Today I want to encourage you with a simple truth – God will not forsake you! In Hebrews 13:5 God Himself says “I will never leave you, I will never forsake you.” The Cambridge English dictionary defines the word forsake as: “to leave someone forever, especially when they need you.” The Greek word to forsake is ‘egkataleipó’ which means”to leave in a condition of lack, to leave in a helpless condition, and to leave in dire circumstances.” God will never forsake you, He is watching over you!
God promises never to leave us when we need Him most. Why does God give us such a wonderful promise? When we are born again we become children of God. We enter the Kingdom of God. We come under the watchful care of God Himself. God won’t forsake His own child, the one who belongs to Him and is part of His Kingdom.
God also makes this promise because Jesus paid for it at the Cross. Isaiah 53:3 says Jesus was “despised and forsaken of men.” On the Cross Jesus cried out “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus knew what it meant to feel forsaken by those closest to Him and even by God. On the Cross he took the punishment from God that was due to us all. He felt forsaken by God in that moment. Jesus was forsaken for our sake. He was forsaken so we could experience the nearness and help of God. He was made a curse for us, he became sin for us, He did all of those things to reconcile us with God and make us the objects of God’s welfare and adoption.
When life get’s hard and the enemy presses in hard with discouraging thoughts, we can easily lose sight of the nearness and the promises of God. We can feel like Christ did, we can cry out, “God why have you forsaken me?’ I know in my own life and ministry there are times I have felt that way. There have been times I have felt left in a helpless predicament and wondered if God had forsaken me. Those are the times I’ve had to remind myself of God’s promise. God is faithful, even when we are faithless. His word is true, He cannot lie. He will not forsake us.
Today maybe you feel like God has forsaken you. You look at the circumstances of your life and wonder where He is. I want to encourage you God is working, He has a plan. Don’t you give up because you are tired of waiting; God is preparing something awesome for you because He has promised to never forsake you. Hang in there and keep trusting God, He will rescue you, He will come through for you, He will not forsake you!
