Does God Care if I’m Hurting?

Today's Precious Prodigal's Post = http://bit.ly/1WncMas Like what you see? Please "Like" & "Share" with your online friends. Want to read more? Go To: preciousprodigal.com

Today's Precious Prodigal's Post = http://bit.ly/1WncMas

Title: Does God Care if I’m Hurting?

‪#‎dontgiveup‬ ‪#‎Godisgood‬

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Psalm 27:13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

 

Do you ever feel like giving up? I know I have days like that...sometimes they even come in bunches like bananas. But is that really so surprising? Those of us who love a prodigal have walked and probably are still walking a difficult path. We’ve been lied to, cheated on, verbally abused, and disappointed at every turn.

 

We have taken jobs to pay for things that were the prodigal’s responsibility. Some of us are even responsible to provide for and raise our grandchildren. We’ve answered the door and found the police standing there, we’ve gone to court and seen our prodigals in shackles, and even had to visit them in jail or in prison.

 

After doing our best to be a good wife or husband and to raise our children for the Lord, we now sit in church alone wondering what happened and whether God even knows or whether He cares if He does know.

 

It doesn’t help me to think about the “sweet by and by” when I’m overwhelmed by the “awful here and now.” It’s certainly true that “hope deferred makes the heart sick,” (Prov. 13:12) and that is sometimes a perfect description of where I am emotionally…heartsick and without hope.

 

But did you notice that verse doesn’t say hope destroyed or abandoned or forgotten? It’s none of those things…it’s only deferred to a time appointed beforehand by God.

 

If you’re anything like me, you want to know what’s going to happen today, tomorrow, next week and 17 years from now. Even knowing in my heart that God has everything under control, I still like the illusion that knowing is some kind of power. However, it is only an illusion of control and nothing more.

 

I’m certain that God does hear our prayers, and He sees every single tear you and I cry. I also feel sure He is going to answer those heartbroken prayers…but He’s going to do it in His time and not ours. And sometimes it’s better if we don’t know the timing. If Abraham and Sara had known they had to wait for 30 years to see God’s promise of a son fulfilled, they would have given up.

 

Long after they had tried to “help God” by doing it their way, God answered their prayers. Even then, if they had relied on how they felt or on what they thought or what they themselves were capable of doing, they would have quit on themselves and even on God.

 

But you see, their prayers were not ignored or unanswered, and God had not forgotten or abandoned them. Genesis 21:2 tells us that God answered that prayer “at the set time,” and that set time was God’s time and not theirs. They only needed to wait.

 

So what can we do while we’re waiting? It may sound simplistic, but we can do the things we would be doing anyway. And we can do them with the hopeful anticipation that God has heard and answered our prayers, believing it’s only a matter of time until we see that answer.

 

That’s the pathway to serenity for me, and perhaps it is for you as well. The psalmist said it well in our text verse. Like him, if we are not willing or able believe we will see the goodness of God in our lifetime, we’ll quit in despair. But God does hear our prayers, and help is on the way.

 

Challenge for Today: What might happen if we, just for today, refused to quit on our prodigals, on ourselves, or on our God?