When we face the difficulties of life, as every person will, we may find it hard to really believe that God cares much about us.  If we are prone to feel sorry for ourselves, or to carry a load of guilt, we may become fully convinced that God is only out to get us in some bad way.

God is not about that sort of thing, however.

Well, I suppose He actually is, in some ways.

In my studies of the both the Old Testament and the New, I have seen that sometimes the Lord really is out to get our attention.  There are many historical examples in the ancient Hebrew (OT) Scriptures of God’s determination to prove guilt when guilt is due.  The many “judgments” He describes in both the Law and the prophets are aimed at proving guilt when a person or nation has gone wrong.

Let’s face it, we all go wrong.  So there is no value in wasting a lot of time denying guilt when we know we have made wrong choices.  The best thing to do when worthless feelings rise up, or when we have said or done something for the wrong reasons, is to admit it and move on  We can never grow much spiritually until we are ready to learn from our mistakes and bad choices.

Jesus addresses the same problem in the Gospel accounts of His ministry.  To those who know they are sinners, He always speaks kindly, assuring them of forgiveness.  But to religious hypocrites He speaks sharply, deliberately pointing out their sins and offenses toward God.  Once a person owns up to their sins, looking for a way to get back on the right path, the Lord only works to help them up.  But when a person chooses to hide from the truth, the Lord continues turning up the heat.

The Lord Jesus so enraged many of the religious leaders of His day that they had Him put to death.  We might see this as some kind of failure on God’s part.  But we need to keep reading.  In the book of Acts we see that many of the people in Jerusalem, including priests and even Pharisees, eventually come around to embrace the message and the person of Jesus Christ (see chapter 15, for just one example).

God is determined to bring us to salvation, to a knowledge of the truth, and to forgiveness of sin.  He is not weak or timid in His work of grace.  He will eventually have His way with every human soul.

Yes, some of us die for lack of wisdom.  That is, we never get the basic lessons God wants us to learn.  These are critical truths about our need of God’s love and forgiveness.  If we spend our lives ignoring God’s voice, we will likely endure much unhappiness for our stubbornness.

But even the righteous suffer, as did Jesus and many a faithful prophet of old.  Life in this world is seldom a bed of roses for anyone.  Some may seem to “have it made,” cruising through life with no worries.  But we cannot see into their minds and hearts.  We do not know what their lives are really like.

One important thing we all need to understand: God does love us and care about the difficulties we face.  He may intervene, taking away some of our troubles.  He may not.   And He may also be holding back some terrible things that we will never even know about.  We simply don’t know (or want to know) just how much worse things could be.

Until Jesus returns to this earth, people will all continue to die.  We will die, too, just as everyone who does not know the Lord.  It is possible that we may still be alive when Jesus returns.  If so, then we may escape the natural death awaiting every human being.  Otherwise, we are all headed for the grave, just as the Scripture says: “it is appointed unto men (human beings) once to die, but after this the judgment…”  (Hebrews 9:27)

My point?  Everyone suffers pain and difficulties in this life.  Everyone dies.  No one gets out alive.  So we cannot look at the circumstances of our lives and assume that God has abandoned us or written us off.  I don’t believe He writes anyone off.  The historical narratives of the Old Testament show that the Lord will receive anyone who repents, even at the end of a long life of terrible sins.  God does not write us off.

On the other hand, we do sometimes simply run out of time.  And we may not have an opportunity to grow old — or to repent later on.

Are you away from God?  Trust the many promises of God in Scripture that offer you forgiveness and acceptance.  Act today on that faith.  Allow the Lord to do the one thing He loves doing for everyone: transforming your life into something good and beautiful.

If you are a child of God, and yet things have been really bad for you lately, do not lose your confidence in the goodness and love of God.  The Scripture is clear that God allows difficulties and even terrible stress in order to perfect our faith.  We have Christ who will grant us His peace.  When we place our fears and worries in God’s hand, He will always see us through.  He will not fail us.

Jim