Good morning. What does it take for you to reach a point where you just give up on someone or something? If you are watching a baseball game on tv and the team you are rooting for is down seven runs going into the 9th inning are you ready to turn the channel? If you have done your best to complete a new kind of task and after 7 attempts, it is clear that you aren’t making progress are you ready to say, “I’m done trying”? If you’ve told your child to clean their room several times and all you get are excuses, are you ready to give up on them? Are your answers so far, “Yes”, “Yes”, and “I feel like it sometimes, but I know it doesn’t work that way”. If those are your answers, then I would suggest that you are being quite reasonable.
But aren’t you glad that God doesn’t feel that way about any of us?
God called on Moses, getting his attention with God’s voice coming from a burning bush. God told Moses that He had decided that Moses was His chosen person to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and take them to the promised land. Moses said, “Oh really? Please send my brother Aaron.” When Peter had worshipped Jesus at the table of the Lord’s Last Supper, and then cursed Him hours later as he sat by the fire in the moments before the rooster would announce the new day, did the Lord say, “I’m done with you”?
We read the answer to this question of God’s faithfulness in Isaiah 49:14-16
Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me.’
‘Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget,
I will not forget you!
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.’”
God never gives up on us, any of us. What about the worst criminal imaginable? They may have quit on God, but God will never quit on them. If they repent of their sin and return to Him, they are forgiven and blessed. That is God’s promise, that is God’s grace.
The last sentence is quite remarkable, don’t you think? See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Imagine, God’s has your name right in front of Him 24/7.
On the cross Jesus cried out, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). God the Father was willing to endure the agony of separation from the God the Son to pay for our sin. He was willing to set aside His oneness with Jesus to make it clear that He will never give up on us.
Thank you Father for your faithfulness, even in those moments when we are unfaithful.
Vern