He Stayed
You have access to God via prayer at this very moment. Where does your mind go when you read those words? Do you believe it? Does it seem too good to be true? I’ve had my own struggles with how I relate to this reality, largely due to “God speaking” being abused by other people. But I’m here to remind us both, that God still speaks.
I was spending some time in prayer on my way to work yesterday. As I was thanking Jesus for who He is, I began to name some specifics. Thank you for Your patience. Thank you for Your peace. Thank you for sticking with me. Thank you for staying.
It was the last one that almost jolted me. Why did that resonate with my inner being so clearly? I then felt this question prompted in my mind: “why did you think I’d leave?” It was presented so gently and lovingly. The question brought me to tears and created a blurry half mile or so portion of the drive
As I was loving the Lord, something got exposed during my prayer – a longing that largely goes unrecognized. One of my deepest desires is to have someone who stays. There’s a tangibly real fear of abandonment that I’ve carried around for a majority of my life and I hadn’t realized that I’d been looking at the Lord through that fear for quite some time.
I was blown away at how specific the Lord met me on my drive. He spoke directly to the place in my heart that needing love the most. I’m scared of people leaving and He intentionally reminded me that He stayed. “I will never leave you. I will never abandon you” (Hebrews 13:5b). This verse, in context, is about not being ruled by money but to be satisfied with what you have been given all the while trusting that God will not leave you needy.
Do you relate with this heart-cry? It’s so easy to conform to the thinking of the world which pushes us to attain more and more things as a way to protect ourselves from lack. We try to buoy ourselves from the hardships of life through accumulation of things or relationships. The problem is those things will never fully satisfy us.
We were made for love. Period. God is love, yet we look just about everywhere else except to Him. How often have I prayed for love and neglected my time with the Lord. My prayer now is one of opening my eyes to all the ways that the Lord has provided for me. To spend more time living out a spirit of gratitude rather than a spirit of lack.
I want to be sure to share the piece of this that ultimately encouraged my soul: God is a God who stays. He will not leave you, friend. He is for you. I understand that there are things that happen in our lives that make it seem like this might not always be true, but often times it’s our interpretation of those events and a shift in our perspective that needs to change. God’s character and nature is good and His love endures forever. This does not change.
God is always available. He stays. He sticks with you. If you have a hard time believing this, I want to encourage you to take a moment to ask the Lord to reveal Himself to you in new ways. Ask Him to show you where He’s been and where He was during those hard times that are coming to mind. If this is a truth you know to be true, then thank Him for it. How amazing is it to serve, commune, and have relationship with the God who stays.
