Forgotten?

 

"Be still and know that I am God..." Psalm 46:10

Sometimes I wish I could always hear God audibly.  It would be so much easier to know what God wanted if He could speak to me.  Sometimes I wonder why He doesn't usually speak to us that way.  But then I think, would I even listen if He did always speak audibly to me?  

In the Old Testament, we read of the miracles God performed through Moses to let His people go free from the life of slavery they had lived under Pharaoh.  We see some pretty miraculous things take place from the plagues to the parting of the Red Sea.  And yet, even when the Israelites see these miracles first-hand, they still doubt God and still want to create for themselves an image to which they can bow down. 

Even when they saw miraculous things happen, they began to doubt God. Why?  Maybe it was because things were not happening as they would have liked.  They did not like that they were wandering around in the desert and that they were hungry and thirsty.  Doesn't it seem like we begin to doubt God when things do not go the way we want them to go?  We begin to feel as if God has forgotten us when life gets hard and when things do not happen in our time frame.  But, maybe we are the ones who have forgotten.  

 

We are the ones who have forgotten to be thankful in all circumstances.

"Always be joyful.  Never stop praying.  Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus."(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

We are the ones who have forgotten to trust in the Lord with all our heart.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

 We are the ones who have forgotten to pray about everything instead of allowing fear and worry to creep in and invade our hearts.

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?" (Luke 12:25-26)

 We are the ones who have looked out for our own interests instead of the interest of others.

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." (Philippians 2:3-4)

 We have chosen to slander our neighbor because we have been "wronged."

"But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips." (Colossians 3:8)

 No, He is not the one who has forgotten us.  For we read in Isaiah 49:14-16

 "...'The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us. ''Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.'"

 We see in Isaiah 53 that our perfect and sinless Savior came because He had not forgotten us, but because He loved us and wanted to redeem us: 

"He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down... But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all."

 So, we may feel "forgotten" at times.  We may feel like God isn't there, like He doesn't care.  But, may we remember that we are the ones who chose to "leave God's paths to follow our own."  We are the ones who have forgotten Him.  When we are tempted to believe we have been left alone, may we remember His sacrifice and may we seek Him with our whole heart.  Because then, we will find Him and He will speak to us as He calms our souls and fills them with a peace that is not of this world.  

"Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ^'I will be found by you,' declares the Lord, 'and will bring you back from captivity...'" 

-Jeremiah 29:12-14

"Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

 -Philippians 4:6-7