Never Forgotten

"But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
And my Lord has forgotten me.”

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?

Surely they may forget,

yet, I will not forget you.

See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;

Your walls are continually before Me." Isaiah 49:15-16

The enemy is a ruthless, relentless liar. He is especially cruel in his craftiness and targets us with lies and accusations against God and His love and care for us. "God has forgotten you. God doesn't care for you. You are abandoned by God. There is no hope for you. God is not keeping His promises to you."  For good measure the enemy turns and targets us with some of his lies and accusations. "You've messed up too many times. There is no recovery for you. God has given up on you because you're such a screw up. God has turned His back on you."

In this passage from the book of Isaiah, the people of Jerusalem are hearing the enemy whisper in their ears his all too familiar lie, "The Lord has forsaken you and forgotten you." We've all heard that lie before. The enemy especially takes glee in shoving our head underwater with those words when we are drowning in difficult circumstances. But God gives us words to remember, to imprint on our mind and heart, to keep handy as a weapon against the lies of enemy. "I will not forget you."  Then, the word goes even further and implies that it is impossible for God to forget you. "See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands." Think of this, your hands are the part of your own body that you see the most. You have to look in the mirror to see your own face, but you watch your own hands constantly, as you work, as you write, as you eat, etc. It is not happenstance that God tells us that our names are, in essence, tattooed on His hands. Perhaps this is a reference to the scars that the Son of God has on His hands from being nailed and hung on a cross for our salvation. When He sees the scars on His hands, He sees us, the ones He loves and died for.  We will face tests and trials and difficulties. We will sometimes wonder why we are having to wait so long for answers to prayer. We may suffer and wonder why God has allowed it. But this is a promise we can stand on - we are never forgotten by God.