Does God really care?

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MaryAnne77

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I try very hard to be a faithful Catholic. Having said that, I ALWAYS struggle with the question: Does God really care about XYZ?

Does God really care if I go to confession? Does God really care if I pray the Rosary? Doesn’t God already know what I want and need? Doesn’t he already know if I am grateful and appreciative?

This world is so complex and beautiful. Science has come so far. Does the God that created all the wonderful, complicated, miraculous things on this planet REALLY care if I attend a Catholic church or a Protestant one? He seems a bit above all the pomp and circumstance.

Does God really care if I use birth control instead of NFP? Both are 98% effective when used properly, and both have the same result. It seems a little arcane to think that God cares about such things, although I still adhere to Church Law while I am trying to figure this out. It just doesn’t make sense that a God who stands by while children die of diahreah and starvation in sub-Saharan Africa is really concerned about how many kids I have or whether or not I’ve committed the sin of lust. Seems like there are more pressing issues.

I always wonder, too, when people say, “God is so good - our loan came through and we’re going to buy the house we want!” or “God answered our prayers and made our car last another year!” or “I prayed for reconciliation with my dad and it was achieved!” Does that mean all the women praying for the lives of their suffering children in third-world countries aren’t listened to by God? Why is God concerned about some actor winning an Academy Award, but not a 13-year-old mother who is giving birth to a stillborn in a grass hut? Does God only answer certain prayers? Does he really care about the minutia of my life when so many are suffering beyond my comprehension???
 
MaryAnne, if God didn’t care, you would not be here at all.
 
I think God cares if you live a just and moral life. God thinks about the long term and the big picture… eternity and eternal life. God wants you in his eternal company but only if you want to do so of your free will. You show your will by how you live your life, by how you venerate God and if you able to follow His guidance, which should be correctly formed within your conscience.

God cares about the means as well as the end and He cares *what’s in your heart *as well. If two people contribute to charity in equally in dollar terms but one contributes a minuscule portion of their wealth but the other contributes as much as they can afford, who is truly more charitable? So, the end in itself in not the issue but what lies in your heart.

Life has suffering and much of it do to with human free will. However, suffering in the long run is inconsequential when compared what awaits in the afterlife. Recall the Eight Beatitudes and what awaits for those that suffer. What do mundane temporal achievements mean against the expanse of eternal rewards? What temporal joy can compare to the joy of Heaven?

You’ve covered a lot areas in your message. Perhaps we can help you understand each one of your concerns better.
 
Great questions. From my very limited understanding of it all, God is really after moral excellence. And moral excellence secures us an eternity in the presence of God. Hence the distinction between NFP and birth control. An actor winning an Oscar can thank God all he wants, it doesn’t mean God actively participated in him getting said Oscar, the actor was just born with a talent to act. How about 2 boxers who earnestly pray before they fight each other, who will God pick? As for the children dying in subsaharan countries, if medecine, food, and money flowed freely throughout the earth, probably none of that would happen, but you have greed and corruption preventing that. Now God being God could miraculously come thru and heal the kids of diahrrea yet more often than not he does not, and I’m puzzled by that. And perhaps lots of trivial things that people thank God for, God has nothing whatsoever to do with them.
 
Welcome to the club. You are in good company with Teresa of Calcutta and John of the Cross. You might say a prayer to our Lord and direct it through them…for understanding of His purpose for us…when we struggle though a dark night of the soul.

Remember the old Baltimore Catechism answer: God made me to love Him and serve Him in this life, and be happy with Him in the next (Heaven).

We will always have questions about His goodness and His care for us…but we will have the right answers to those questions when we reach Heaven.

For now, trust in Him and do as he has directed us. We can do no more.

God bless you! Please pray for me, and I will pray for you! Peace.
 
So, God doesn’t care about trivial things?

If he knows when a sparrow falls, he cares about trivial things.

I think we forget how powerful, loving, and merciful God is. He is so big that he can care about everything, no matter what it is.

I know that “We prayed and got a house payment” is very concrete, magical thinking.
But God loves us, and if we trust Him, he does have a way of coming through for us when we need him.

We shouldn’t project our smallness on God. He is not a soda-machine where you put in your request and it drops out the bottom. But God does care, he loves us, and trust him and he will take care of us.

I have been praying for someone who gives up her questionable belief in God every time there is an overwhelming event in her life, or the world. She hasn’t been in the church for decades. She lives in a constant state of fear and anxiety about everything. Shaky faith, if there is any at all.

She watched the Royal Wedding, and then the Beatification of JP2 on TV and came away saying, “God said ‘Fear not, I am with you always’.” THAT is what she got from watching hours of TV!! Exactly what she needs.

It has been a turning point in her life. Is that trivial-- because it was on TV? To me it is a kind of miracle, because it was the last thing one would expect from someone watching TV.

She has hope now, and so do I. This is an answer to prayers.
 
