The most serious mistake you can make on the path of discipleship to Jesus is to think God has given up on you. When you get sick, when you feel anxiety, when conflicts come, or when loneliness or grief set in, it can feel like God has left you. God has gotten bored looking after you and he’s shifted his attention to a more faithful Christian and you’re going to have to take care of yourself. God is tired of your up-and-down faith and now you’re on your own.
If that’s what you think, you’re wrong. If you believe God is tired of you or he’s already given you too many last chances and he’s given up on you and you don’t have his love or protection anymore, you’re wrong.
“The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” ~Psalm 121:8
God’s love and care for you, and his presence with you, does not wax and wane according to your ups and downs. I know it’s hard to believe the Maker of Heaven and Earth gives a rip about your mundane everyday life and all your feelings and all your problems. But he does.
Nobody gets out of this life without experiencing some pain. While we’re on this journey, we’re walking the same ground everybody else is walking on. We’re breathing the same air. We’re drinking the same water, shopping the same stores, paying the same gas prices, fearing the same dangers, subject to the same pressures, and dying and being buried in the same dirt as everybody else.
The difference is that each step we take, each breath we breathe, we know we’re protected by God. We know we’re accompanied by God.
Peace,
Allan
The scariest scripture about God’s attitude toward our sin is in Romans 1. If we continue to live in sin and totally ignore God, he could “give us over” to our sin. I think that sometimes people think that God is ever loving and merciful and will put up with anything. Maybe we should think about what that means and what that could mean in my life and my eternity.