Why Should I Care About God?
I have dedicated my life, at this point and time, to sharing with teenagers and young people about God and the Bible.
Sometimes people think it’s kind of an odd thing to do. I am a young person myself and I enjoy church to the point where I am involved in church activities at least 4 times a week, but often more. I give up my Friday evenings and spend them with 20 teenagers who honestly sometimes couldn’t care less that I give them that time, but I do so with the hope that they will leave knowing more about God than they did the week before.
Why do I do this? Because I agree with Tozer when he says, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us”.
But why?
Why should I care about God?
Because He Cares for Me
It is mind blowing to me that the God who created the universe and everything in it cares about me as an individual. But He does!
There are many verses in the Bible that talk about the care that God has for us.
“Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up… You have encircled me; You have placed Your hand on me. This extraordinary knowledge is beyond me.”
Psalm 139: 1-2a, 5-6a (HCSB)
“Cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.”
1 Peter 5:7 (ESV)
Sometimes we think of God as a far off being who takes no interest in our lives. We don’t think of Him as caring about our worries, desires, problems, and joys. We know that Jesus is supposed to be our best friend, God like our daddy; but this is just head knowledge that doesn’t serve us very well when deep down we think that God is actually just waiting to catch us out when we do something wrong.
But this is not what our relationship with God is supposed to look like. Maybe it’s supposed to look more like the relationship that I am very fortunate to have with my parents:
I am 23 years old and very close to my parents. I have somewhat of a ritual when it comes to getting home from work. I get home and yell hi to the different siblings I pass on my way down the passage. When I get to my parents room, I say hi and flop down to lie on their bed. While I am there I tell them the good things that happened in my day, what annoyed me that day, any plans I have for the evening or the next day, and we just generally chat and hang out together. It’s not forced or awkward, I’m not worried that they’re going to catch me out on something I did wrong, although I do know they will lovingly and gently correct me if they feel I have done something wrong. I hang out with them because it is natural to me. Because I have been doing it for the past 23 years. Because they’re the people I want to talk to at the end of my day.
I think this is the way it should be with God. Because He cares for me far more than my parents ever could.
Because Without Him My Life Is Incomplete
The topic of trying to complete our lives and full the “God-shaped” hole with things other than God can seem like a cliché topic. And yet the reason why we need the constant reminder is because we fall into the trap over and over again.
When God created us, He did so with the aim of having a relationship with us and us having a relationship with Him. When man sinned we broke that relationship and we were no longer able to commune with God the way He had designed. After Jesus died on the cross and rose again, we were able to once again have an intimate relationship with Him through His Holy Spirit. And yet a lot of the time we choose to not enjoy our relationship with God.
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever
Westminster Shorter Catechism
I sometimes forget that God created me to enjoy Him. It is not something that I think of when I think of my relationship of God. And yet we see all over Scripture people talking about rejoicing in the Lord in both good and bad times.
“Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will triumph in Yahweh, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.”
Habakkuk 3:17-18 (HCSB)
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
Philippians 4:4 (HCSB)
“As the deer longs for streams of water, so I longer You, God.”
Psalm 42:1 (HCSB)
“We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have now received this reconciliation through Him”
Romans 5:11 (HCSB)
We should care about God so much that it causes us to rejoice in Him. We long nothing more than to be closer to Him and experience more of Him. The reason why is because He made us to only be completed by Him.
