Care

Oh people, look around you
The signs are everywhere
You’ve left it for somebody other than you
To be the one to care – Jackson Browne, Rock Me on the Water

We’re to be the ones who care! The entire world is in desperate need of someone to show them they’re cared for. No one you come in contact with today doesn’t need a smile, doesn’t want to have some concern shown or couldn’t use a friend. Sure they may not show it but you know the truth.

What if there’d been just ten people who cared for the folks in Sodom or Gomorrah?

The Power of a Smile

If you’ve visited here regularly you’ve probably come across something I’ve written about smiling. Yesterday I had the opportunity to test out my belief in the power of a smile. We were around a ton of people from every walk in life and from all over the world. We must have heard twenty different languages. Never was a smile not returned and in many cases you could see a drastic change in countenance as returning a smile seemed to release the concern of the moment. I’m going to try it again today.

Worry About This

We’re still discussing things we’ll never hear from God and “worry about this” is good one. It may even take many by surprise as so often we think that’s exactly what He wants us to do. Nothing is further from the truth. You see God wants us to trust Him in everything. He’s spent each moment since creation proving His trustworthiness and worrying is what we do when we don’t trust. We over think, fret, imagine untruth, entertain lies and sometimes take matters into our own hands causing harm. What God wants is for us to trust Him enough to give Him our worries. He’s not asking for us to forget what is going on, He’s waiting for us to turn our concerns over to Him, and when our thoughts about them turn fearful or head in an unhealthy direction to give them back to Him. If we will trust and be patient, He will always be true.

Jealous

God’s jealousy is rooted in his care and concern for us. As we mentioned recently in our description of His aseity, God does not need us. Therefore the kind of jealousy that we are accustomed to is not what we see in Him. His heart breaks for us when we make poor choices, when we are distracted from Him and when we hurt each other but not because of what it does to Him. He is heartbroken because of the consequences we must face as a result these things. The wonderful news is that God’s heart can take it. He is momentarily saddened but knows that He’s prepared opportunity for us to turn things around.

Motivation

God is more concerned with how and why we do things than He is with what we do. We unfortunately put more emphasis on what. There are numbers of actions or activities that we engage in that look great to the world around us but if we are doing them to bring glory to ourselves they are as wrong as doing something that everyone recognizes as bad.