PrintDoes God Really Care?
Sometimes what seems to be the inaction of God in the face of human suffering leaves me confused. At such times I don't question the existence of God but I do question the purposes and the timing of God. I don't really question whether or not He knows about the specific situation that triggers the confusion (despite what I say below). But there have been times when I have asked the question, "Lord, don't you care?"
There was a time when Jesus' disciples asked the same question, Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" (Mark 4:38 NIV).
There have been those seasons and events when it seemed to me like God was present but asleep. Whatever the reason, He was not doing anything, so far as I could see, about the threatening circumstances. I can understand that people would ask those basic questions, Does God know? Does God care? Will God act?
I wonder if this is how the Hebrew people felt as they were enslaved in Egypt? When God called Moses, He said, "I have seen the oppression of my people….I have heard their cries of distress….I am aware of their suffering……the cry of the people of Israel has reached me." (Exodus 3/7-9).
So God does know my situation! He has seen what is happening! He has heard my prayers! He has come down to rescue me!
But Lord, why has it taken you so long to act? Why do your promises seem to take so long to come to pass? Four hundred years passed before these prisoners were set free. Why so long? Was it necessary for that amount of time to elapse before you "came down" to rescue them?
