Three men I’ve been corresponding with have shared:
How about you? Do you (or a loved one or friend) have a hard time seeing how God cares about you, personally? Right here. Right now.
You honestly wonder, “Does He even know what I’m going through?” Because if He does, then it doesn’t feel like He cares, right? And if He does know and care, then can He do anything about it?
Because if He both knows and cares, it seems like He is powerless to rescue you from this bondage. And if He knows, cares, and has the power to deliver, why hasn’t He answered your pleading prayers in which you have begged Him to deliver you?
St. Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” But the idea of feeling fully alive sounds like a cruel joke. You wish it was true. But it hasn’t been true for you, a loved one, a friend, or a coworker.
You believe in God. You have put your faith in Jesus for heaven, but you don’t have much, if any, faith that you will ever in this world see the “so-called” abundant life. Truth told, the idea of an “abundant life” seems like wishful thinking. Oh, you’ve had what C.S. Lewis called “stabs of joy,” but you feel like something is still missing.
And yet you hold on. You don’t give up. As disheartened as you or your loved ones are, you/they cling to hope like a drowning man clings to a life preserver. In your heart, you really want to believe (or cling to the hope) that there is a God who can and will rescue you.
Once I realized the three men mentioned were not being helped by my book, the men I connected them with, or the words I wrote in my emails; I had an epiphany. I realized that I needed to take them to the Word of God. The Word can transform by the power of the Holy Spirit when human logic, reasoning, and wisdom have run their course.
So, recently I spent four hours on a Sunday afternoon combing the Scriptures and wrote the following letter to them. Feel free to forward all or any part of it (or use it in any way you wish).
Byron… I put this together with you and a couple of other men in mind. Why does Jesus care so much about what happens to the people in the highways and the byways? Every single one of them is His creation. God considers every single human being who was ever created as one of His masterpieces. You are His Rembrandt or Van Gogh. Every single one of us is a masterpiece that has been created by God. He loves that which He has created. He wants to lavish love on what He has created.
I have told the story before about John, who was born without arms, and one leg is six inches shorter than the other. He would be teased every day at school – the kids would undress him, push him down and he would go home crying. He asked his mom one day, “Why did God make me like this?”
She said, “John, I don’t know why, but I know what He thinks about you.” Then she read him Psalm 139. “You knit me together in my mother’s womb. My unseen body was well known to you. You formed my inward parts.” It transformed the way that John thought about himself. It may be hard for you to take in that God made a boy with no arms and one leg that is six inches shorter than the other, but who else did it?
God is sovereignly orchestrating all human events to bring us into the right relationship with Him and with each other. He uses many mysterious ways. We may not know why we are the ones who suffer this way, but here’s what we do know from Scripture…
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
For no one is cast off by the Lord forever. Though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love. For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.
In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.
Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?
For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!
I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God.
I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten — the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.
And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.
A man with leprosy came to Him and begged Him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!”
A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out. In faithfulness, He will bring forth justice.
Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled. So let us pray.
A CORRECT UNDERSTANDING OF PRAYER: God will give you anything you ask for if it is in His will, but never less than as much as you need. “He will surely get up and give you as much as you need” (Luke 11:8). Knowing this lower limit of God’s goodness can change everything.
I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
Anything in accordance with His will.
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if He doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.”
But He (Jesus) said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
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