Every breath You Take... Every move you make...

By John Stallings

Disaster strikes.

A gunman opens fire in a theater killing scores of people.  Another gunman opens fire in a school killing 20 children and six adults. The children were all six and seven years old.

A mega-storm hits the coastline changing the landscape and destroying multitudes of homes and killing scores of people.

What is your first reaction? Is our most stabbing question though we may not give voice to it…Where is God in all this? Doesn’t He care what’s happening to us?

Yes, Jesus does care.

 He cares enough to allow disaster and he cares enough to stop it. He wants us to trust him regardless of the circumstances.

Mark 4:35-41 finds Jesus by the Sea of Galilee. Leaving the crowd behind, He took His disciples in a boat to go to the other side.

All seemed well, until a furious squall

came up. The Sea of Galilee is actually a fresh water lake in northern Palestine. The Lake was subject to violent storms.

 It sat 680 feet below sea level, which made it warm, but was surrounded with mountains shaped like funnels that allowed higher, cold air to whip down and mix with the hotter climate. This causes hurricane like winds.

The disciples were scared to death and humanly speaking, they had every reason to be. Waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Imagine the scene: the disciples working hard trying to steer the ship as wave after wave pounded them. The lake began spilling into the boat and the disciples panicking. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion.

“How could Jesus sleep? Doesn’t he feel the waves and wind? Doesn’t he hear our cries? We’re dying here, and he is sleeping like there is total calm.”

The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?” What the disciples did was good and bad. It was good that they finally turned to Jesus for help.

 The LORD says: “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me." (Psalm 50:15)

Jesus knew sooner or later the disciples would need an audio visual “sermon” on faith. This is why he allowed the disciples to struggle so hard – in order to test and strengthen their faith.

Then Jesus gave them a picture of faith… he slept secure in the back of the boat.

How is this a picture of faith? Jesus’ calm sleep showed that He was not afraid, but trusted His Father’s loving providence, regardless of how dire things got. And Jesus wanted the disciples to have this same trust in Him, His power and His love.

Sadly the disciples didn’t display such trust. They saw Jesus as their teacher, their master, but not their all powerful God. They even questioned his love.

It’s comforting to know The Creator of the heavens and the earth knows us by name and loves us. When we consider this vast universe, it’s astonishing to know that God knows our needs and provides for us like a loving father.

I believe the three Hebrew boys, could witness that God will take care of you. Daniel would tell you he will take care of you. I know Job would tell that not only will He deliver you, not only will He take care of you, but sometimes He’ll give you double for your trouble.

It may seem like you can’t see your way through, but watch God come through.

As a kid I knew a man in a church my father pastored and with whom I spoke several times a week. After years, this man still didn’t know my name. He’d always call me by some other name, not mine. The last time I checked, John [my name] is a rather common name, and not that hard to pronounce.

I was young and inexperienced and I didn’t really know how to catalog what I felt. I observed that the man didn’t have a large memory deficit because he seemed sharp as a tack about other things including names. This good man taught me a very valuable lesson.

I determined then and there, by God’s grace that I’d never be dismissive and absent minded toward people as this man was to me. I feel sure that he, if faced with his behavior would have been apologetic as I never got the feeling he was mean spirited. It was probably a “blind spot.”

I’m sure I’ve failed at times but I’ve always made an effort not to treat anyone, especially the young as if they were of no significance.

 “NOBODY CARES BUT JESUS.”

Do you ever feel that no one is listening and that people, who should be concerned, hurt you, rather than minister to your need?

Sometimes these are just our perceptions- but often, they are a reflection of the hard-heartedness and self-absorption of those around us. Yes, even of Christians! 

Sir, do you ever experience coming home from an unbelievably hard day at work and start to unload on your wife and family? Have you learned yet that 99% of the time the family isn’t interested in your hard day at work? I don’t mean to sound cynical or unkind here. But let’s face it; a wife whose been running a house all day long, with all the pressures that entails, isn’t going to be interested in your difficult day at work. Face it sir, at least you got out of the 

 house and had a little change of scenery.

 “Nobody cares but Jesus.”

Lady, have you ever tried to unpack your day on a frazzled out husband just getting in the door from work? Have you learned yet that for the most part, he’s not really interested in hearing it, at least not until later…much later?

 “Nobody cares but Jesus.”

We could ask the same question of our children and it’s a “slam dunk” that they understand this problem too; trying to communicate with nobody listening.

It’s not that we don’t love one another, it’s just that in today’s world we’re all hanging on by a thread and stressed beyond belief. At the end of a hard day our shoulders are so up around our ears that we resemble the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

In this world people often act around us as though we don’t even exist. But God not only knows that you exist, He knows your name. Listen;

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine” (Isaiah 43:1). “I know you by name” (Exodus 33:17).

We are not just numbers in God’s big database. He knows our names and not only our names, but everything about us. We often find it hard to understand how God can know us by our names when people around us don’t. That’s just the problem. We tend to feel that because people don’t care, God also doesn’t care. But God does care even more than we can imagine.

He keeps track of every bird that dies and of every hair on our heads (Matthew 10:29-30).

 If He’s concerned about such unimportant details, don’t you think that He’s even more concerned and informed about those major issues you’re wrestling with? Of course He is. There’s no problem in your life that’s too big or too small for God to know about and to care about.

I‘ve never come across anyone who counts the hairs on their head, yet God does. So if he is concerned about the least of our worries, is He not even more concerned with those major problems, traumas, upsets, fears and frustrations that you face?

