is a reality that we have to face at one time or and other. Why is a God who loves so much that He sent his son to die would let us be lonely? Why would a God who says that His thoughts towards us are greater, higher and more glorious than we can ever comprehend let us feel such extreme pain? Why wouldn't God make the entire world fall in love with us? He should at least make sure that those we love feel the same way about us, right? Wrong!

Friend, God wants to be the desire of our hearts. He wants to be the one we are desperately longing for, and our first real love. He wants us to love one another but He wants to be our number one love because He loves so much that He promised that not even death could separate us from His love. He wants to be our passion. Contrary to what people think, loneliness is not necessary results of sins. We tend to get preoccupied with the daily obligation of living that we neglect God, but He loves so much that He creates opportunities for us to run to Him, but what do we often do? We run to our love ones and our friends. There have been times in my life when I ran to friends and they were not available, or they simply didn't care about my struggle of the hour, after all they were going through their own challenges. There are marriages that are destroyed because either or both parties didn't feel totally satisfied and fulfilled with the other. Friend, your spouse was not created to play God in your life. Only God can fulfill all of your needs.

The word of God in Exodus 20:5 reminds that God is a jealous God and He does not wish to be an after thought. He wants to be everything that we need (source of joy, peace and love). God loves us so much that He created us with the need for him but when we decide to fill that void with other things, we soon realize that there are no alternatives to the comfort of our heavenly Father. We are too passionate about the wrong thing, the wrong relationships and the wrong people. Start your day with a word of prayer. Spend time in worship before you go out in the world and if you must get up 15 minutes early, than that is what you need to do. If you wake up 1 hour early to exercise, I don’t think 15 minutes out of your day is too much to give God out of 24 hours. My dear friend if you start your day with God, and spend time in prayer and meditate on his word, you will find never have to be lonely another day of your life.

Praise the Lord!

Bold Faith!

I shall be with you," the LORD said to him, "and you will cut down Midian to the last man." Judges 6:16

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You may already know the story. God wanted to use Gideon for something great God wanted to use him to deliver the Israelites from the power of Midian), so God appeared to him and share the news with him, but Gideon did not embrace the news. He made many excuses instead, even though he already knew the glory and the power of God. They were just brought out of Egypt, He was still afraid to go, then The LORD turned to him and said, "Go with the strength you have and save Israel from the power of Midian. It is I who send you." His reply was: "Please, my lord, how can I save Israel? My family is the meanest in Manasseh, and I am the most insignificant in my father's house". Again, God said go, I will be with you, but Gideon replied, if you are with us why are we going through so much? (Remember the Israelites were under the power of Midian for seven years by then). Again God say go. Does this story sound familiar? What has God call you to do? What other source of courage do you need? Who else do you need when you have the protection of the Almighty?

The problem with Christians today is that they don't seem to understand that going through is part of the process. God did not promise that they wouldn't go through stuff. He promised that He will be with them through it all. God promised victory, but Christians don't want to endure. They don’t want to be soldiers in the army of the Lord Jesus Christ. They all want to go to heaven, but they want to go our way. They want to have victory on earth but unwilling to fight. They just want to live an uneventful/boring time on earth. Victory is for fighters. I can relate to why people don't want to fight because most of the time they don’t know the outcome, but we have the promises of God to be with us. He already told us the outcome. We have the victory, the battle is won. We have the Almighty on our side. Glory to God!

Friend, trouble is going to come your way, it’s inevitable, but you are a child of promise. You have to learn to believe God’s Word. At one point or another (hopefully today) you have to start trusting Him. You have to take a step forward. you must not and cannot remain baby Christian forever. You have to grow in godliness. At one point or another, you must decide to take God seriously. Take Him at His word. Then the LORD said to me, "You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it." (Jeremiah 1:12). God is looking for people who know His Word and live by it. He is waiting to execute. He is longing to give you the victory but you are not working the Word. We are not the first generation on earth. (the Israelites did not take God at His word after he took them out of Egypt and another 40 years in the wilderness), but wouldn't it be great if we were the generation that believes, the generation that lives without limits under the guidance and the banner of the King of kings and the Lord of Lords?

Friend, you have the victory in Jesus name, no matter what it looks like, no matter what the situation you are facing this morning. You don’t have a job? Your spouse walked out? You’re having trouble conceiving a child? You can’t seem to find the right mate? Your love ones are not saved? Are you sick in your body? The doctor refuses to make eye contact because he knows that the situation is dangerous? But friend I am telling you it’s not over until God says it is so, Glory! Friend experience God to the fullest. Put His word to work and you will know a life of possibility, a life without limit: a victorious life. You are serving a God who can do anything but fail. You are serving The God of possibilities.

“With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26

Praise the Lord!