Everybody wants to know that someone truly cares about them

Everybody wants to know that someone truly cares about them. Without that knowledge people can find themselves with little to hope for. I'll never forget hearing the account of the story about a former prize fighter and his his father. His father was alone and his son was basically all that he had. The son was grown and had a strained relationship with his father, and one day the son went to his father and told him that he did not love him anymore. He must have been convincing because the next day his father killed himself. I can't imagine what that man must live with, knowing that his father took his own life because he told him that he no longer cared anything about him. It is at the core of our being, both to care and to be cared for; and when it's all said and done that is the main thing that matters in this life to anyone who still has a conscience. The reason is that we are created in the image of God, and God is the ultimate carer. He made us because he wanted there to be more recipients of his marvelous care, and because he just loves to care about others. Peter said it most simplistically: "Cast all your care upon him; for he careth for you" (I Pet. 5:7). Anyone who truly believes that saying, and exercises their faith in that manner continually; is not only going to always feel cared for, but they are going to always care about others as well. Those who know and experience God's love the most are those who will love others the most. The apostle Paul addressed this basic principle in the following scripture: "That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another" (I Cor. 12:25). As an old hymn goes: "He kisses the flowers each morning with dew, but he's never too busy to care about you." And we should never be too busy to care about one another, and for all others as well. It is our calling. Also when we feel that nobody cares, we need to remember that Jesus ALWAYS cares, and is there to show us that he does.

When we stand before God and are judged according to our works, it will be how much or little that we cared about others that will tell the story, as Jesus assured us: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in... Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels... I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not" (Mat. 25:34,35,41,43). And even Jesus knew despair from having no one who really understood his plight well enough to care for him the way he needed, as the prophecy of the Psalm shows: "Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none" (Psm. 69:20). Not knowing how to care about one another is what is wrong with the entire world, and that is why there is so much strife, crime, war, and treachery among men. Everyone knows hurt, affliction, hardship, adversity, and loss; but not very many know how to truly care about anything other than their own circumstances. The love of God in the lives of those who possess it is the only care that truly does not fail, and remains steadfast, as the following passage instructs us to be: "Look not every man [only] on his own things, but every man also on the things of others" (Philip. 2:4). It remains a fact that the best way to get your needs met is to care for the needs of others.

I recall the time when a brother in the Lord had a stroke and I was called by his wife to visit him. I had been suffering from a serious neck strain for several months and I couldn't get rid of it by any means, including a lot of praying for it. But after spending about thirty minutes praying over him with great earnest, my neck pain was absolutely gone, never to return. God loves to see people caring for one another. All men are made in the image of God, but only those who are made one with him by true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are going to reflect that image in their lives. Man was alienated from the life, or nature of God through Adam's sin, but he is reconciled to God by Jesus Christ if he believes and abides in him (Eph. 4:18; I Cor. 15:22; II Cor. 5:18; Col. 1:21). And Jesus made it clear just what it is that will demonstrate whether or not we are truly believing on him, and abiding in him: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (Jn. 13:35). In fact the entire faith of Christ is summed up in the simplistic element of having godly care and love one for another, as well as for God (Mat. 7:12; Mat. 22:37-39; I Tim. 1:5). Because we know that we want to be loved by others, we can know that God also wants to be loved by us, because we are made in his image. He made us with free will, and not as pre-programmed robots with no other choice but to love him. We all want someone to love us because it is what they choose to do, and what they want to do; not because they have to. So let's "make [our] calling and election sure" by being on the narrow and joyful path where there is only room for the love of God to work in us and through us to truly care about everyone we have the opportunity to care about, while we still have time to care. If we do this we will never be caught in doubt of God's infinite care for us, and we will not fail to enter into eternal life through that "strait gate" (II Pet. 1:10,11; Mat. 7:14). Amen.