2020: Has God Forgotten Us?

Do not base your perception of God on the short-term struggles.

God is most actively seen in the long-term war.

Nehemiah 9:6–8 ESV

6 “You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. 7 You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham. 8 You found his heart faithful before you, and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.

Where did God find you in the beginning?

Nehemiah 9:16–17 ESV

16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.

God’s greatest display of faithfulness is seen in the light of our greatest failures.

He does not abandon us because he has steadfast love.

Nehemiah 9:30–31 ESV

Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

Our sin does have consequences

Nehemiah 9:32 ESV

“Now, therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until this day.

Scripture encourages us to give voice to our doubts and fears.

The Israelites made their concerns known to God.

In the meantime, they committed to obeying him.

What about us?

Are you afraid of the future? Do you doubt that God will protect you?

How has God protected you in the past?

Write it down.

Talk with someone about it.

When was God faithful to you even when you weren’t faithful to him?

Write it down.

Talk to someone about it.

What is God asking you to do in the meantime?

How has God protected you in the past?

How has God been faithful to you, even when you weren’t faithful to him?

What is God asking you to do in the meantime?