God Will Not Leave You Nor Forsake You.

God Will Not Leave You Nor Forsake You.

Hebrews 13:5 states; Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (NKJV)

Do you feel like you’re moving backwards? Are you bewildered at what’s happened in your life? God has not placed you on the shelf. You haven’t done wrong. You’re not being punished, but prepared. God’s not far from you, for He will never leave you, nor forsake you.

If you feel your life’s not the way God promised, know this: You are being prepared for something very important. There’s a purpose to walking in the wilderness and that’s to develop your character. There is a right way to go through the wilderness wandering; a way that will shorten the trip. There’s also a wrong way; a way that will add years to your wilderness experience.

Let’s do it the right way, for to have foreknowledge is to be forearmed!

When you walk with God and things don’t seem to be working, you’ll begin to feel disappointment and discouragement. You may even shake your fist at God and cry out, “Where are you!” If you don’t walk the right way during these times, you’ll feel like you’ve been abandoned. It’s during these times we must stand strong on who God says He is. Give Him praise and glory, through these difficult days.

When you’re thinking;‘God I don’t get it,’ there’s something you haven’t yet learned. If you’re wondering why you’re stuck in the same place, it’s time to go deeper into God’s word. God has a plan for your life and the only way you’ll find it, is if you take God and His word seriously. Nothing can fill you, like the presence of God and if you want answers, you need to spend time with God.

When you first start your journey with God, it feels like every prayer is answered. After some time, it seems to stop and you feel your prayers are falling on deaf ears. First you think you’ve done something wrong; sinned, not read your bible, not attended church regularly enough, maybe told a lie. Confess if you have, but if you’re doing everything you feel you should and you can’t perceive God, that doesn’t mean He’s not there. God is working behind the scenes.

God rewards those who diligently seek Him, not those who casually seek or pursue from a place of doubt. You have to believe He is who He says He is. Once God gives you a promise, He takes you through the wilderness to develop your character. When you’re fully developed, you’ll be better able to cope with the scale of the promise God’s bringing forth.

As a child, Joseph skited that his family would bow before him. Joseph was full of pride. He was a boaster, a tattle-tale and a bragger. Imagine if he ran the country without going through the hardship that he went through. Joseph would have been, not loving and caring, but narcissistic and who wants that kind of person leading them? His wilderness wandering served him well.

Saul never went through the wilderness and he didn’t finish well. He was appointed king with no training. Saul was arrogant and never saw the wrong he was doing, always shifting the blame onto others. He constantly worried about his reputation and honour, while at the same time, downplaying his roll for his bad decisions. He ended up losing his mind and died in battle.

David went through the wilderness and became a great king. During his former years, he killed lions and bears, while tending sheep and this set him up with the confidence to later kill Goliath.

Joseph’s wilderness wandering took 19 years, from the time his brothers sold him, until his dream of his family bowing to him eventuated. Moses; 40 years of walking in the wilderness. David; 17 years, before being anointed as king.

Sometimes it takes years to reach the ‘promised land’ and in all that time, you need to obey God. Those who obeyed God, all became great men of God. Isn’t that what we want too? To become great men and women of God.  

What about the child stars you see on tv? They start early and appear to have it all, but often end up in goal, or drug and alcohol addicted later in life. Why? Because their character hadn’t been developed enough to carry the load of stardom.

What I’m saying is: Even if things aren’t working, God still expects us to honour Him, to speak highly of Him and to obey Him – even when things aren’t going our way. 

Joseph interpreted dreams for others, even though his own dream hadn’t come to fruition. He could have said dreams don’t come true. Instead he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and because if it, was made second in charge of the region. This is why we need to honour God, even through the dry times of our walk with Him.

We need tests. We need to pass our test, so we can be successful. We go through our wanderings, so we can develop our character well enough to pass our test. The more you obey God, when there’s not one shred of evidence to say His word has come to pass in your life, the more your character develops, to better handle the promotion.

At the end of his wilderness wanderings, instead of being a narcissist, Joseph blessed his brothers. His character had developed over his years of captivity. This is why we must take every thought captive, why we must be obedient, even when we aren’t seeing results.

