” . . .The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” (Isa 49:14)
A common theme that often emerges as I read through the daily prayer requests in this newsletter is one of despair. “I feel so far from God!” “I need to know God cares, because it doesn’t seem like He does!” or “I really think God has forgotten all about me!” But has He really? Let’s look at God’s response to Isaiah’s cry of despair: “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! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.” (Isa 49:14-16) My friends, it doesn’t matter what you are going through today, God has NOT forgotten you! He has engraved you on the palms of [His] hands; your walls are ever before [Him’]! This should be encouraging news to each of us. It should be all we need to pick us back up out of the bed of discouragement and despair! But God’s promises aren’t finished yet! He goes on to say: “Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away. The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these–where have they come from?'” (Isa 49:19-21)
Sometimes trouble is part of God’s plan, but His promise to us is two-fold: First, He will NEVER forsake us (Heb 13:5); and secondly, He promises to bring us through the trials even more prosperous than when we went into them! Remember Job? In the end, he had twice the wealth as the beginning of his trials! My friends, don’t ever succumb to the temptation to think that God doesn’t care about you! Remember that in the end, you will be much more blessed than before it all started! Dear Lord, may I not get bound up in circumstance, but may I instead claim the promise of Your Word that says You will never leave me nor forsake me, and that you will bring me through more blessed than I have ever been!
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Moderator, The Nugget, Scriptural Nuggets ( www.scripturalnuggets.org ), Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org