Abandon All Hope?

My mom lost me once in the mall when I was young. I think I was too busy playing hide and seek under the clothes racks and the group we were with moved on.

The moment I realized she was gone and I was alone, I was scared and felt hopeless. I felt lost and abandoned.

That feeling of hopelessness and loneliness can envelope us.

Jesus was abandoned by His Father once. He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

The Holy Father could not have anything to do with the sins His Son was taking on for mankind, because of His holiness. He had to turn His face away briefly until the Son commended His Spirt back to the Father.

In that brief time of abandonment, I’m sure Jesus felt helpless and alone as He took on the sins of the world.

“Why have you forsaken me?”

David, through the inspiration of God, wrote a Psalm with those very words hundreds of years before Jesus said them. He added a little more to that.

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief.” Psalms‬ ‭22:1-3‬ ‭

David cried out for God. He felt abandoned by Him, he felt alone. He laments that God does not answer and he finds no relief.

I think a lot of us may feel like that in the conditions that we live in today. We call on God day and night. We may fast and pray and look for relief from our present sufferings, from riots in the streets, persecution for beliefs, for dismantling of our history, to the disassembling of the saints, from evil and lies from the powers that be, for the wickedness running and ruling our world, relief from the spiritual warfare for which we are in.

We feel like we can only cry to God and ask, “Why have you forsaken me?”

We ask God where are you during all of this chaos? Why aren’t you intervening? Why have you abandoned us?

The answer comes after David’s lament in the 22 Psalm that we read earlier.

”Yet you are still Holy.” David knows despite the turmoil he’s in, despite the feeling of loneliness and abandonment that encompasses him that God is still Holy, God still sits enthroned.

Despite the violence and hatred of others, despite the chaos in the world right now, despite unbelief, despite persecutions and the lack of faith, the feeling that most Christians feel alone in their beliefs and despite feeling forsaken...

God. Is. Still. Holy.

Despite our feelings, He is still holy.

God tells us, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you or forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6)

Yet, He is still holy. He will not leave you.

“I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath! Death wrapped its ropes around me; the terrors of the grave overtook me. I saw only trouble and sorrow. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “Please, Lord, save me!” How kind the Lord is! How good he is! So merciful, this God of ours!” Psalms‬ ‭116:1-5‬ ‭NLT‬‬

He is still holy. He sees, He hears, He has mercy.

I know right now most of us feel like a sailor lost at sea. Abandon all hope. Our ship is sunk. The world is lost.

You may say to God, this is too much, there is no hope for this world, we are too far gone. Where have you gone?

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

God says, “hold my anchor.“

“So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.” Hebrews 6:18-19

No need to abandon all hope when God is the anchor. We just have to continue to hold on tight and trust in Him.

My mom eventually found me in the mall that day that I got lost. I sat with some security guards, who in my young mind, looked like storm troopers. I’ll chalk that up to a young imagination and an old adult mind that doesn’t remember things quite so well anymore.

Nevertheless, she ran to me like the father did to his prodigal son that was lost and then was found, like the shepherd who left his 99 to find the one lost sheep. She held me in her arms and was pleased to rescue me and bring me home.

Much like our Father in heaven who does the same for us.

“The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.” 2 Timohty 4:18

Even David knew in his cry for help in the 22 Psalm that God had rescued his ancestors in the past and would continue to rescue him and his people. Right after he reminded himself that God is still holy, he says, “In you our fathers trusted;

they trusted, and you delivered them.

To you they cried and were rescued;

in you they trusted and were not put to shame.” Psalm 22:4-5

The same promise is for us today. In this climate today, in a world where wrong is right, up is down, yes is no, and everything in between, it may feel like we have abandoned all hope and we are lost at sea.

God says, buck up sailor, hold on to my anchor, I hear you, I will rescue you. I will bring you home safely. I am merciful.

I am still holy.