Not a lot of us want to feel abandoned. I remember being abandoned by my father in a relative’s house when I was a child. I was six years old and my Dad said to me as he was leaving, “Do you want to stay here with your cousins and I’ll come back for you?” I didn’t really want to stay. I wanted to go back home with him, but I said yes when he said he was going to come back. I assumed he was coming back in a couple of hours while I continued to play. The night came and he didn’t come back. The second day came and he didn’t show up. The third day came and I was sure he had forgotten about me. I ended up sleeping with the baby in a crib, because there was no room for me anywhere else. My uncle and aunt had a one-room house and two other little girls, besides the baby I was sleeping with. The sink and the stove were right near where the crib was. They all slept together in one bed on the other side of the crib. I was fine somehow if they had the baby sleep with them. But when the baby was with me in the crib I had no other choice but to crunch my legs up to my chest to make room, or stick them out of the crib and let them hang. I got hungry several times but they hardly ate themselves. My father didn’t come back until four days later when my mother made him go back for me. Needless to say for the first time in my short life I never felt so abandoned.
But abandoning ourselves to God’s care is not like that at all. You never feel abandoned even when there’s no one else there to comfort you and be with you. Abandoning ourselves to God’s care is the greatest favor we will ever do for ourselves, because simply His love is far greater than any need we will ever face in this life. His love is faithful, so that we will never find ourselves without His love or comfort. It only takes a simple prayer and a little imagination to connect with Him. Whenever we imagine He’s there, He is there. Period. There is no ifs, ands or buts about it. He’s there.
The Bible tells us that the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. {Proverbs 20:27} If you’re alive and have a spirit, God knows you. There is no place on this earth you can end up in that God does not see you. He said in His word,
Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD. {Jeremiah 23:24}
Abandoning ourselves to God’s care is key to knowing more and more of Him. It is faith at work. The Bible tells us that if we have faith we will please Him. When He returns, He tells us He’s going to look for a people that have faith in Him.
When we abandon ourselves to God’s care we stop worrying about what is going to happen to us in the future, because He is our future. We stop trying to figure out how to take care of ourselves. We go to Him to show us what job we should have, what house we should live in, and how we should live our lives. We go to Him for everything. We let Him figure out how to take care of us. We stop trying to figure out how to take care of ourselves and keep ourselves alive. We wait on Him to provide for our needs and to come through for us. We don’t come up with our own plans. We wait and listen to what He wants to say in His plan concerning our lives. We stop trying to figure out how to protect ourselves if something goes wrong, because we know He’s always there. If something goes wrong we just go to Him and He’ll show us the way. We will know what to do. He will not abandon us. We know we are in His care and we can trust to leave ourselves there.
The children of Israel in the wilderness during the time of Moses had to learn how to trust God on a daily basis. God proved Himself to be faithful to them until the end. When they asked for water to drink, He gave them a rock that brought forth water. That rock never ran dry in all those years they were in the wilderness. They never went thirsty again. When they asked for bread the Lord sent them bread everyday. Granted they had to gather the manna and cook it to make bread, but nevertheless they could count on the Lord to bring them the manna every single day. They never went hungry in all the years they lived in the wilderness.
There was a woman in the time of Elijah who had a son. She was a widow at a town called Zarephath in the land of Sidon. There had been no rain for many days in the land and a famine was upon them. The Lord instructed Elijah to go to the house of this widow so he could get his food. He said she would take care of his meals. When he found her she was gathering sticks for the fire. When he asked her to get him bread she told him that she didn’t have anything, except a handful of flour and a little oil. As a matter of fact, she told him, this was their last meal. This was it for her and her son. They were going to eat it and then they’re going to die. But Elijah assures her and told her that God says, “The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain on the land.“ {1 Kings 17:7-16} Well, to make a long story short, the widow did exactly what Elijah told her and they all ate and survived the entire time of the famine.
God is not going to abandon anyone that belongs to Him and trusts in Him. When we learn to abandon ourselves to His love, He has no other choice but to come through for us. It is not in His character to fail anyone who looks to Him and hopes in Him.
I remember a time in my life when I was worried about my future. I was 22 years old and was soon turning 23. I needed medical insurance for my asthma so I could get medicine. I was under my mother’s health insurance but according to her insurance plan, once I turn 23 I was on my own. I racked myself with worry how to go about getting health benefits. I thought I figured it out and went about getting my nursing assistant certificate. Since my mother was a nursing assistant and had good medical insurance, I figured if I became a nursing assistant I will have good medical benefits as well. Along the way the Lord was telling me it was not necessary. I kept getting this feeling that He didn’t want me to do this. But I was worrying too much to listen. After many weeks of schooling and riding the bus and the trains to Manhattan, I got my certificate. On the day I got a phone call that I had been hired in a nursing home and that I needed to show up that Monday for training, I threw all that hard work out the window. I did not show up. Instead I finally chose to believe God would take care of me. The truth was, I hated nursing. I didn’t want to do it, and God was there all that time telling me to trust Him and abandon myself to His care.
A couple of weeks later after this decision to trust the Lord for my future, I met a wonderful friend who the Lord was telling me was going to take care of me. I hardly knew this friend. He was a total stranger. But God said he was going to take care of me. We started talking and hanging out together and becoming great friends. Few months later, two weeks shy of my 23rd birthday we were married. A couple of weeks after we were married my husband ended up in a great job. Long story short, my medical benefits were taken care of. I had all the medicine I could ever want or need. And besides all that I had a husband who loved me and took care of me.
Abandoning ourselves to His care is telling Him we love Him, we believe in Him, and we trust Him in His love for us. It’s not a haphazard way of trusting Him. It’s not saying we shouldn’t get a job because He’s going to take care of us anyway, or we shouldn’t take our medicines because He’s going to heal us. Unless you are sure you heard from the Lord to give up your job or to stop taking your medicine, don’t do it. Abandoning ourselves to the Lord is not being reckless. It’s step by step going to Him for direction, listening for His voice, and waiting on Him to show us what to do and how to be. It’s spending a lot of time in His presence. We are talking to Him and we are staying connected with Him, learning to know His voice. Our hope and our trust is in Him, knowing that His love for us is forever and He will never ever fail.
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. {Matthew 6:25-33}
Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? {Luke 18:8}
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. {Hebrews 11:6}
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. {Proverbs 3:5-6}
Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. {Psalm 37:5}
Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. {Psalm 62:8}
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. {Deutoronomy 31:6}
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I thank You for Your love and mercy and grace upon my soul. I thank You that You will never ever leave me nor forsake me. I thank You Father, that You are always there whenever I need You. I pray Lord Jesus for more faith in Your love for me. Help me to abandon myself to Your care, knowing that You will never ever abandon me. You are a faithful God and as You were there from the time You took the children of Israel out of Egypt, to the time Joshua conquered the lands of the heathen nations and they settled in the Promised Land, You as well will be faithful to me until the end. Even now You are faithful. You know when I need You. You know when I’m talking to You. You know when I am hoping and looking and waiting for You, because You know all things and You know those who hope and trust in You. I thank You for hearing my prayer today Father, for more faith in Your love for me and for more love for You, in Your wonderful name, Jesus, I pray. Thank You, Father. Amen.
