TALK FIFTY-TWO. HE CARETH FOR YOU
“Casting all your care upon
him; for he careth for you” (1 Pe: 7).
God cares for us in the sense of having a personal
interest in us. We are the work of his hands,
and as such he is interested in our prosperity.
He watches over the development of our lives; he notes
every step of progress. The one who plants a
flower, waters it, cares for it, and watches the development
of each tiny shoot and bud, cares more for that flower
and has a deeper interest in it than has the one who
merely stops for a few minutes to admire its full-blown
beauty and to enjoy its fragrance. To the one
it is only one plant out of many, but to the other
it has a special meaning and attraction and worth,
because its bloom and fragrance are the result of
his labor, care, and patience. It is his plant.
So it is with God. He gave us our being; he has
nourished and protected us and watched us develop
day by day; he is interested in us and desires our
lives to bloom and send forth a fragrance of trueness
and purity all around. Let us so live that he
will not be disappointed in us.
He cares for us because he created
us for his glory and to fill a place in his eternal
kingdom. He created us, not merely that we might
have an existence, but for a purpose for himself.
He wants us to make a success of our lives, not simply
for our own advantage, but to fill the place for which
he created us for his purpose and glory. And because
of this he will use every endeavor to help us succeed
in our lives.
He cares for us in the sense that
he loves us. “The Father himself loveth
you.” “I have loved thee with an everlasting
love.” “God so loved the world.”
He has a deep and abiding affection for every soul,
and even when we stray away from him into the depth
of sin, his heart yearns over us as a mother over
her erring boy, only his love is stronger than a mother’s.
He sends his servants out to seek the lost, and his
Spirit to plead with them. Sinner, he loves you.
Though you have grieved him and have repelled his
Spirit over and over again, yet his eye beams with
pity, his heart is tender with love, and his arms
are outstretched toward you to welcome you to his
embrace.
If he thus cares for the rebellious
and neglectful sinner, how much does he care for his
own obedient, loving children! How tender his
love! Sometimes in a dark and troublesome hour
when his face seems hidden, we may feel as did the
disciples when they cried out in their distress, “Carest
thou not that we perish?” Ah, he did care.
At once he arose and rebuked the elements and brought
the disciples safely to the land. Yea, he does
care. “He careth for you.”
His help may sometimes seem delayed, but it will come
and just at the time to be most effective. In
your joys and victories and seasons of refreshing
he cares for you and also in the time of trial, of
persecution, of heaviness and longing, and of bitterness
of soul. In it all he cares, and he will bring
you through when he sees the soul refined and fitted
for his purpose. “He careth for you.”
Believe it. Let your soul exult in it and shout
it aloud. Or if you can in your sorrow only whisper
it, let your heart still say: “He loves
and he cares. I will trust him and be content.”
Again, he cares for us in the sense
of taking care of us. His care is proved in his
making so beautiful a world to be our home. The
flowers, the fruits, the grains, the grasses, the
animals, the sunshine, the winds, the rains, and all
were made to minister to man’s need, comfort,
and happiness. For us these exist. That
we may be fed, he causes the earth to bring forth
bountifully. That we may be clothed, he makes
the cotton and the flax to grow out of the soil, the
wool upon the sheep, and causes the silkworm to spin
its glossy house. That we might be warmed, he
made the coal, the gas, and the forests. That
we might be protected, he made the stone, the wood,
the iron, and the clay that we might have houses.
He cares also for our bodies, that
we may have health. He gives us pure crystal
water to quench our thirst and cool us in fever, balmy
oxygen-laden air to build us up, and countless other
blessings. Above all this, he is himself to us
a Great Physician whose word heals our suffering bodies
and takes us out of the grasp of death.
He cares for us spiritually, giving
us his grace to help in every time of need to
shield in temptation, to strengthen in trial, to make
strong in adversity, courageous in danger, and valiant
in conflict.
Truly, he cares for us. Let us
doubt and fear no more, but commit ourselves to him,
knowing that he will “in no wise fail”
us.