God Even Cares about Your Cares
"I will fortify the house of Judah, and the house of Joseph I will save. I will surely bring them back, because I care about them . . . Since I am the LORD their God, I will answer them.”
Zech. 10:6, International Standard Version
Have you ever experienced a circumstance God allowed you to endure that discouraged you to the point that it became natural for you to think the worst about God? That He’s not good? That He doesn’t care?
Those ideas and discouragements are nothing new. When the serpent confronted Eve in the garden, He didn’t just cast doubt on God’s Word but also God’s nature. He deceived her by saying she could eat from the tree because God knows when you eat of it, you will be like him (Gen. 3:5). As if God was holding Eve back from something good. When, in reality, His restrictions were protection.
Or consider Christ. When Jesus was in the wilderness, fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, the devil came to Him and said, “If you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread” (Matt. 4:3). If you are the Son of God, why are you hungry? Take advantage of your divine power to feed yourself since your Father hasn’t. The devil tried with Jesus the strategy he succeeded in with Eve, which was to tempt God’s Son to distrust God’s care.
And sometimes this accusing tone doesn’t come directly from the devil’s mouth. Sometimes it comes through those he has influenced and tempted—those who are walking according to his logic without knowing it. When the disciples were in a boat that was being bullied by the waves, Jesus was asleep at the bottom of it. They came and woke Him, not with petitions but with accusations saying, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:3). Care? The whole reason He came to the earth was because He cared. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). And He not only cares about your soul but also cares about your cares. All the worries that keep you up at night. Through the pen of Peter, in effect His Spirit said, “cast your cares on me, for I care for you” (1 Pet. 5:7, adapted). Not just love you but care for you.
And that, my friend, is what the flesh and the devil, through discouragement, will tempt you to doubt. It would have you believe that the God who died for you doesn’t actually care about you. And I exhort you in this way: the devil is a liar. If there is any being that doesn’t care about you, it’s him. But your Lord, your God, loves you with an everlasting love. He is “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God” (Ex. 34:6 NIV).
Excerpted with permission from Upon Waking: 60 Daily Reflections to Discover Ourselves and the God We Were Made For by Jackie Hill Perry. Copyright 2023, B&H Publishing.
Jackie Hill Perry is a writer, poet, and artist whose work has been featured on the Washington Times, The 700 Club, Desiring God, The Gospel Coalition, and other publications. Since becoming a Christian in 2008, she has been compelled to use her speaking and teaching gifts to share the light of the gospel of God as authentically as she can. At home she is a wife to Preston and Mommy to four children.