God Speaking

“And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel”

(1 Kings 6: 13)

I had the lovely task a few weeks ago of minding my seven-year-old grandson for the day and just like all countless grandmothers before me, I spent the day spoiling him. Firstly, we walked to McDonalds hamburger shop for lunch, then to the ice cream shop for a huge ice cream and then of course to a toy store, where we left with a present, by the time we wandered back to my place it was mid-afternoon and as a special treat he was allowed to watch cartoons on the T.V.  When his mother came to pick him up he announced loudly, “I want to live with Nana.”  I tried to explain to him that was not possible as I lived in an apartment and not near his school and was getting too old to look after a little boy every day. He just looked sadly at his mother and said, dramatically, “Nana has abandoned me”. How he knew that word I don’t know, but of course I consoled him by telling him that I loved him and another time we would have another fun day together.

My little grandson, probably had no idea what the word, abandon, really meant but when the Heavenly Father uses that word it has great depth of meaning for all of us. When God makes a promise, it lasts forever. His promise carries great weight, promising to be close with us, to dwell with us, to cover us with grace and mercy, to forgive us, so when he promises to never abandon us, we can expect those mercies to follow us all the days of our lives if we decide to follow him, in fact they are renewed every morning;

“Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3: 22 – 23)

Forever, is another word used over and over again in God’s word, and is often used to describe the depth and power of God’s love

“The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voice in praise to the Lord and sang, “He is good his love endures forever.” (2 Chronicles 5: 13)

No human can ever promise us this sort of all, encompassing love, but the more we trust the Lord and his word, peace can pervade our lives as we hang on to this incredible promise of our loving Heavenly Father