"You are God's critic, but do you have the answers?" Job 40:2

I have several friends right now going through some tough things and unimaginable pain. A few of them, who do believe in God or something like Him, have come to a conclusion: that God does not intervene in our lives; He doesn't care. I thought about this a while and the more I thought, the more their conclusions seemed unlikely.

I'm a believer in the validity of the Bible so that's where I went to seek some sort of guidance on the matter. Here's what I found.

All throughout the old testament, God intervenes for Israel. He saves them, spares them, rebukes them, calls to them, redeems them. A couple examples of God's intervention in the OT:

In 1 Samuel 8:19-21 the people of Israel cried out for a king. God knew they didn't need a king, but for several reasons, obliged the great nation of Israel.

In Hosea, the entire book, God is actively pursuing the heart of Israel. In 2:14, He states that He will "win her back. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her." A god who doesn't care enough to intervene surely wouldn't try to win back the hearts of His people.

After flipping around the OT a bit, it seemed necessary to likewise look into the new testament. I didn't have to go far. Jesus is God's son. He is God in the flesh. If these two statements are true, then Jesus is someone we can look to so as to see a representation of God in all aspects, including how He intercedes in our lives.

In Matthew 8:2-3, a man with a skin disease comes up to Jesus and asks Him to make him clean (or cure him, in our terms). The man asks, adding on "if you're willing" and Jesus replies that He would indeed heal the man. He didn't have to, but the mans simple asking in faith and assurance alone prompted Jesus' healing.

A bit further down in Matthew 8:5-9 & 13, a soldier walks up to Jesus asks Him to heal his dying servant at home. Like the previous man, he came to Jesus with and asked with faith and assurance in Him. In verse 13, we're told the soldier's servant is healed.

There's another example of this in 8:14-18, with Peter's mother-in-law and others. And then again in 8:23-27 where Jesus intervened in a severe storm. The gospels are filled with this sort of stuff, as if Jesus' crucifixion weren't enough proof of God's intervention.

There are a couple things I noticed about almost all of these examples, Old and New Testament alike. First, God/Jesus intervened when asked to by mere humans. He had the power, authority, and right to deny all requests but for reasons known to Him, granted the requests.

Another commonality between those times when asked to intervene is that those who asked, they asked in faith. They didn't question the logistics of such a requests, they didn't hesitate to approach God, instead they asked for what they thought they needed at the time. While God can deny us sometimes, it doesn't mean He always will.

Finally, I notice is that God doesn't always wait for us to ask before He intervenes. Sometimes He knows best, like with Israel in Hosea, and we can't understand it, but He is there in the midst of it all. Israel was perfectly content, most of the time, with doing things their way with no input from God, but out of love, God did what was best.

God owes us nothing, but He gave us everything. He cares. He's here. He can't "not" be.