Does God Care?

Does God Care?

Bible: Mark 14:32-42

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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (PSALM 22:1).

One dreadful year, three of my friends died one after another in the space of a couple of months. My experience of the first two deaths did nothing to prepare me for the third. I couldn’t do anything but cry.

I find it strangely comforting that when Jesus faced pain, He reacted much as I do. It comforts me that He cried when His friend Lazarus died (JOHN 11:32-36). What a powerful way to see how God must have felt about my friends, who He also loved.

And in the garden the night before He was executed, Jesus did not pray, “Oh, Lord, I am so grateful that You have chosen Me to suffer on Your behalf.” No, He experienced deep sadness, fear, abandonment, even desperation.

Hebrews tells us that Jesus’ prayers were filled with “fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death” (HEBREWS 5:7). But He was not saved from death. Is it too much to say that Jesus Himself asked the question that also bugs us during our pain: does God care? Why else would he quote from that dark psalm: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (PSALM 22:1; MARK 15:34)

Jesus went through the pain because He knew that His Father is a God of love who can be trusted no matter how things look. He showed that He believed that the answer to the question “Does God care?” is a big: yes!

WHEN WE KNOW GOD’S HAND IS IN EVERYTHING, WE CAN LEAVE EVERYTHING IN GOD’S HAND.

Youth Edition – Our Daily Bread Ministries