PrintA GOD-FORSAKEN COUNTRY?
The evening news was again filled with reports of yet another natural disaster. First it was the drought that effected much of the land. Then it was the bushfires that ravaged much of one state with an horrific loss of human life and property. Then it was widespread flooding rains that claimed further lives and property in yet another state.
Add to these tragedies the almost daily reports of destructive human behaviour that sometimes defies description and one could be forgiven for thinking that such experiences are proof that we are rapidly becoming a God-forsaken country.
Yet I wonder if it isn't the other way around. Perhaps we are becoming a God-forsaking country. There's a world of difference between being 'God-forsaken' and being 'God-forsaking'. Is our nation guilty of forsaking God?
We have long claimed to be a "Christian" nation. There is very little evidence to support that claim these days. I'm sure that I do not need to gather proof to demonstrate that, generally speaking, we are abandoning (forsaking) the "faith of our fathers" – whether that be by deliberate choice or slow, incremental inaction.
But what about that crushing sense that many have these days who are feeling abandoned or forsaken by God. I think about people I have known over the years who, because of some very negative experience that invaded their lives, have felt that they have been forsaken by God. Abandoned by Him.
You probably know people who seem to attract tragedy into their lives like a magnet. You may even be one of those people. Your lot in life at the moment may have convinced you that God has given up on you. Forsaken you. Despite what may seem to be in your life at the moment, let me tell you that, if you are still alive and breathing, God has not forsaken you. Nor will He do so while ever you live.
How can I be so sure? Because of one man who literally knew what it was to be forsaken by God so that you and I need never have that experience of abandonment. When Jesus Christ died upon the Cross those many years ago, He cried out in those last moments, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" That should have been our death. That should have been our cry. Yet He did all that for you and me so that we need never be forsaken.
To those who receive the benefits of that sacrifice, God now says, "I will never leave you. I will never forsake you". That has to be the greatest news that the human heart can receive.
But as for us forsaking God? Well, now, that's a different story with a very different ending.
