Who Cares for You?
From 1986 to 1990,
Frank Reed was held hostage in a Lebanon cell. For months at a time Reed was blindfolded, living in complete darkness, or chained to a wall and kept in absolute silence. On one occasion, he was moved to another room, and, although blindfolded, he could sense others in the room. Yet it was three weeks before he dared peek out to discover he was chained to Terry Anderson and Tom Sutherland.
Although he was beaten, made ill, and tormented, Reed felt most the lack of anyone caring. He said in an interview with Time, “Nothing I did mattered to anyone. I began to realize how withering it is to exist with not a single expression of caring around [me]…i learned one overriding fact: caring is a powerful force. If no one cares, you are truly alone.”
Have you ever experienced a time when you felt you were alone and that no one really cared? David did! When he was hiding in a cave from Saul (who was constantly trying to kill him), he said “…there is no one who acknowledges me; refuge has failed me; no one cares for my soul…” (Psalm 142:4). The New Living Translation says it like this: “…No one gives me a passing thought! No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me.” What can we do when we start thinking like this? We can do what David did. Immediately, in the next verse he said: “Then I pray to you, O LORD. I say, ‘You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life.' In 143:5, he encourages himself by remembering “all your great works and …what You have done.” We can go to God's Word and read where He has promised He will never leave us, never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). We can read where He has said He loves us so much He gave His only Son that we might live with Him throughout eternity (John 3:16)! We need not only to read, but to meditate on His Word. That means “chewing” on it as a cow does her food. A cow swallows her food into one of four compartments of her stomach, then later she brings it back and chews on it again. We need to “chew,” to think on His Word.
Corrie ten Boom, who experienced imprisonment and torture for helping the Jews, could have felt no one cared. But she knew her God did care. She had several well-known sayings. Among them were “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” “If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at God you'll be at rest.” Her own favorite saying was “Don't wrestle just nestle!” When we are close to God, nestling in His love, we don't have to wrestle with unresolvable issues. We can simply trust a loving God to do the right thing – because He cares!