God Cares For You

A keen observer once said, “You Christians seem to have a religion that makes you miserable. You’re like a man with a headache. He doesn’t want to get rid of his head, but it hurts to keep it.” A little boy, out with his grandmother, saw a donkey and said: “That donkey would make a good Christian.” “Why do you say that?” she asked. “Because he has a long face!” was the reply.
Unfortunately, many Christians recognise that they are sinners—and are thus miserable—but fail to appreciate the care and forgiveness that comes from God as a gift, through Jesus.

the wages of sin
1 Who in the world is sinless?
(Romans 3:10, 22, 23) “‘There is no-one righteous, not even one.’ . . . There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

2 What is the penalty of sin?
(Romans 6:23; 5:12) “For the wages of sin is death. . . . Just as sin entered the world through one man [Adam] . . . death came to all men, because all sinned.”

the gift of God
3 What reason did Paul give to Timothy as the reason why Jesus come to our world?
(1 Timothy 1:15) “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”

4 How did Jesus do this?
(Romans 5:6-8) “At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

5 What is our function in achieving salvation?
(Ephesians 2:8, 9) “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no-one can boast.”

6 What is the “gift of God”?
(Romans 6:23) “The gift of God is eternal life.”

God’s forgiveness
7 What has God promised to do for us as we confess our sins?
(1 John 1:9) “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
From a human viewpoint and experience, one might think He’d make us feel sorry for two or three days first and then we’d have to ask for forgiveness in a very nice way.
The truth is, that the same moment that brings the consciousness of sin ought to bring also confession and consciousness of forgiveness.

8 Is there a limit to what God can and will forgive?
(Matthew12:31) “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”
Some have questioned whether they have committed this sin. Those who have real concern over this demonstrate that their hearts are still being moved by God, and forgiveness is still available for them.

9 Does God keep a record of forgiven sins?
(Isaiah 43:25) “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

10 What does God want us to do with our sins?
(Micah 7:19) “You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”
And in that ocean, as Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boon says, there’s “No Fishing Allowed.”

11 How far, according to the psalmist, will God separate us from our sins?
(Psalm 103:12) “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

God’s purpose
12 What assurance does Jesus give that He wants to save and not condemn us?
(John 3:16,17) “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Who could be miserable knowing just how much God cares about us?

Poet Elizabeth Cheney, in her poem Overheard in an Orchard, puts it this way:

Said the Robin to the Sparrow,
I should really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and hurry so.
Said the Sparrow to the Robin,
Friend, I think that it must be
That they have no heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me.
God loves; God cares.

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