Where is God When We Hurt?

Published by

Heidi Viars

January 10, 2013

This question is frequently asked.

I wonder if the question can be turned around.

“Where are we when God hurts?

Do we walk in the good works that He has prepared for us to do?

Are we zealous for good deeds?

Are we seeking His heart and try to change the world?

“Father, You have not saved us BY our good works, but You have saved us FOR our good works.

You invite us to join You in caring, loving, reaching, healing, restoring, one life and one hurt at a time.

Teach us to listen to the Holy Spirit. Show us how to follow You into lives of those You love.”

Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Titus 2:14

5 responses to “Where is God When We Hurt?”

Heidi Viars

January 11, 2013

Thanks for your insights, Mr. D. 🙂

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D. Raymond-Wryhte

January 11, 2013

As Jesus the Son said, God is Spirit. And I agree, at least to an extent, with what Karl Barth said, God is Wholly Other. Assigning human emotions to God our Creator is risky, but both the Old and New Testaments make it clear that God feels something, and He revealed what He has felt through the prophets and apostles using terms humans can understand. Thus, in one way or another, God feels anger, jealousy (more properly understood in a context of zeal: zeal for truth as opposed to the deception of false gods), grief, frustration, anguish, and also love, joy, satisfaction, pride, esteem, and more. If God feels grief or sadness, does He need comfort from any of us? No. What He wants is for us to stop doing what is grievous and sad and start doing what is obediently faithful. That will make Him “feel” better.
As for Jesus Himself, He was and still is a man. He is now a glorified human, as well as God the Son, but He is still a man. Certainly, as a human being, He knows the entire range of human emotions, as indicated in the Gospels. While on earth during His first Advent, I have no doubt He could have benefited from the comfort of others, as in the Garden of Gethsemane.

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godspoetbychoice

January 10, 2013

Your words are full of truth thanks for sharing sometimes we need to see the other side of things.

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Heidi Viars

January 10, 2013

Thanks so much for your comment. While I am not sure if it is possible for us to comfort the Lord (Acts 17:25 says that God is not in need of anything), I do know that we can grieve Him (Ephesians 4:30) with our sins.
I think repentance, obedience, and our good works, motivated by our love and trust in Jesus, do the opposite of grieving Him…
He is close to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:8)… and if He is there … maybe that’s a really good place for us to be too 🙂

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whenipassthroughthewaters

January 10, 2013

Mother Teresa often spoke of how she did things to comfort the heart of Jesus. I find my own self thinking of His heart and how the lost creation hurts Him. A pastor mentioned he sometimes just goes to worship the Lord for a while just to be with Him and comfort Him in that moment. I don’t know doctrinally about those things, but the heart that cares for the heart of our Lord is surely one who will seek to obey Him…and that is important… blessings

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