Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6
I shared this with my church family one Sunday during worship; this verse is a promise. Notice the word choice here; the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. I love words, so naturally I wanted to get the context here. Goes is a verb, it is go in the third person. Synonyms in this context might be move, proceed, travel, and my favorite, walk. How fitting that walk is exactly what the Lord does throughout our lives. He walks with us always leading the way. He goes with us on our journey. Now let’s go back to the word never. Never by definition is an adverb meaning: not at all, or how’s this for perspective, at no time. At no time will the Lord leave you. It isn’t in His DNA to be an abandoner. Though many times in my life I have felt; left out, forgotten, unseen. Those feelings can lead to a sense of abandonment for sure. But God. (My favorite way to use the word but 😉 God makes about 7,487 promises to man throughout the bible. If that isn’t a guarantee we can trust him, I don’t know what is.
Ever see something like this truck on your travels anywhere and wonder how it got there and who left it? If you’re like me, you want to know the story behind it. Who drove it, what did it look like before it was left behind? In the course of my walk with Jesus, I have witnessed people in my life feel like this truck looks. Abandoned. Since I have been in that place myself, I can empathize. But because I have Jesus in my life and His Holy Spirit in my heart, I am called, and at times compelled to minister to people feeling abandoned. Tell them the good news of Jesus and His saving grace. Remind them that there is someone there who will never leave them nor forsake them, (by the way this is referenced in some bible translations 82 times, and others over 100 times) If you are hurting or see someone in your life that is hurting, feeling left behind, remember God’s promise He made to you when you felt that way. Pray for God to show Himself in that person’s life, reveal how He is working and moving them in His direction. Man will always make us feel left behind or abandoned, but God will never disappoint or fail us in anyway, ever.
Carol Frear