God Knows and Cares
It was Saturday. I woke in the early morning quiet to the gentle sound of rain running through the gutters outside my window. All was calm and peaceful, but as I sat up and opened the curtains, there was a disquiet in my heart I just couldn’t ignore.
It was Saturday, my day off, the day on which I was supposed to rest and catch up on the mundane things of life like laundry, but the busy week ahead already loomed large before me.
As I tried to quietly sneak downstairs and put my first load of laundry in without waking the household, my thoughts kept returning to one particular situation that gnawed at me. I needed wisdom. As I had countless times before, I prayed James 1:5,
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
I brought the difficult situation to God, thanking Him for His promise to give wisdom, and that He doesn’t upbraid me for needing wisdom. As I prayed, a phrase from Scripture came to mind.
“He remembereth that we are dust”
A comforting reminder, but where was it from? I went back to my room and reached for my Bible. I had a faint memory of where the verse might be, and opened to the Psalms. There in Psalm 103, I found the verse, and noticed that it was a much fuller truth than I had remembered.
“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.” (vv.13-14)
I thought about my class of little students and how big their problems seem to them, even when it’s just something small like a paper cut or someone stepping in front of them in line. I imagined how small my “big” pressures and problems must be in God’s sight, and yet He still enters into my fears, anxieties, and worries with father-like pity, remembering that I am “but dust,” unable to see the situation from His eternal and omniscient perspective.
Such a powerful, wise, and holy God could justly look down on us sinful creatures and consider us beneath His notice, but He doesn’t. He cares about the emotional turmoil we so often have inside our hearts and wants to help us trust Him so that we might have rest and peace. His heart is moved with pity at our suffering.
Being our Creator, God knows exactly what we are capable of, and also what we are prone to in our fallen state. That is why God offers us His grace –His power, given to us through the Holy Spirit to enable us to do the things He has called us to.
That Saturday morning, I woke up feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and bewildered. How comforting it was just to rest in the dual truths that God knew my heart, and that He cared about me. The more I thought on those truths the more they settled my heart, helping me to rest in God’s promise to provide wisdom.
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Are you feeling overwhelmed or anxious? Psalm 103 is a good place to start. Let the truths of God’s loving care wash over your heart, and you’ll find that there is rest and peace as you trust Him to do and be exactly what He has said.