You may be going through an awful lot right now. Maybe your company is shedding jobs and salaries, trying to keep from going under. Maybe one of the jobs– was yours.
Maybe your marriage is really tanking at the moment. You can’t say you haven’t contributed to the problems, but you’re trying as hard as you can now to make this work, to make this right. Still, you’re not sure where things are headed.
Work. Family. Health. Finances. Between these major categories, life can get very complicated, both from things you’ve done as well as things that just happened. And if God feels very far away today, unconcerned and out of the picture, hear a word of encouragement from hundreds of years ago.
Throughout the Old Testament, God’s people faced one crisis after another. Sometimes it was their own dumb fault; sometimes it came by way of surprise attack. But no matter how they got into their troubles, “in all their affliction he was afflicted–” (Isaiah 63:9). When they hurt, He hurt. When they suffered, He suffered.
God has not lost the directions to your house. He’s not waiting to work you in between 3:00 and 4:00 next Wednesday. God feels. He grieves. He knows what you’re going through. You’re not the only one hurting here. And His is the kind of hurt that knows how to help you.
Lord, thank you that you haven’t forgotten me. It’s good to know you’re a God who’s really alive, who’s really here, and who genuinely cares. I’m counting on that today.( By Coach Joe Gibbs, Scripture references changed to KJV)
