Did you know God cares?

Photo by Adam Stefanca on Unsplash

Photo by Joel Wyncott on Unsplash

Photo by Preslie Hirsch on Unsplash

Unknown to anyone the lady left the church service feeling quite troubled, deeply restless in her spirit.  She did not register any of those feelings on her face as she said ‘Good night’ to the preacher and all the others from the congregation.  Sadly, for the next two weeks a sort of unsettled feeling had come over her.  She found it difficult to concentrate and tried to shrug off those feelings as she energetically did her housework, but nothing seemed to deal with the deep feelings within her heart.  It was a sense that she did not know God in any meaningful way and that there must be more to life than she had.

Later she went to visit her mother who lived some miles away hoping that this would distract her from the restlessness in her heart. It did not.  As she travelled home in the car her mind seemed so distracted and she took no notice of the passing scenery which included the sand dunes and the ocean.  At one stage she simply prayed out loud - it was a cry of frustration from her heart - and the words were, “God show me that you care!”   How would we ever think that God could or would answer such a prayer?  Yet God is a God who knows what we think, feel and need and He wants to meet our need.

The lady was so distracted that she nearly crashed into the car in front.  She pulled up just inches away from it.  There on the back  of that car was a sticker with just two words: “God cares”.  I am sure that she had never seen a sticker like it before and certainly has never seen one since.  I am certain that I have never seen such a message on a car.  Yet those two words had a deep impact on her heart and mind.  She remembered and envisaged the cross - the place where the Saviour showed His wonderful love and died for our sins.

Tears came to her eyes and she pulled into the side of the road and prayed.  She asked the Lord to come into her life and be her Saviour and Friend.  It was the time when she became a Christian with a wonderful relationship with God based upon His glorious forgiveness.  She knew she was changed and felt so different because the restlessness had gone, the tension had subsided and the peace of God’s presence became deeply meaningful to her as she realised she had a living and personal relationship with the Lord.

Afterwards she told me about that wonderful experience and how her outlook changed and everything became so positive and more colourful. It was as if the ppsky was bluer and the grass was greener.  She had found wonderful, deep and lasting joy. It does not mean that everything for all time in her life suddenly became smoother and easier, but in all circumstances she knew that she had Someone who would be with her to help and support. One is never lonely as a Christian and in the words of the New Testament, ‘Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.  Old things have passed away and everything has become new’. That was exactly what that lady experienced and was so glad she had given her life to Jesus.

The trust of the gospel is fully expressed in these words from the Bible which are found in John 3:16-21

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved"

“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Messages with Meaning (31/10/20) Written by Paul Young for 542Day