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Two quotes that work together for today, written some 500 years apart, that tell us God has concern for us:

…what greater rebellion, impiety, or insult to God can there be, than not to believe His promises? What else is this, than either to make God a liar, or to doubt His truth — that is, to attribute truth to ourselves, but to God falsehood and levity? In doing this, is not a man denying God and setting himself up as an idol in his own heart?
–Martin Luther

Do you have doubts about God? Find someone who will help you investigate the reliability of the Bible and answer your questions as you seek to know His truth. (Josh McDowell’s book, More than a Carpenter, is an excellent quick read to help you walk through some of these types of questions.)

Maybe you don’t doubt if God exists, but you doubt His character and love for you? Maybe you are going through a difficult time and you don’t feel that God is listening to your prayers? Maybe you are doubting if He truly is a God who cares?

One question, however, no longer gnaws at me as it once did, a question that I believe lurks behind most of our issues with God: “Does God care?” I know of only one way to answer that question, and it has come through my study of the life of Jesus. In Jesus, God gave us a face, and I can read directly in that face how God feels about people…. By no means did Jesus eliminate all suffering — he healed only a few in one small patch of the globe — but he did signify an answer to the question of whether God cares.
–Philip Yancey

God cares, and He shows us this truth through Jesus. If you are struggling with doubts about God’s character and His care for you, follow Yancey’s recommendation and study the life of Jesus. In doing so, you will be reminded that God is a God of deep compassion, care, and love for you.

People today are desperate to connect in some meaningful way to others, yet modern life makes a deep sense of connection and personal integration terribly difficult.

Before tracts and techniques, before programs and pamphlets, we need to open our arms wide and let seekers know that they bless us just by being in our midst.
–Rebecca Pippert

One of the mysteries of God is His nature of being One God in relationship with Himself in Three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is a nature that is beyond our full comprehension, but it is clear from the Bible that He is the God who has always existed and who will always exist. Therefore, He has always been in relationship – it is one of His eternal characteristics.

And because we were created “in His image,” we find that we have within us a deep need to be in relationship. We have a longing to connect with others. We desire to be close to others, to have intimate relationships with them, to know others and be known by them at a deep, personal level. And yet, so many people hurt because finding these meaningful relationships can be so difficult and elusive in this busy, modern high-tech world.

That is where you come in. If you know Jesus Christ, then you know the abundant life that He has brought into your life through establishing a relationship with you. Now it is your job to be His hands and feet to others to touch them with the love of Christ. As someone who knows how important relationships are, you need to open your arms wide and bless others with your friendship today. A smile, a word of encouragement, a pat on the back – finding little ways to let others know that you enjoy being in relationship with them and their friendship is significant to you. Your openness to beginning a new relationship with someone who needs a friend could change their life, and who knows, you may even find your next best friend!

Be the voice of Christ in someone’s life today as you invite them into a relationship with you.

Here is a great quote from C. S. Lewis about why God hasn’t revealed Himself more fully yet – it has to do with us choosing our side today, while the choice can still be made:

Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is it that He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying: He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely….

Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever. We must take it or leave it.”
–C. S. Lewis

What side have you chosen?
If He comes back today will it strike irresistible love or overwhelming horror into the core of your being?

Is my wealth being used to honor God?
One of the most convicting quotes in recent time that I have run across:

The evidence that many…are not rich toward God is how little they give and how much they own…. We can only justify the exorbitance of our lifestyle by ignoring the lostness of the unreached and the misery of the poor.
–John Piper

Ouch.
Why has God given me so much? To bless me? or to use it to share Him with the rest of the lost and unreached world? Perhaps to help alleviate the misery of those in need and in poverty? And yet, too often I only use it to continue to gain more stuff and luxury and comfort for myself.

Father, help me to know how to properly use the material blessings that you have blessed me with to bless you by using it to share you with the world. May I not consider the finances you have blessed me with my own, but rather realize that you have loaned it to me to be used for your purposes.

Of all conceivable forms of enlightenment the worst is what these people call the Inner Light. Of all horrible religions the most horrible is the worship of the god within.
   …That Mr. Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones. Let Jones worship the sun or moon, anything rather than the Inner Light; let Jones worship cats or crocodiles, if he can find any in his street, but not the god within.
   Christianity came into the world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain. The only fun of being a Christian was that a man was not left alone with the Inner Light, but definitely recognized an outer light, fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners.
–G. K. Chesterton

May you not fall into the trap of Jones and worship yourself!

G. K. Chesterton had a way with words. Sometimes he can be a little hard to follow or decipher, but he is right on target here, and his writings are perhaps even more descriptive of us today than when he first wrote them, as we are worshiping self more and more. Our culture tells us that “anything goes” as long as it brings you personal happiness. But what we find out by looking at those who pursue personal happiness through wealth, fame, and status… is that there is a lot of emptiness they try to fill with those things. And even once they achieve their goals, they are left without personal happiness. There must be something other than chasing the “inner light” that brings us fulfillment.

And Chesterton found it – the outer light of Jesus Christ. May you spend today and the rest of your life chasing Jesus (the One who has been chasing you) and discovering the ultimate happiness of finding a relationship with Him.