Is there not a difference between “knowing when a sparrow falls” and “caring about a sparrow falling”? And I’m glad that you have all the stuff about God and his economy figured out…
 
MaryAnne77 said:
Does he really care about the minutia of my life when so many are suffering beyond my comprehension???
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I wish I could read God’s Mind, But all I have is my own feeling and opinion. First, I don’t think He does care what church you are in, as long as you are following Christ. I, personally, was in a lot of Protestant Churches before I converted and found a lot of nice people and talk about doing good works and actual good works, but no God. So, I’m the one who cares what Church I am in because I need Him in order to even crawl along behind Jesus’ shadow and I found Him in the Catholic Church. .

I think God cares much more how you treat a stranger for a few minutes in a chance encounter, than He does about missing Mass. I know for a fact if I miss too many Masses I don’t treat people very well.

BUT - this one I am pretty sure I do know absolutely: there is nothing in your life not of concern to God because there is no one more important than you in His eyes. Now, there are others of equal value, like every person, but you are of inestimable value. What we can’t do is figure out the inequity. What you can do is feed a woman in a hut if you want and help get her baby medical care. (Try Christian Foundation for Children and the Aged)

We all have the same vocation, to show forth the image of Christ. I think God cares about that. I think you don’t yet know the enormous power you, personally, have to bring Light to the world. Every day. All the time.

I couldn’t even find the matches until I got into the Church. I don’t do one thing in Church because I am supposed to. I just don’t operate well without those things.

Your mileage may vary.
 
MaryAnne77 said:
I try very hard to be a faithful Catholic. Having said that, I ALWAYS struggle with the question: Does God really care about XYZ?

Does God really care if I go to confession? Does God really care if I pray the Rosary? Doesn’t God already know what I want and need? Doesn’t he already know if I am grateful and appreciative?

This world is so complex and beautiful. Science has come so far. Does the God that created all the wonderful, complicated, miraculous things on this planet REALLY care if I attend a Catholic church or a Protestant one? He seems a bit above all the pomp and circumstance.

Does God really care if I use birth control instead of NFP? Both are 98% effective when used properly, and both have the same result. It seems a little arcane to think that God cares about such things, although I still adhere to Church Law while I am trying to figure this out. It just doesn’t make sense that a God who stands by while children die of
diahreah and starvation in sub-Saharan Africa is really concerned about how many kids I
have or whether or not I’ve committed the sin of lust. Seems like there are more pressing
issues.

I always wonder, too, when people say, “God is so good - our loan came through and we’re going to buy the house we want!” or “God answered our prayers and made our carlast another year!” or “I prayed for reconciliation with my dad and it was achieved!”
Does that mean all the women praying for the lives of their suffering children in third-world
countries aren’t listened to by God? Why is God concerned about some actor winning an
Academy Award, but not a 13-year-old mother who is giving birth to a stillborn in a grass
hut? Does God only answer certain prayers? Does he really care about the minutia of
my life when so many are suffering beyond my comprehension???
Click to expand...
I believe that Christ knew we were going to have these questions and answered them many times. Read the parable of the talents as slowly and in a most prayerful way that you can. Read Mathew 25:24, God’s nature is reavealed to us in the way that Christ wanted his father’s nature revealed. And though we may not understand, our role is clearly defined. He’s definitely overseeing through his Spirit, or he wouldn’t know what we did with the talents he gave us, His Spirit searches the depths of our souls, farther then we through our self deception, can perceive. Do we understand all things? No because we’re not God, hence, the only natural conclusion is to give Him all the Glory, all the Praise and in him only good exists.
 
MaryAnne77 said:
I try very hard to be a faithful Catholic. Having said that, I ALWAYS struggle with the question: Does God really care about XYZ?

Does God really care if I go to confession? Does God really care if I pray the Rosary? Doesn’t God already know what I want and need? Doesn’t he already know if I am grateful and appreciative?

This world is so complex and beautiful. Science has come so far. Does the God that created all the wonderful, complicated, miraculous things on this planet REALLY care if I attend a Catholic church or a Protestant one? He seems a bit above all the pomp and circumstance.

Does God really care if I use birth control instead of NFP? Both are 98% effective when used properly, and both have the same result. It seems a little arcane to think that God cares about such things, although I still adhere to Church Law while I am trying to figure this out. It just doesn’t make sense that a God who stands by while children die of diahreah and starvation in sub-Saharan Africa is really concerned about how many kids I have or whether or not I’ve committed the sin of lust. Seems like there are more pressing issues.

I always wonder, too, when people say, “God is so good - our loan came through and we’re going to buy the house we want!” or “God answered our prayers and made our car last another year!” or “I prayed for reconciliation with my dad and it was achieved!” Does that mean all the women praying for the lives of their suffering children in third-world countries aren’t listened to by God? Why is God concerned about some actor winning an Academy Award, but not a 13-year-old mother who is giving birth to a stillborn in a grass hut? Does God only answer certain prayers? Does he really care about the minutia of my life when so many are suffering beyond my comprehension???
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Unfortunately, our tendencies to look for the easy way in life will conflict with the way of the Cross that Christ walked for us and invites us to walk with Him in and through the trials and temptations of life. If we’d like to think that God has bigger fish to fry than little ol’ me, it’s because we have things we would prefer to do without worrying if those things are in accordance with His Law of Love.