When we complain, we show a lack of holy fear. When we complain it's like we're saying; you know I would do it this way, not your way God. And that displays disrespect to the Great I Am. Nothing can remove the destiny God has prepared for us. All we have to do is walk in love, in faith and not complain about our situation.

The Israelites consistently complained and because of that, they kept going around and around the mountain. And that’s what will happen to us, if we complain. We go through the same issues time and time again, even if we just complain in our heart and not out loud.

Jesus knows our heart. He knows our thoughts. We have to keep a check on our thoughts. We prolong our season, when we complain. We have a job to do and we need to be getting in and getting it done. We can’t afford to prolong our situation. God s word says to redeem our time, so we need to be on top of things. We can’t be complacent.

God doesn’t even show us His full power. We couldn’t handle it if He did. Does that mean we shouldn’t try – absolutely not. We need to show the world the power of God, even if all we have is a thimble full.

The Holy Spirit ushered Jesus into the wilderness after his baptism, and Jesus returns from the wilderness in power. (Luke 4:14 Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.) We need to come out of our wildness wandering in power. Jesus comes out in power and authority and what Jesus has; He gave to us. We need to walk in the authority He gave us.

When it seems like you’re going backward, don’t let faith founder. During the last supper, Jesus prayed Peter’s faith wouldn’t fail (Luke 22:32 But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.) and we need to pray that too when we’re in our wilderness wandering, because it’s easy to lose sight of where we’re going, when we feel God isn’t moving on our behalf.

It was in the desert wilderness that Moses saw the burning bush. John met God in the wilderness. The wilderness is where you find God, but you have to keep going in those wanderings. No complaints; joy every day regardless of circumstance. That is Fear of the Lord. Sometimes there is a need to vent (complain), for we are but human. Just don't stay there.

God says; they will be His, after the refining fire. (Zechariah 13:9 I will bring one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people;’ And each one will say, ‘ The Lord is my God.’) The refining fire is the wilderness wandering. When we come through these times, we shall be made as pure gold and people will see the treasure in us. That treasure is Jesus. Let the people see Jesus in you.

It’s a privilege to go though training. Allow God to train you. Your cup will overflow. It will be much bigger than you expected and I pray that your faith doesn’t fail during the testing time. God keeps His promises, for He is faithful to bring it to pass.

Your life is your responsibility. What happens after disaster, is up to you. You can’t rely on others. You have to take a stand and make the stand count, then thank God for His hand in your recovery. You have to redeem your time, you have to control your temper, you have to manage your money. If you do your bit, God will do His.

He will show you how to manage time, manage emotions, manage money, manage relationships, overcome addictions. And when He does, it’s up to you to act on what He’s told you. If you feel you can’t hear Him speaking – delve deep into His word and you will hear Him speak.

If you’re diligent, He will speak to you through His written work. He will cause a biblical phrase to jump out at you. He will prompt you to look things up and dig deeper into the word. He will take the impurities from your life and refine them. And it all starts when you land in the wilderness.

Take a look at what’s not working in your life. Look up scriptures that discuss those areas and God will show you how to deal with them. Life will bring trials and desert wanderings and we will be tested in the fire. Then the dross will float to the top and you will be refined, coming out of the wilderness as pure gold. And only then can Jesus use you mightily. We have to go through our brokenness, through the wilderness wandering, to become the great warrior God's called us to be.

 

*Biblical quotes from the New King James Version.

 

About the author:

Alexandra Grose – An investigative photojournalist and author for over twenty years. Writing is her passion and her dream and helping others achieve their dreams, through her written work, is Alexandra's greatest aspiration.

 

 

#Integrity; truthfulness, honesty and reliability, in all things.

I believe one should....be truthful in everything you say and do. Keep all relationships open and honest. Be reliable, punctual and organised and if you say you'll do it - do it.

If you want to soar like an eagle, make an effort, not an excuse.

 

alexandragrose@amazon.com

©2023

This work is based on the belief of the writer. All she asks, is that you study and form your own opinion, as to the validity of her beliefs. You can’t assume you’re right on any given topic, you have to prove it.