Never Forsaken
By Vicar Shaw
As I was reading in God’s Word the other day, I came across this gem: “For the Lord will not forsake His people; He will not abandon His heritage” (Psalm 94:14). These words gave me hope and peace, having been reassured that the Lord has not forgotten us during this time of pandemic. God’s promise to be with us is certain and true; His Word has withstood the test of time. Therefore, we can be certain that we are never forsaken. Our Father in Heaven has had mercy upon us and has promised to strengthen us with His presence in everything we go through.
It doesn’t always feel like God is with us though. There have certainly been times in my life when I’ve felt forsaken by God. Something happens in your life and you can’t help but feel that God has abandoned you. Perhaps you’ve felt that way when a loved one has died or when you experienced another kind of devastating loss. Living during this COVID-19 pandemic has certainly led many people to feel like God has abandoned them.
The truth is, God has never forsaken you and He never will. We only feel that way sometimes because the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature work nonstop to get us to believe this lie. These three do their very best to get us to doubt God’s Word and promises to us.
But if you read through Scripture, you will see that God has made this promise in the beginning and has kept it to end. God reminds His people that He is with them all throughout the Bible and continues to remind us of this truth today. This is especially true during times when we feel alone and abandoned. The Lord will not forsake His people; He loves us far too much to ever do that. For He has promised in His Word that He will be with us always, unto the end of the age (Matthew 28:20). God will not abandon His Church. He will not abandon you.
Truly, we deserve to be forsaken. Because of our sin, we deserve for God the Father to turn His face from us. But in His mercy, God sent His Son to be born in our very likeness (except without sin) to endure the punishment that was due us because of our sin. Christ took our place of abandonment by the Father so that we would never be forsaken by Him. As He hung to die upon His cross, Jesus cried out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22:1) God’s wrath was poured out upon His Son so that we could be reconciled to Him. We never have to doubt God’s presence with us because of what Jesus has done for us. His resurrection assures us that all is well with us and God; we are at peace with Him because of the forgiveness that Jesus won for us on the cross. Having confessed our sins, God has forgiven us for Jesus’ sake and cleansed us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:8-9).
God has made us His holy people and His heritage just as He says to us in His Word, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10). This is all true for us because of Jesus sacrificial death and victorious resurrection. Again, our Lord speaks to us in His Word when He says, “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).
Know that you are not alone in whatever you go through. The Lord is with you and will always be with you. This is true when you feel alone, when you experience loss, and when you feel like you can’t possibly go on. It’s true during this pandemic too. God has never forsaken His people and He never will! He will see us through this. There will be a day when our lives will begin to return to normal and we can gather at church once again. But until then, may God remind us again and again of His promise to be with us through it all. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!