God Cares About Your Troubles

Chuckle: "As the X-ray tech walked down the aisle to say the marriage vows with her former patient, a coworker nurse whispered to a doctor seated next to her, "Wonder what she saw in him?"

Quote: "Troubles are tools by which God fashions us for better things." --Henry Ward Beecher

"Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares what happens to you" (I Peter 5:7 NLT).

All around us we see people experiencing all sorts of troubles and problems. Christians and unbelievers alike are struggling with physical illness, financial instability, broken family relationships, etc. As believers, we are not immune to troubles and adversities. Jesus told us, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33 NIV). The operative question for Christians is: Does God care about me and my troubles? According to his Word, he not only cares but wants to walk with you and help you deal with troubles.

Before going further, I think we must answer this question: "When I have problems and troubles, whom do I trust and to whom do I turn to for help? Many of us have a difficult time transferring what we know intellectually about God's grace and power into a trusting attitude of the heart. God wants us to trust and lean on him first in every situation, especially during times of trouble. But if we Christians do not walk daily with our Lord, we begin to think and act more and more like people who do not know Christ. As we think like the world, we will turn to people of the world for solutions to our problems rather then to God.

God is not only aware of your troubles, he wants to help you deal with them and overcome them. Choosing to carry your worries, stresses, and daily struggles by yourself shows you have not trusted God fully with your life. It takes humility, however, to recognize and accept that God cares about you and every aspect of your life. Sometimes we think that struggles caused by our own sin and irresponsibility are not God's concern. But when we turn to God, in repentance, he will bear the weight of even those struggles and problems. Turning your anxieties over to God calls for specific actions, not passivity. Rather than submitting to your circumstances, submit to the Lord who controls all your circumstances.

Finally, God may have planned ahead of time to use your problems to prepare you for unique and unexpected assignments. This was true of Christians who were forced to leave Jerusalem in the first century because of severe persecution. "But the believers who fled Jerusalem went everywhere preaching the good news about Jesus" (Acts 8:4 NLT).

Love, Jerry & Dotse