God Has Not Left You
The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Jeremiah 31:3 (NKJV)
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! Psalm 139:23 (NKJV)
Are you feeling far from God? Does it feel like He’s forgotten about you? Do you feel alone and abandoned? Be encouraged, God is thinking of you constantly. You are always on His heart and mind. He is watching over you with love. He has not forgotten you, and He never will. You are His treasure and He cherishes you. He died for you so there is nothing He won’t do to bless you and show you His love.
How do we get to the point of feeling abandoned by God? Sometimes the cares and challenges of this life can come in and try to rob us of joy and of our relationship with God. At other times, the very blessings we have been given can become too important to us, and our relationship with God becomes secondary to the things He has given us. Remember, whatever we pay attention to is what becomes magnified to us. Little by little, putting our focus and affections on other things chips away at our relationship with the Lord. We must protect it. If we allow other things to stop us from spending time in God’s Word, in prayer, in worshiping Him, and simply sitting in His presence, the closeness we have with God can be eroded away.
Keep in mind, we don’t do these things to gain God’s approval- we already have His approval because we are in Christ. We do these things to keep our hearts turned towards Him so we aren’t drawn away from intimacy with the Lord. He wants to related to us heart-to-heart. His intention is to fellowship with us just like He did with Adam. They walked together, and He wants to walk with us in close union. Relationship with us is His desire.
If we are feeling like our intimacy with God is gone- like He has forgotten about us and doesn’t care about us- then we must turn to Him and not away from Him. God has promised to never leave us, so if we feel further from God than we want to be, it is because we have allowed other things to come in and draw us away. God never changes and He is where He has always been- we are the ones who have moved.
It isn’t hard to remedy this situation. Repent and tell God you want to draw closer to Him again. Tell the Lord that you love Him. Invite Holy Spirit to direct your time with Him. He will guide you to Scripture verses that speak to your heart. He will help you pray- just open your mouth and speak in your heavenly language. He can help us pray in the Spirit and in the understanding. Sing whatever Holy Spirit brings to your mind. Just let things flow the way the Lord leads. You might simply wait in His presence and allow Him to speak to you.
As we dedicate consistent, intentional, quality time to spend with God, we’ll find that God has not forgotten us or left us in any way. He is closer than anyone or anything. He never leaves or forsakes us. We just have to keep Him first place in our lives.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:8 (NKJV)
