Will God abandon us?

Will God abandon us? This question seems simple enough and you would think that the answer is no, and even though that answer would be correct, I think that this question deserves a little more looking into.

The love of the Lord goes with you, he will never leave you, nor forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6. I don’t remember the exact number, but I remember reading recently in my study material that the bible says that the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you over 60 times. I am currently reading the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah of corse was a profit of God. In the book of Jeremiah, God is once again fed up with the Israelites. This is nothing new if you are familiar with the Old Testament. However, this time is different, instead if allowing the Israelites to become taken captive by there foes, God is ready to destroy them all together.

Sounds pretty harsh doesn’t it? However, before God finally sends his wrath at the end of Chapter 14, he tells Jeremiah to go and give His people Judah, one last warning, and after they ignore that warning, God give them another one, and when they ignore that warning, God give them another one. He sends Jeremiah back with several warning saying that this is your last warning before he actually sends his wrath.

The Lord our God is a God of love. He doesn’t want to destroy anybody. It’s true that the Lord with never leave us nor forsake us, but how ofter do we leave and forsake the Lord? That is the real question. I don’t believe that God would ever abandon us, though I’m sure that others may disagree. I do however think that God will give us our space and back off for a while to let us get what ever it is out of our system. He gave us free will, and sometimes we we exercise that free will a little to freely.

In the book of Jeremiah, there are two main things that the Israelites are doing to upset the Lord. First off, they are worshiping the foreign god Baal. The first commandment is You shall have no other Gods before me, for God is a jeleous God. I love how God describes this in Jeremiah chapter 10:3-5. They cut down a tree from the forest, and they shape it with a chisel, the cover it with silver and gold, and they use a hammer and a nail so it won’t fall over. It is like a scarecrow in a mellon patch, it cannot talk. It must be carried because it cannot walk. They call this a God, but it is only a stick, do not be afraid of it.

That cracks me up when I read it. But we are not so far off from this type of worship. We may not physically be praying to a piece of wood, but remember what I have said before that anything that we put before God, is an idle in our lives.

The second thing that the Lord was upset with the Israelites about was their obsession with sex. Although this may be the case with some people today, more people than not are not sex addicts in today society, but I am not going to get into that.

I want to challenge you find one thing that you put before your relationship with God. I am sure that most people, my self included, could come up with a whole list of things, but I want you to think of one, hopefully the main thing. Ash Wednesday is coming up here in a couple of weeks. A lot of people choose to fast for Lent. So I would challenge you to start to pray over the next 16 days to see what you might give up for Lent, maybe it is that one thing that you are putting before God. I will be giving up a lot this Lent, but more on that later.

In closing, even if we don’t feel close to God, he will always welcome us back with open arms if we are sincere about wanting a relationship with him. And as for the Israelites in Jeremiah’s time, well, lets just say that there was a happy ending. Read Jeremiah this week, and find out for yourselves about Gods love for his people.