God As Our Confidence

As I have mentioned before I have been leading a woman's Sunday school class the last few weeks. Today was the last week of a seven week series.  Some of my thoughts in the post below are once again borrowed from this series.

Family care-giving is often emotionally and physically draining.  It also can be the cause of feelings of panic and feelings that God has abandoned us.  In Psalm 31 verse 22 the psalmist, David, says of God, "I am cut off from your sight!"  David was convinced in that verse that God had abandoned him and that he was all alone, and so he became alarmed.  But David was wrong.

Feelings are powerful.  We are so programmed to look at our circumstances and listen to our unreliable feelings, but we must not trust our feelings.  Instead we must trust God's Word.  Our feelings may tell us that God has deserted us, but God has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5b).  Our feelings may tell us that God has more important things to do than worry about us, but God's Word contradicts that (Luke 12:24 and I Peter 5:7).  

We can't help our feelings, but we should not let our feelings immobilize us.  We need to instead focus on the truth and promises of God's Word.  Our life is like a train.  Faith and God's Word needs to be the engine.  Feelings are the caboose.  Faith and not feelings must drive our life.  We need to trust in God's presence and act accordingly even when feelings do not immediately follow.  We need to cling to what we know is true and keep singing praises to God in spite of our feelings.  If we do this even when we do not FEEL God's presence our faith will grow by leaps and bounds, and even our feelings will follow in due time.  

When we feel abandoned or afraid, we need to trust God's promises and run straight into the arms of God.  God is our only true hope and source of joy.  This means we ask God for help (Psalm 31:2), give everything we have to God (Psalm 31:5), and let God lead us (Psalm 31:3).

We need to find our confidence in the Lord alone.  Confidence come from having an eternal perspective.  When we have an eternal perspective we see that our future and our loved ones' futures do not depend on every decision we make.  As a caregiver for my husband for four and a half years I think I subconsciously thought that every decision I made or thing I did would either slow of hasten the progress of his disease.  This put unnecessary emotional burden on my shoulders.  The truth is that no matter what happens today or tomorrow or whatever happened in the past God is still on His throne, and you and I are still His children!  Paul's attitude in Philippians 1:21-22 was that he could not lose.  Whether he lived or died he was a winner.  The same is true for you and the love one for whom you are caring, dear caregiver!  

Confidence comes from having an eternal perspective, from seeing God's big picture.  Confidence also comes from trusting God to meet our needs (Psalm 123:1-2 and Philippians 4:19) and from making everything in our lives a matter of prayer (Psalm 34:6).  God doesn't just listen to our prayers, He does something about them in His perfect timetable and in His perfect wisdom.  God had led you to the task of family care-giving.  If you are seeking His will, He is providing and will continue to provide each step of the way.  As you see God providing for you step by step your confidence will grow and continue to grow as you face each new day and new situations in the future.

Don't listen to your feelings or Satan's lies, dear caregiver.  Satan wants you to believe God has abandoned you.  In reality He will always be with you (Hebrews 13:5b).  Satan wants you to believe that God doesn't care how difficult life is for you and your loved one right now.  Yet God says He cares for you (I Peter 5:7).  Satan wants you to believe that God must not be in control, because life has become so chaotic.  The truth is that God is very much in control (Psalm 31:15a and Acts 17:26). Satan wants you to believe that God does not have a purpose or plan for your future and that of your loved one.  God says just the opposite (Jeremiah 29:11)  Rest in the Lord, dear caregiver!