FORGOTTEN?

Have you ever felt overlooked, or forgotten? I know I have, particularly when I was younger! When we describe ourselves as having remembered something, it is often because it had earlier slipped our mind………….. There are several places in the Bible where God is described as "remembering". Take the story of Noah and the Flood:   

The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. (Genesis 7:24 – 8:2)

It seems as though God had forgotten all about Noah and his family in the Ark for 5 months whilst they likely familiarised themselves to life on the Ark (perhaps getting used to sea sickness; confined spaces; and the daily round of feeding and cleaning out the animals each day). But had God forgotten Noah during this time?

One of my joys in retirement is regularly making home-made bread. After having mixed the ingredients with the yeast, the dough is set aside to "prove" whilst the gluten content is developed in the dough. This "proving" process takes about an hour to complete, and will be seen to be ready when the dough has approximately doubled in size. During this time, I might go for a walk, or write a weekly reflection for New Life, like this one. The important point is, that at the appropriate time I call to mind that the dough will be ready to be further worked on; at no point had I forgotten all about it.

We might believe that God forgets about us, but His word is clear that that is not the case:

But 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…….. (Isaiah 49:14 - 16)

God sometimes seems far away from us because He wants to "prove" (or develop) us, just like my bread dough. This is exactly what Paul taught:

We boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 4:2 – 5)

But now consider the very next verse: You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 4:6)

God's timing is always perfect He never forgets us, we are always before Him. Hallelujah!