This is one reason why the Psalms are favorite reading. They are filled with declarations of how God comes to the aid of His people. For instance, when the Philistines captured David, he wrote about their mistreatment and his struggles. They twisted his words and stirred up strife, yet David said that whenever he was afraid, he trusted in God.
You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. (Psalm 56:8–9)For him, the bottom line was that God was for him, not against him. This reality was secure for David, but many grapple with it. Does God really care? Has God forgotten me? Where is God when I need Him?
The struggle began in Eden. Before sin entered the human heart, God told Adam and Eve they could eat whatever they wanted except the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. Satan, disguised as a talking snake, suggested to Eve that God really didn’t say that. He also insinuated that God didn’t want the best for her or He would not forbid this fruit.
This lie is the Liar’s best weapon: God does not want the best for you. He whispers it in the ear of anyone who is distressed, in trouble, feels guilty, or simply needs help. He uses it successfully in the lives of Christians and pagans, believers and atheists. He suggests that God does not care and because of our tendency to want to do our own thing anyway, we all fall for it.
Perhaps this is why the Bible repeats so often the fact that God is for us and that He loves us. His love is displayed over and over, culminating in the gift of Jesus Christ who came because “God so loved the world.” Jesus died because “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” and He rose from the dead because death could not hold this sinless lover for more than three days.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31–39)When I feel unloved, and who doesn’t at times, I need to remember as David remembered and as Paul affirmed, that God loves me, is for me — and nothing can separate me from that love.
But, and this is an important caveat, if I decide that I need to defend myself, He will let me try that. However, in my self-reliance, I will fall short and worse, I will miss seeing how He will come to my aid and enable me to be “more than a conqueror.”
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Father God, there are days when it seems that no one cares about me or about anyone else. I need to remember Your love on those days, but even when others support and encourage me, Your love is my ultimate strong foundation. You keep me lifted up when I am down, and keep me in humble dependence when I am up. Thank You for the incredible reality that You are for me, now and always.
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