God doesn’t have time for me. He has more important things to take care of.

The title of this article came about from something a young woman said over the last week.  It is something all of us have convinced ourselves is true at one point or another.  Other than in moments of weakness, which we all have, I believe this idea stems from two sources.  Firstly is a lack of understanding of the nature of God.  It isn’t an uncommon problem.  The subject is covered in the Bible. I want to use this article to show you that God’s arm is not too short.  He does care about you and He cares about you individually.

Even those with a passing familiarity with Christianity know about the story of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.  They were promised a section of land to have as their own for a nation years, even centuries before.  God had taken them to Egypt as a family where they thrived and grew into millions.  Then a new pharaoh came into power and they were treated as slaves.  It was then that God, through Moses, lead them out of Egypt, across what is now known as the Sinai Peninsula to the Promised Land. 

It is no secret that the Sinai Peninsula is a wasteland.  Just look online for pictures of the place if you haven’t been there to know firsthand.  There is nothing there.  Consider, for a moment, the number of Israelites that were travelling.  It wasn’t a handful, it was a nation.  The book of Numbers records the first census taken of those travelling but only a subgroup of the total; being 603,550 men of age 20 and above.  They had families.  Just being married would double that number.  Perhaps not all of them were married, but those families had children.  Even being very conservative, this would be 2 million people, more likely it was larger.  One extremely conservative re-interpretation says these numbers are all wrong and it would only be about 7500.  That is still a large number to feed in a wasteland.

This problem of food and water was not lost on the Israelites.  They grumbled about the apparent lack of food and water.  They did so more than once, but one such occasion is found in Numbers 11.  In this case, God was fed up with the complaining and promises to give them so much meat to eat it would come out their nose.

18“But give this command to the people: ‘You are to consecrate yourselves, because tomorrow you’re going to eat meat, since you’ve complained where the Lord can hear it, “Who can give us meat to eat? After all, life was better with us in Egypt.”‘ Therefore, the Lord is going to give you meat and you’ll eat— 19not only for a day, or for two days, or for five days, or for ten days, or for 20 days, 20but for a whole month—until it comes out your nostrils and makes you vomit. This is because you’ve despised the Lord, who is among you, and you cried out in his presence, complaining, ‘Why did we ever leave Egypt?’”

Moses Doubts God’s Ability

21Moses responded, “I’m with 600,000 people on foot and you’re saying I am to give them enough meat to eat for a whole month? 22What if we were to slaughter our entire inventory of flocks and herds for them? Would that be enough? What if we could gather all the fish in the sea in nets for them? Would that be enough, either?”

God Rebukes Moses

23But the Lord responded to Moses, “Is the Lord short on power? You’re now going to witness whether what I say will come to pass or not.”

God’s arm is not too short to take care of His people and this is a case where he was going to show them directly.  That isn’t to say He doesn’t show us, even today, directly but I can’t think of any more dramatic an instance.

So, how does that pertain to the individual?  That was for a nation of people.  To answer that I give you the words of Jesus, Himself:

Jesus answered them, “I have told you, but you do not believe it. The actions that I do in my Father’s name testify on my behalf, but you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep.  My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, they will never be lost, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is more important than anything, and no one can snatch it from the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” – John 10:25-29

Jesus and The Father are one.  You, being a Christian, have heard His voice and follow Him.  Therefore, you are among God’s people.  Furthermore Jesus tells us:

The Parable about The Faithful Shepherd

“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays, he leaves the ninety-nine in the hills and goes to look for the one that has strayed, doesn’t he? If he finds it, I tell you with certainty that he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that haven’t strayed. In the same way, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.” – Matthew 18:12-14

So you are one of God’s people.  He will go out of his way to find you if you have strayed.  An individual among the 100 sheep.

Let us look at another passage, this time in Luke (though there is a copy in Matthew as well):

“Five sparrows are sold for two pennies, aren’t they? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Why, even all the hairs on your head have been counted! Stop being afraid. You are worth more than a bunch of sparrows.” – Luke 12:6-7

There you are, from His own mouth.  YOU are individually important.  You are important enough that He knows the number of hairs on your head.

How can this be?  You read the words but still have trouble wrapping your mind around it.  This may be because of a common mistake people make in thinking God is just some sort of super human with magical powers.  This is far from the case but an easy mistake to make.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

nor are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

“For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways,

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

      — Isaiah 58:8-9

I declare from the beginning things to follow,

and from ancient times things that have not yet been done;

saying, ‘My purpose will stand,

and he will accomplish everything that I please.’

      — Isaiah 46:10

God is not a super human with magical powers.  He is an entity unto Himself.  He called himself, “I AM”. He didn’t call himself “I was” or “I will be”, just “I AM”.  He is eternal; not subject to the restrictions of time.  It is easy to make the mistake of thinking of Him as someone constricted this dimension of time.  After all, it is all the existence we know, but the Bible is full of references that there is more than what we see to the totality of existence.  As one example, I give you Colossians 1:16.

For by him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether they are kings, lords, rulers, or powers. All things have been created through him and for him.

(Col 1:16)

As you study the Bible, I believe you will eventually find that it will lead you to conclude that God is a being that must exist outside of our four familiar dimensions of height, depth, width and time.  He is not subject to the same constraints we are constricted to at the level we exist.  Not being constrained as we are, and being the creator of all existence, seen and unseen.  It is no difficult thing to imagine that he can both take care of both you individually and those all too important things you think warrant His attention away from you.

His arm is not too short to care about you on an individual level in addition to taking care of all the other things you think more important.  He can do all of these things simultaneously, in our perspective, with equal ease because He is not like us.

Try this exercise:  Take the famous passage from John and replace the words “the world” with your own name.  It is still a perfectly legitimate statement when you do so.

For God so loved _____, that He gave his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. As a parting thought, I leave you with another statement written by the Holy Spirit in the book of Hebrews.

Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for God has said, “I will never leave you or abandon you.” Hence we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?” – Hebrews 13:5-6

I will never leave you nor forsake you.  Promised us by a God greater than the universe we live in.  Now that is an encouraging thought.  As you grow in your walk with God, I hope that this realization comes upon you on a personal level and with it will come great comfort.  Perhaps even you will learn to be content in all things no matter the circumstances, just as Paul stated he had become.  Then you, too, will enjoy the peace that surpasses understanding.