Daily Devotionals For Difficult Days [71] The God who never Leaves

Today's guest devotional is by Martin Davids, Manor Park Church Worcester

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

Lost as a child

If you are like me, I am sure many of you remember the overwhelming feeling of dread that swept over you as a child when you suddenly realised that you were lost.  It usually came about in a shop when you had wandered off to look at something and became engrossed in that item on a shelf. When you look up, you look around and you see you are on your own. 

As a child you panic.  Your childish mind and emotions fear the worst – that you will never see your family again.  Hot tears well up in your eyes and you run around frantically looking for your mum or dad, calling out in panic.  I’m sure these moments of separation are only for a few seconds or a minute or two at the most but for you it seemed like an eternity but then you see mum or dad and you run to their arms and are comforted.

Where is God?

I wonder how many of us have ever felt that way about God, our loving heavenly Father?  Perhaps you are thinking that now, with all that is going on in the world.  Where is God?  Everything was ‘ticking along’ just fine and then BAM! I looked up and God wasn’t there any more.  Now we are in a panic and doubts and questions arise in your mind.  Why has God abandoned me?  Does God still care about me? Does he even still love me?  

 

Someone once said “If God seems far off – It is not God who moved.” Like that child who wanders away from the parent; seduced by the ‘shiny toy’ in the other aisle; there are times when we ‘move away’ from God. There are genuine believers who, for a period, have gone ‘into the world and we call that ‘backsliding’.   This doesn’t always have to be decent into ‘worldly abandon’, sometimes they can get so busy with ‘life’ (work, family, education) that God and the things of God are far from their minds. 

Examine yourself

We are told in the scriptures to “Examine yourself to see if we are in the faith”.   What separates these true believers from false converts is that at some point, like the child, they look up!  They realise that they are lost and far from God and like the child who calls out for their parent, the true believer calls out for God.  Both desire to be reunited.  The false convert, on the other hand, may look up, may realise that God is far off but they just don’t care. 

Is anyone in that place now?  Are you feeling lost and far from God?  Then this could be the time that God is using in your life for some self examination.  If that is you, then be of good cheer my brother or sister.  The very fact that you desire ‘to be found’ should encourage you – you are, in fact, a child of God. 

However there is another person who I have (purposefully) left out of the ‘lost child’ scenario and it is to this person we will turn next.

The searching parent

I have spent my time focusing on the child who is lost but who have I missed out?  Those of you who are parents know exactly who I mean.  Yes it is the child’s parent.  I can remember the first time is almost lost my daughter.  We were in a supermarket and I was looking at some clothes and I took my eye of her for just a second and when I looked she was gone.  I sure every parent knows the feeling. If I thought the sense of panic was bad when I was lost as a child, then this was 100 times worse.  And yes, all the worse thought ran through my mind.  As it turns out she wasn’t lost at all but just playing a game of hiding behind some of the clothes (she was only about 4).  

At that moment though, nothing else mattered, in those few seconds all my concern was on finding her.  You remember the parable Jesus told about the lost sheep?  The shepherd leaves the 99 sheep and goes looking for the one who is lost.

Be assured, that if and when we are lost, when we wander away, God our Father is looking for us.  He cares for us.  So if we are going though that season of doubt.  If you are one of those people I spoke of above who are examining themselves – know one thing God is looking for you.  He will not abandon his own.  Just as the Father spent his days looking for his wayward son in the parable of the prodigal son; so our Father is looking for those who are lost and far from him. 

The Reunion

And what did he do when his son returned? Did he chastise him?  Did he hold him at arm’s length and say “I told you so.”?   No!  He embraced him. He threw a party for him.  Have you ever felt that you can’t come back to God? Are there some you even now, who feel that God will not accept you? Do not let fear hold you back.  Jesus promises in John 6:37  All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  

Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you

So what has this rather long preamble got to do with the verse above you might be asking? In Hebrews 13:5 (and also in Deut 31:6) we have this marvellous promise from God.  I remember in my last church an aged old saint who was days away from death.  His wife of many decades had died months earlier.  When church members visited him in hospital, to all of us he repeated this promise “HE has said that I will never leave you or forsake you”.  Though his voice was weak and failing, his faith was not.  He would repeat the promise with the emphasis on the HE has said.  He clung on to that promise to the day the Lord called him home.

God has promised the same to us.  To link this to our illustration of the lost child unlike the earthly parent, God never gets distracted with other things, he never takes his ‘eye of us’. So why do we sometimes feel ‘lost’.  If you will allow me to continue my analogy there was a season when my daughter was little,  around 4 or 5 she did have a tendency to wander off in shops and we were afraid that one day she would really get lost. 

We tried to warn her but she was just too little to really understand.  So on occasions we did, what I called, a ‘controlled lost’.  That is, we allowed her to wander off and we would ‘hide’ but had her in sight all the time.  When she realised that she was on her own and ‘lost’ she’d look around for us.  We could see the worry in her little face and she’d call out for us.  When that happened we’d reappear.  Please don’t think we were being cruel.  This whole experiment only took seconds but in those seconds she learnt more than the hours of talking.  We humans learn much through experience. 

God allows us to get ‘lost’ sometimes because he wants us to learn something but he always has his eye on us.  He will never leave us or forsake us. He hold us, he keeps us safe.  This is a promise from God.

A story is told of a father walking with his son.  They came to a road and as he had done so many times before the father said to his son “Hold my hand.” However the son replied “No daddy, you hold mine.”  The father was puzzled and asked his son “What’s the difference?”  To this his son replied “Well daddy if I hold your hand I might get scared and let go but I know that if you hold my hand no matter what happens you will never let me go.”

God is like that – he is holding our hand and no matter how dark and difficult thing get or how lost we can feel at times his ‘arm’ is long enough and we can know that HE will never leave us or forsake us.         

A Song for the day

This great old hymn ties into our verse and message for today.  It reminds us of the nearness of Jesus and promise he makes to us to be ever by our side.

O Jesus, I have promised

to serve thee to the end;

be thou forever near me,

my Master and my Friend;

I shall not fear the battle

if thou art by my side,

nor wander from the pathway

if thou wilt be my guide.

 

O Jesus, thou hast promised

to all who follow thee,

that where thou art in glory

there shall thy servant be;

and, Jesus, I have promised

to serve thee to the end;

O give me grace to follow,

my Master and my Friend.

 

 O let me feel thee near me!

The world is ever near;

I see the sights that dazzle,

the tempting sounds I hear;

my foes are ever near me,

around me and within;

but Jesus, draw thou nearer,

and shield my soul from sin.

 

O let me hear thee speaking

in accents clear and still,

above the storms of passion,

the murmurs of self will.

O speak to reassure me,

to hasten or control;

O speak and make me listen,

thou guardian of my soul.

 

The music can be found here.

 

Prayer for the day

Our Loving and ever watchful Father,

We confess that at times we have wandered away from your presence.  Through neglect or wilful disobedience we have found ourselves lost.  We thank you though, that you have never lost sight of us and have always drawn us back to you.  We pray for those we know, family members and friends, who are right now backslidden.  Having once enjoyed your love and protection are now ‘lost’ out in the world.  Our hearts ache for them and we pray that you will be pleased to draw yet another prodigal back into your fold where there is safety and true joy.

We thank you for the promise that you will never leave us or forsake us. For those who are going through dark or difficult times, who are asking where you are and may be on the verge of wandering remind them of that great promise.  We thank you for your Son who came to earth, suffered and died that the lost may be found.

We make this prayer through Christ our Lord

Amen  

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