Does He Even Care?

Read

Romans 8:31-32 “What, then, shall we say in response 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, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

Think

“Do you even care?” Those words can carry a lot. Maybe you have thought them about a friend who did not notice you were struggling. Maybe you wanted to say them to someone who seemed too distracted to realize what was happening. Maybe you watched someone else receive the thing you have been praying for and quietly wondered the same thing about God.

That is basically what the disciples ask Jesus. Their boat is filling with water. They are terrified. Meanwhile, Jesus is sleeping. They wake him and question whether he cares that they are in danger.

Notice what they do not question: They don’t question if he is present. They question whether his heart is for them.

You can believe God exists and still wonder whether he cares about what is happening to you. Maybe you know the right answers from church. You know God loves you. You have sung songs about it and heard messages about it. But knowing something in your head and trusting it when life hurts are different things.

Imagine being in a crowded school hallway and seeing one of your closest friends walk right past you without saying anything. There could be a hundred explanations. Maybe they genuinely did not see you. But your mind can immediately write a different story: “They are mad at me. They do not want me around. I did something wrong.”

We can do something similar with God. When we cannot see what he is doing, we fill in the blank. “God has not answered, so he must not care.” “God has not fixed this, so he must not see me.” “God let this happen, so maybe I cannot trust him.”

The disciples made an assumption about Jesus’ heart based on what the storm looked like. But the storm was not proof that Jesus did not care. Your unanswered question is not proof of that either.

The clearest place to look when you question God’s heart is Jesus himself. The same Jesus in the boat would later willingly go to the cross. He would give his life to rescue people who doubted him, misunderstood him, and ran away when things became dangerous. Paul makes this exact argument in Romans 8: If God did not hold back his own Son for you, he is not going to stop caring about you now.

That does not make every painful situation easy to explain. Christianity does not ask you to call pain good or pretend disappointment does not hurt. It gives you somewhere solid to look when your circumstances are confusing.

You may still wish God would answer differently. You may still be waiting for something to change. But you do not have to decide how much God cares about you based only on today’s circumstances. When your situation makes you wonder about his heart, look at what Jesus has already done.

Apply

Challenge the assumption – Write down one thought that begins with, “If God cared, he would...” Then write underneath it, “I do not understand this yet, but Jesus is proof that God cares about me.” Bring that situation honestly to God.

Pray

God, sometimes my circumstances make me question how much you care about me. I do not want to pretend those thoughts are not there. Help me remember what Jesus has already done when I cannot understand what you are doing right now. Teach me to trust your heart while I still have questions. In Jesus’ name. Amen.