Does God Really Care About Me?
In the movie, Punchinello said “With all these marks, Eli wouldn’t want to see me.”
​
When bad things happen to us in life, we tend to think less of ourselves than God does. But not only that, we also tend to believe that God didn’t show up for us. We feel forsaken by Him, like He threw us under the bus. How bad can we be, that God wouldn’t show up for us?
​
EXERCISE 3
​
On a clean sheet of paper, draw a line in the center from top to bottom, dividing the paper vertically. Label this page "3". On the left side, describe a time when you felt like saying, “Where were you God? Did you even see what happened to me?” Leave the other side of the page blank for now.
​
If He wasn’t there for us, then He must not care about us. He doesn’t have time for us and therefore, one can only assume that He isn’t very good.
​
However…
Deuteronomy 31:6 says, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them [the enemy], for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
​
Hebrews 13:5 says, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
​
So in both the Old and the New Testament, He has promised that He never leaves nor forsakes us.
In Genesis 16:13, a young, pregnant slave-girl ran away from the mistress who was mistreating her. As she ran away to the desert, she ran into the Angel of the Lord. He not only appeared to her but allowed her to state her case and explain why she fled from her mistress. He not only listened, but he spoke words of comfort to her and told her great things that would happen to the baby she was carrying. After the encounter, she made this statement…
​
“…I have now seen the One who sees me’ (Genesis 16:13). You are the God who sees me.” She called the place "El Roi" which means "The all-seeing God."
Psalm 139:16 says, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
​
God foreknew that you would eventually come to the knowledge of His saving grace and He has been watching you throughout your life. This Scripture says that He was aware of all of your days before one of them came to be: how you would be raised, and every tactical advantage the enemy would use against you through every single human being who would ever have influence in your life. Whatever has happened to you, God was there. He was watching and waiting, ready to redeem anything and everything that was leveraged against you by the enemy: anything that you would be willing to bring to Him to discover the truth about why it happened, to be comforted, and to be healed.
​
If you let Jesus into your brokenness and misunderstanding, all of the unjust events that have allowed the enemy an opportunity to litter your beliefs with lies can be redeemed. Truly, He can make all things new.
​
“But why doesn’t He do something to stop bad things from happening to innocent people” you might ask? The fact is that He did.
​
The devil wants us to believe that God is not good, so He stirs up authority figures and others to disappoint us, to mistreat us, or to tell us that God is not good and to make us see Him in a bad light.
Burl says, “I heard that woodcarver has saws with razor sharp teeth, hammers, chisels, and…” “Stop!” Punchinello says, “You’re making the splinters on the back of my neck stand straight up.”
EXERCISE 4
​
Flip page 3 over and label this side page "4". Draw a line down the middle from top to bottom. On the left side, describe how you see God. Based on how you feel about him at this time in your life, if you could see Him, what does He look like to you? Is He far away? Does He look like a judge? Describe Him. Leave the other side of the page blank for now.
