Question: Does God no longer care about me?

Question: Does God no longer care about me?

I feel as if God no longer cares about me. I have been a Christian for most of my adult life. I have always felt like God was with me and watching over me, protecting me. Last December I lost my job. I now have a job, but it is barely enough to pay my rent and utilities. I have nothing left over for food even though I work ten hour days. All attempts to find either a better job or a second job have failed. I am struggling with the feeling that God has abandoned me. I stayed faithful and trusting for a long time, but now cannot even bring myself to go to church. I feel as if God has given up on me and no longer cares if I survive in this world. I've trusted God to see me through this, but every time my hopes crumble to nothing. How can I get that hope back? How can I trust God when he leaves me hungry? I feel as if he is holding me back from getting anywhere. Does God really want me to live in poverty?


Response:

That's a tough one.
I feel your pain brother! I have felt as you have in the past.
Life is not a plateau, it continues to lift you up and drop you. The important part is that you fight the good fight, finish your course, and keep the faith. -2 Tim 4:7 If you can do this, your life should be an upward trend, even if there are big dips.
I think the Lord has many reasons that he allows certain things to happen to us in life which we can't always understand (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Even though it is not always comforting, we do know that the Lord chastens those he loves:
"For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
'If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not?
'But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." -Heb 12:6-8

It's during the hard times, like the one your dealing with, why it's important to remember what Christ said: "he that ENDURETH to the end shall be saved." -Matt 10:22, 24:13

It's REALLY hard sometimes. You probably want to crawl under a rock and die sometimes. My experience is that the darker the night is, the brighter the day will be. Stay strong and you will come out ahead of those who did not have to pass through what you did.

Remember, "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God...." -Rom 8:28

In the LDS Church, we often quote from a passage in the Doctrine and Covenants, which is part of our canon of scripture. The passage refers to Joseph Smith pleading with the Lord and asking why he and the members of the church at the time were being so viciously maligned at molested, and why he (the Lord) was not preventing it.
The Lord said,
"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
'And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high...." -D&C 121:7-8
Also,
"and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." -D&C 122:8

It's tough, but the Lord will help you through it. You're a son (or daughter) of God. Remember that.

Best Wishes,
Rusty