Never Alone
After the 2013 tornado in Oklahoma City with $50,000 damage to my house, I put an underground shelter in my garage. As I “decorated” it with l e d lights, battery operated fans, and a case of water, I thought, “I’ll be down here alone. What if I am trapped down here for hours, alone? I’ll have to come down here alone.”
By this time I’d been “alone” for nearly fifteen years. It wasn’t the first time I had contemplated my aloneness. Today, many are experiencing ‘alone’ in ways never thought possible. The sick among us are hospitalized ‘alone’. Spouses are not allowed to accompany infected spouses, parents of adult children are not allowed to sit by their bedsides. I have friends who have waited in the parking lot for word that their loved one came through surgery. A dear friend is lying alone in the hospital bed, lonely. And at home, the family sits alone, awaiting phone calls from overworked nurses. That day in the shelter, in a dark moment; my heart remembered, “You are not alone, I am always with you.” The Word of God promises repeatedly that He will never leave us alone. That’s what God has to say to us today.
“The enemy wants nothing more than for you to feel like you’re all alone. Be reminded that God sees you, right where you are, and He won’t ever leave you to fend for yourself. Thank Him that He is strongly supporting you right now, that He sees right where you are.”
I did my indepth study on Genesis 16:13. Hagar has run into the desert with her infant son, she is destitute and very alone, when God speaks to her. She is amazed that she has lived through a personal confrontation with God but she proclaims, “I have seen Him who looks after me.”
I wasn’t really feeling alone this morning, I was feeling disappointed. I was having a pity party. I enumerated for God, all the ways that this virus has robbed me. I laid out future plans, all of which are cancelled and reminded Him of some promises made. He was quiet until I took a breath. My phone went off.
My friend Glo frequently sends me a text devotion but they always come early in the day, never this late. She would tell me later in a phone call that she had sent this the day before, but somehow, mine came later. Her text said:
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you (who are willing to learn) with my eye upon you. Psalm 32:8. I myself will go before you and will be with you. So do not be afraid, do not be discouraged I, your loving Savior am also infinite God. I am omnipresent, present everywhere at once. This makes it possible for me to go ahead of you, opening up the Way without ever leaving your side. Our God is faithful Always. He will make a way where there seems to be no way. He is the Waymaker.”
Tears streamed down my face, not tears of disappointment, tears of repentance. And not in gratefulness that He will make a way. Who am I that God would speak into my situation so pointedly? The God who “looks after me” gently reminded me that He is a loving Savior who wants to give me good things. In an instant, I remembered His faithfulness in my list of His perceived failures. He reminded me of His promise to restore seven-fold in HIS TIME. Then, He had me read my blogpost of May 20, 2019, Today. I hate it when He makes me eat my own words. I love how much He loves me.
So, Today, I’m thinkin’ about just resting in that love and assurance that He has gone before me and I am not alone.