Often people say they care yet you know that they remain unaffected by your situation. But God not only knows about your heartache, He feels with you and for you. Have your friends forsaken you, do people misunderstand you, do they turn your words into something you didn’t mean, do they slander you, do they actually try to hurt you (physically and emotionally), do they act as though you don’t exist 

 and your opinions aren’t worthy of consideration?

LOOK TO JESUS!

They did the same to Jesus, and much more, so He’s touched by our struggles. He feels with us, and feels for us when we go through tough times. There’s not a single hurt that you feel, that he doesn’t feel as acutely as you do.

God has compassion on us. People often respond to our problems by saying that we have brought it on ourselves, and often that’s true. But God isn’t in the blame business. He loves, cares, is concerned and is merciful on all who are in need.

Sometimes we can’t bear to look upon other’s hurt- it’s too much for us to countenance. But God never turns His face away, no matter what happens.

STEPHEN

 When those rocks were crushing Stephen’s bones, and his ears were filled with blasphemy, insults and accusations, and his friends fled, Jesus stood at the right hand of the Throne and took every blow together with Stephen. It was just as though Jesus was right next to Stephen on that landfill as they buried him under the rocks and the insults.

People’s insensitivity and hardness to our needs often hurt more than the problems. But God is sensitive, merciful, tender, compassionate, kind and gentle with those who’re struggling. The problem is that we are sometimes so concerned with reaching out to people for help we forget that our God is actually reaching out to touch us in our moment of weakness.

Peter, writing to suffering Christians says:

“...casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1Peter 5:7).

Yes, He indeed cares for you but you and I need to cast our cares on Him. So often we try to bear them ourselves. We often bemoan the fact that no one else cares to lift a finger to help us with our load when the Lord Jesus is just waiting for us to unload it all on Him.

You and I need to think hard and long before we unload our problems on another person. In all likelihood they already have about all they can deal with. Tell it to Jesus!

Jesus spoke of the scribes and Pharisee's who bound up burdens too heavy to carry and then put them on the backs of others, but would not as much as move their little finger to carry the load.

Maybe as we begin a New Year you need to come to Him and place your burdens at His feet. The problems may not immediately vanish, but knowing that He is sharing the load makes it so much lighter and easier to bear.

HANNAH

Hannah the mother of Samuel had great cares.

In that culture, she shared her husband with another woman. She suffered under a cultural curse of not being able to bear a child.

The other wife who was jealous of their husband’s obvious preference for Hannah was able to bear many children and would taunt Hannah over her barrenness. The heavy care was more than she could bare, and she found herself often weeping and unable to eat.

It finally brought a rift between her husband and her, for one day as they were traveling together he asked her why she was weeping and was not eating.

He couldn’t understand her deep longing for a child. Like a typical husband he thought, "She has me, what more could she want?" We read that as they were in Shiloh worshipping the Lord she was in bitterness of soul and weeping as she was praying. Her grief was so deep that she could not audibly utter her prayer. Her lips were moving but no sounds were coming out.

As the High Priest Eli passed by and saw her in this condition, he thought she was drunk and said, "How long are you going to be drunk, get rid of your wine." She answered the High Priest, "I am not drunk, I am a woman with a sorrowful heart, and I have poured out my soul unto the Lord."

She had cast her care upon the Lord.

Note that when she cast her care upon her husband, he didn’t understand her, and it brought sort of a rift. When she cast them upon the Lord she received the assurance that God would grant her petition, and she ate and began to rejoice.

It’s interesting how Satan begins to play his games in our minds. He seeks to make us feel that no one has ever suffered as much as we have-that we’re all alone in our fight for righteousness.

Like Elijah we often feel that “I, only I am left, and they are seeking my life.” But God comforted him assuring him he wasn’t alone in the fight. What a comforting thought to know God cares.

Though all may fail and forsake me, He has promised never to leave me or forsake me.

This thought ought to encourages us, that

He cares for us more than we can ever realize.

How do we know that He really cares for us?

Jesus was constantly telling the disciples of the Father's care for them. He told them that they didn’t have to worry about things. Their Father sees that the birds are fed.  He sees that the fields are robed in beautiful colors. If He sees to the birds needs, how much more will He see to the needs of His children. The Father knows we have need of these things.

If you’re ever tempted to question or doubt the care that God has for you, just look at the cross. There God showed you just how much He cares.

Paul said,

 "If God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how much more shall He not freely give us all things?

The presence of God is portrayed in Psalm 139 as all-pervasive and all-knowing of humankind’s thoughts and actions.

The Psalmist said,  “Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. . . . Whither shall I go from thy Spirit” (Psalm 139:3, 7).  

  I like the way The Message translates  this passage;

“God investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m and open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I am thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too–your reassuring presence, coming and going.  This is too much, too wonderful– I can’t take it all in!  Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?  To be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there!  If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’ll find me in a minute– you’re already there waiting!  Then I said to myself, ‘O He even sees me in the dark!  At night I am immersed in the light!’ It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and night, they are all the same to you.”

Let me close with this verse that has always been a comforting one to me.

Indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep. Psalm 121:4

The Psalmist tells us that our God never slumbers nor sleeps. What’s the difference in sleeping and slumbering? None that I can see. Maybe the writer just wants to put extra emphasis here.

If you find yourself tossing and turning at night trying to figure out the solution to every possible dilemma, here’s a New Years suggestion for you:
Since God never slumbers or sleeps, you might as well get some rest.

If something’s got you worked up today, remember, God’s on the clock, He’s on the throne, and He’s got you covered.

Every step you take, every move you make, He’ll be watching you.

Blessings,

John