Thought Quotient

From Chuck Swindoll at Insight For Living Ministries…

All of us need encouragement. And our world is desperately short of it! The human body can survive for weeks without food, even days without water. But our spirit cannot go very many hours without an encouraging word. We just weren’t created to carry a load of fear, grief, or despair without help. If your shoulders are drooping a bit right now … if you’re running shy on affirmation . . . I want to encourage you today. Not with trivial “happy thoughts,” but with a concentrated dose of emotional and spiritual nourishment straight from the Book — God’s Word.

First, God sees! His eye is always on us. One of the names of God in the Scriptures is El-Roi, “the God who sees.” That’s what the Egyptian servant Hagar called God as she was sitting alone in the desert, pregnant with baby Ishmael who had been illegitimately fathered by Abraham at the suggestion of his wife Sarah. Hagar had been driven out of her home by the harsh treatment of Sarah. Now she was utterly alone, unseen by the eye of any human being. Hagar cried out to God in her despair and He answered. In praise, Hagar declared, “You are a God who sees” (Genesis 16:13). My friend, God sees you even in your desert! You are never utterly alone, never unseen.

Second, God knows! Though we mask our pain to others, God knows the deepest hurts of our hearts. He empathizes with us; He feels our deepest need. The suffering patriarch Job said, “He knows the way I take” (Job 23:10). No need to hide the pain or try to keep a stiff upper lip with God. He knows exactly where we ache and how much it hurts.

Third, God cares! He invites you to come, “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Earlier in his letter Peter explained why God cares so deeply. We are “A people for god’s own possession” (1 Peter 2:9). You and I are owned by God! The price God paid for you and me was unimaginably high—the blood of His only Son, Jesus Christ—and now we belong to Him.

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