Who Cares? God Cares!

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. - James 1:27 NLT

Who cares about a poor widow woman and her kid? God does! Widows and orphans were among the lowest on the cultural ladder in ancient Israel, yet God sent Elijah to a destitute widow woman and her son during a famine [1 Kings 17]. The Lord supernaturally kept them alive by multiplying the oil and flour so that she could continue to make bread and survive. Just lately it hit me. God didn’t send some obscure servant to minister to them. He sent the most important prophet in all of Israel to a widow woman and her son living outside of Israel. God cares about a poor widow and her kid. He loves them very much.

Maybe you aren’t exactly a widow with no income trying to feed a hungry kid during a famine, but maybe you feel just as low on today’s cultural ladder as she did. Who cares about a woman who was sexually abused as a child and just can’t break away from her third abusive boyfriend? Who cares about a man who is covered in shame because he keeps hooking up with other guys through dating apps during the week, but looks holy and squeaky-clean sitting next to his wife in church every Sunday? Who cares about some teen girl who hates her body and is secretly searching the internet trying to figure out how to get testosterone? Sometimes the attitudes of ambivalence and animosity even creep into the church. Who cares about these people? God does! He cares about His people even when they are steeped in sin. He sent the prophet Nathan to lead King David to repentance and restoration. God cares about an adulterer who killed one of His most faithful warriors to cover up his sin. God cares about people who are trapped in sexual sin. He cares about those who were abused. God cares! And so do we at Reconciliation Ministries!

Reconciliation Ministries is here for you. We offer low cost and scholarshipped licensed professional counseling, mental health coaching, inner healing prayer, recovery programs, and more. Contact us today via phone at 586.739.5114, or via email at info@recmin.org. We are here for you.

A Painful Mother's Day?

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!

Isaiah 49:15 NIV

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This is the season when many celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. We want to acknowledge that for some of us, those days may not bring about pleasant memories. You may have had abusive parents. You may not even know your father or mother. Maybe your parents were physically present in the home but you felt like you were invisible. Maybe your life would have been much easier if one of your parents weren’t around at all.

Mother wounds and father wounds are one of the leading contributors to sexual and relational brokenness. God intended mothers to provide us with a “sense of being”, that feeling that we are loved and our needs are taken care of. Fathers are intended to empower us to embrace the identity and purpose that God created us to express. Proverbs 22:6 NKJV tells us to “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” If that is true, then what about the opposite? What if we train up a child in the way he or she should not go? The truth is that broken mothers and fathers inflict deep wounds in the hearts of their children. Sometimes we try to numb our pain through sexual sin. Sometimes the wounds draw us into unhealthy relationships. Raising up a child in a way he should not go has its painful effects. It inflicts deep wounds.

The good news is that our Heavenly Father can heal those wounds. Psalm 27:10 NKJV reads “When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me.” God isn’t like our earthly parents. He is safe. He is kind. He is empowering. He loves us so much that while we were still sinners, Jesus willingly sacrificed Himself on the cross… not only to cleanse us from the sins that we committed, but to heal our hearts from the sins that were committed against us. Healing and transformation are huge in the heart of our Heavenly Father. They are huge in the heart of our Savior as well.