Never Forsaken

by Greg Quinn

April 3rd, 2024

One of the most consistent messages throughout the entire Bible is that God will never leave you or forsake you.  God’s promise that “I will never leave you or forsake you” is found in multiple books of the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments.  With this promise, no matter the circumstances, we have the assurance that He is always with us.

1 CHRONICLES 28:20

David also said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous, and do the work.  Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you.  He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.”

1 KINGS 8:57

May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us.

DEUTERONOMY 31:6

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 31:8

The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.

GENESIS 28:15

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

HEBREWS 13:5

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.”

JOSHUA 1:5

No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life.  As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

JOSHUA 1:9

Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with your wherever you go.

MATTHEW 28:20

And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

ISAIAH 41:10

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

So then why when King David was in despair did he record in PSALMS 22:1, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Does this mean that David, the man recorded as “after God’s own heart”, doubted that God was with him during his troubles?  Of course not.  David goes on in Psalms 22 to share just how God had been so good to him and had been with him and had delivered him.

And why did Jesus, the Son of God, God in human flesh, quote the same verse of Psalms 22:1 when, dying on the cross to take away our sin, say as recorded in Matthew 27:46….

MATTHEW 27:46

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Does this mean that Jesus, when in his greatest hour of suffering, cried out to God the Father in unbelief, thinking that God Himself had forsaken him?  Of course not!

Jesus, as God in human form, knew 100% that God would never leave or forsake any of us, even in our greatest trial or struggles.  And as God’s Son, Jesus certainly knew His Father would never forsake Him, even when on the cross to become the sacrifice for human sin.

So what does this mean?

Jesus was 100% God and 100% Man.  He was God born in human form.  He came to earth as a baby in a divine birth, to experience all that Man would ever experience, in order to relate to us, and in order to save us, from the evils of this world.  Jesus was God who could be seen, touched, held.  Jesus lived life like Man but never sinned.  Jesus lived as a Man to give all of us an example of how we should live our life.  But as a Man, he experienced human emotions.  Jesus became humankind’s sacrifice to bring us back to a Holy God.  And on the cross at a time of such agony, Jesus cried out to God the Father in all his humanity, feeling forsaken and alone.  But knowing that He was not alone, as God the Father was with him at that moment, even in his deepest despair, just as God the Father is with us at every moment in our lives, even in our deepest despair.

We as humans experience emotions.  Emotions in themselves are not bad.  If we let our emotions get out of hand, they can produce in us bad outcomes.  But emotions are not bad.  It’s part of being human.

Jesus was angry when he threw the money-changers out of the temple.  Jesus was sad when Lazuras his friend died, and He wept.  Jesus was happy and experienced joy.  Jesus was excited to have the little children come to him.  Jesus was sorrowful at the state of humanity that had forgotten God.  Jesus was compassionate toward all He healed.  Jesus grew hungry.  Jesus was lonely when his disciples abandoned Him. Jesus experienced all the emotions that we as humans feel, because He was human and God.  Yet, through the experience of His emotions, He never sinned.

So emotions are not bad as some would have you think.  Emotions are part of our humanity.  But we must manage our emotions or we could suffer because of this.

It is OK to be angry at times; there are things in this world that should make us angry.  The evils of mankind.  The control of world governments.  The child abuse.  The poverty.  The starvation of people.  We can be angry, but that doesn’t mean we go out and shoot someone.

It is OK to feel sorrowful, but we do not let the sorrow go to extremes where we become depressed and cannot function.

It is great to feel happiness, but we cannot think it is a constant state of being while living in a lost and sinful world.

If Jesus, God in human form, as Man-God, could be in despair when on the cross and feel alone and forgotten in his emotions, then we are OK in feeling alone and forgotten at times ourselves.  But we have the reminder that God is always, ALWAYS, with us.  God will never leave us or forsake us.  Just as He promised.

And when Jesus left his disciples, he left them God who lives within them, the Holy Spirit.  And when we accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord, the Holy Spirit of God comes and lives in us also. 

So we are never alone as God the Father always looks over us.  We are never alone as Jesus the Son of God is always interceding for us.  We are never alone as God the Holy Spirit lives in us.

Never alone.  Never forgotten.  Never forsaken.

So as you walk today’s walk, and live the life that God has given you today as a gift, remember that even King David and Lord Jesus felt emotions of being alone and forsaken.  But we, like they, are never alone.  God is always with you.  God will never leave you or forsake you.

Loneliness is one of the toughest problems many face.  Whether it is a child without a home, a parent who has lost their child, a mate who has lost their husband or wife, or someone who just feels alone, we all go through those emotions.  That’s OK.  Just remember the truth behind the emotions.  God will never leave you nor forsake you.

You are never forsaken.  You are never forgotten.  You are never alone.

Never.

God bless.

Greg Quinn