CONCERT OF PRAYER

Pray Week 832

“Forsaken”

Psalm 27:10 (ESV)  For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.

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To be forsaken is to be completely deserted, helpless and abandoned. When you feel forsaken you feel cold and empty like an abandoned house.  You feel vulnerable, alone and unloved.

Psalm 27 struck a chord with me this week in my daily devotional and Bible reading.  It is hard to imagine but the sad truth is that parents are forsaking their children in ever increasing numbers.

There were 50 million legal abortions in the United States between 1973 and 2008.  Couple that with the dramatically increasing rate of abandoned babies that we are now seeing nationwide.  In an attempt to save lives, all states have enacted legislation allowing children to be ‘properly’ abandoned to foster care without fear of reprisal or prosecution.

Then my heart broke when I read about Lamar West in a NY Times article.  In foster care at age 4 and adopted at age 5, Mr. West was abandoned once again at age 18. He is part of a growing group of homeless young adult men and women that were adopted under the government’s push in 1997 to reduce child welfare costs by subsidizing adoptions.  They become forsaken once again and turned away from those whom they have come to know as family once the government monthly adoption subsidy attached to them ceases.

Even as adults we can be forsaken by others.  Sometimes we feel abandoned by God.  This is a lie of Satan.  Even though our very parents forsake us, God never will forsake His children.  Jesus experienced being forsaken so that we would never be forsaken by God.

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice …”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” – Mark 15:34

It was at that time that God placed the sins of the world on Jesus and had to ‘turn away’ from Him.  Jesus became sin for us.  It was our sin, not His. Jesus felt for that one and only moment in eternity the cold emptiness of abandonment and separation from God that sin produces.

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. – 2 Cor 5:21

By Jesus’ death and resurrection we can be made righteous and by our confession of faith we can become children of God never to be forsaken by Him.

…by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. – Romans 5:19

…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. – Romans 10:9

…But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…  – John 1:12

May you become a child of God through Jesus Christ.  May the Lord, your God fill you with the warmth of His presence.  May He wrap His loving arms around you and comfort you as a Father embraces His children.

Be strong and courageous … He will not leave you or forsake you.” – Deut 31:6