Since the Lord established One Church, why should we think that belonging to that Church or not is not of much interest to Him?
 
Robertanthony said:
Is there not a difference between “knowing when a sparrow falls” and “caring about a sparrow falling”? And I’m glad that you have all the stuff about God and his economy figured out…
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Now I remember why I avoid CAF. Ya gotta be in just the right mood to be able to take it on the chin…and I’m not always up for it.
 
Katrina5 said:
Now I remember why I avoid CAF. Ya gotta be in just the right mood to be able to take it on the chin…and I’m not always up for it.
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What he missed is: God cares about what he posts here.

Peace be with you.
 
Katrina5, MaryAnne77 asked some very pertinent and serious questions, and you reply with the same old line “God is big, in control of everything, and everything will work out in the end etc.” I think the OP has probably heard that ad nauseam and wanted to be fed something else. If you felt offended, what can I say, put me on your “ignore list”. @praxising, I did not miss anything, last time I checked irony was not a sin.
 
MaryAnne77 said:
Why is God concerned about some actor winning an Academy Award, but not a 13-year-old mother who is giving birth to a stillborn in a grass hut? Does God only answer certain prayers? Does he really care about the minutia of my life when so many are suffering beyond my comprehension???
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If the actor ends up in Hell for eternity and the girl in Heaven for eternity, which would be worse?

He does care, He always cares.
 
If anybody cares… 🙂

In Scripture (thanks to Hebrew vocabulary), “know” is never just a factual knowledge. It’s an experiential, personal, intimate knowledge. (Which is why Mary used the expression that she had never “known man”, and why the “heart” being the seat of feeling in Hebrew includes it also being the seat of the mind and thought.) To a speaker of Hebrew or Aramaic, if you don’t love (say) snow, you don’t know snow; you just recognize it and are familiar with it.

To say that God knows when a sparrow falls, is exactly the same as to say that He cares deeply about that sparrow’s fall. To say that Jesus knows your heart is also to say that Jesus knows it as intimately as He knows His own Heart. To say that God knows all things is the same as saying that God loves all things, linguistically speaking.

So yes, to know you is to love you. God knows you inside-out, and so you know He loves you.
 
We have to be careful to avoid a sin against the First Commandment. It’s a temptation to think God is a different ‘god’ from whom He is, i.e., that He doesn’t care.

While the outward appearance might be otherwise to some skeptics, my life has been totally influenced by God. Things – very particular things – happen in my life which I attribute to nothing or nobody else but the very intervention and providence of God.

I retired at age 51 “under duress” (family problems) and I am constantly amazed how God has sustained me financially and spiritually for over ten years, and counting. I don’t deserve this, although I pray for and thank God for His provision. All I can say and must say is, trust in the Lord, no matter what happens.

We don’t know what “just around the bend” in our lives, what trials and sufferings we may have to bear. Pray. do what is right, always.

Job says that if we take the “good” from the Lord, shall we not also take the “bad”? The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Jewish story: An elderly arthritic rabbi in torn clothing and worn shoes is sweeping the floor. A young man runs in and asks how to manage and cope with the bad things in his life. The rabbi looks at the man and says “I don’t know.” Contemplating on the perfect will of God, the rabbi continues “nothing bad has ever happened to me.”
 
Robertanthony said:
@praxising, I did not miss anything, last time I checked irony was not a sin.
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Posting anything in order to make someone feel badly about themselves is. Your obvious position in the post is one of superiority. The topic is not you or I or anyone but: Does God care? Yes, about every little thing we do and intend and think and choose. It was sarcastic and rude and I know, I recognize it well from so many of my posts. So man up and take responsibility.

God will notice.
 
Crumpy said:
Jewish story: An elderly arthritic rabbi in torn clothing and worn shoes is sweeping the floor. A young man runs in and asks how to manage and cope with the bad things in his life. The rabbi looks at the man and says “I don’t know.” Contemplating on the perfect will of God, the rabbi continues “nothing bad has ever happened to me.”
Click to expand...
I’m going to start following you around with a notebook.
 
Did I mention I have anger issues? I do and I don’t want to be the type of person that causes someone else to feel like Katrina5 did, so my sincere apology to you Katrina5. And God have mercy.
 
Praxising
First, I don’t think He does care what church you are in, as long as you are following Christ.
FCEGM (Frances)
Since the Lord established One Church, why should we think that belonging to that Church or not is not of much interest to Him?
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Exactly, Frances is right.

MaryAnne77 should know that the Christ, the Son of God, established His Church, after He had redeemed mankind by His passion and death on a Cross, precisely to lead ALL to heaven, and His Church has His authority, so why should we reduce these momentous, earth shattering, events to a jumble of meaningless choices of ecclesial communities or religions, or of spiritual and bodily actions?
 
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