Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/73

Contributor - Jelle Van Kuiken

Title - God's Interest in You

Topic - Loneliness

"LET ALL YOUR ANXIETIES FALL UPON HIM, FOR HIS INTEREST IS IN YOU." I PETER 5 VS. 7 (TRANSLATION JAMES MOFFATT)

Do we believe that what happens to us matters God? If so it makes perhaps more difference to us than we think in our attitude towards life, peace of mind, and confidence of spirit.

It's quite certain that many people today are feeling that what happens to them doesn't matter anybody at all. There are persons who are utterly lonely. It is very hard for some of us to imagine the loneliness of those who never get a personal letter, a Christmas card, a birthday wish; no one drops in for a chat. Many old people and sick people feel that as persons they are facing life alone, and that what happens to them doesn't matter to anybody in the world.

There are those who feel that they "don't belong". A leading psychiatrist said that most of the men and women who consulted him "lacked a sense of personal significance". As persons they felt they didn't count for anything, they don't matter. Another psychiatrist meant exactly the same when he said that "we all want some place where we belong, and where what we do is needed and counts".

How can a person who feels that he isn't needed and doesn't count, come to believe that he is needed and does count? There is no final answer except the Christian answer that every one of us is precious in the sight of God, that for every one of us Christ lived and died and rose again.

The individual life matters God. According to the teachings of Jesus the love of God is a love of individuals, love of a particular man here, a particular woman there, a love for you and a love for me. It is a personal love of you and me as single persons. "The very hairs of your head are all numbered." If a man have a hundred sheep and one be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine and go after the one?" "It is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish...... There is joy in the presence of God over one sinner that repenteth."

We are always persons separately known, separately loved. Augustine could therefore say, "God loves every one of us as though there were only one of us to love". And Paul could say, "The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me". The love of God is focused and concentrated in that way upon individuals.

My character matters to God. What happens to my character matters to God When something goes wrong with our characters he follows us with increased concern. It matters to God whether you win or lose the fight against the particular temptation that is confronting you at this particular time. It matters to God whether in face of illness, trouble or tragedy you stay brave and unselfish or whether you become bitter and self pitying. It matters to God whether because of the success and fortune that have come your way you become proud and indifferent or whether you stay humble in spirit and simple at heart. What happens in us because of what happens to us, the kind of person we become this matters especially to God.

Our future matters to God. What happens to us at the end, matters to God. God loves us with never ending love, a love that endures throughout time and eternity. About the life beyond the grave, Christians are sure that the love that surrounds us now will be about us then, whatever shape the future of our life may take. Put quite plainly: we matter just as much to God, when we die as when we are alive. "Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's." There as well as here, then as well as now, our souls are in the hands of God. What matters to us "at the end", matters to God.

"Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

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