feeling FORGOTTEN

Sometimes we do feel like we’ve been forgotten, don’t we? We look around us and everyone seems to have it together and we wonder, “Why not me?”. 

For many of the Bible’s characters we are familiar with, they too may have felt this. For example, Joseph was falsely accused and thrown into prison. Even when he helped his inmate out of prison, he was forgotten. But God had not forgotten Joseph and eventually used him to save his whole family and the population of Egypt from a severe famine (Gen 39–41). How about the woman who suffered haemorrhaging for 12 years and saw no light of healing for so long? She must have felt forgotten. But God had not forgotten her and in the end, she had a personal encounter with Jesus himself (Matt 9:20–22).

The Lord will work out his plans for my life—
    for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever.
    Don’t abandon me, for you made me.

Psalm 138:8

Psalm 138:8 tells us that “The LORD will work out His plans for my life — for Your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for You made me” (NLT). This is God’s promise that He will be on the journey with you and He is at work in perfecting and completing the good work He has started in your life. Even when it seems that things have gone wrong, remember that God has not let you out of His sight. You can trust and rest assured that God isn’t giving up on you or that He has stopped working in your life. His faithful love holds you.

Back in junior college, I remember the day when I received my GCE ‘A’ level results. Staring at my grades, I felt lost and unsure. I had worked hard and did not get the results I had hoped for. I was devastated because, while many of my good friends were headed to the school of their choice, I was kind of left on the shelf, forgotten. At that point, I didn’t understand nor feel like this was God’s perfect plan all set in motion for me. But God knew and He was working in and through situations that looked bleak to me. 

Eventually, I did get into one of the local universities and into a course I had interest in. As much as I was disappointed initially, God truly had a plan for my life and He was teaching me that I could trust Him. The next four years were one of the best in my life — making amazing friends whose friendships carry me till today, enjoying and being challenged in what I studied and soaking up the experiences of hall life and more. Looking back now, those difficult times revealed God’s faithful love to me and how God did not and will not abandon me. He knows better than I do and I can fully rely on Him.

In the big and tricky situations in my life, or the small and mundane,
even in things I don’t even mention to others;
He knows and He is faithfully working it out.

god’s terms, not mine

Another thing to remember is that this working out of God’s plan for my life is through Christ, in order that I may be made more and more into His likeness and glory. So whatever that has to do with me — big or small, significant or seemingly insignificant — He is there and doing something good. In the big and tricky situations in my life, or the small and mundane, even in things I don’t even mention to others; He knows and He is faithfully working it out.

Sometimes, we lose ourselves in thinking God’s plans for our lives would pan out in how we generally understand “good” to be — good grades, good health, good family, and so on. When that doesn’t happen, we lose heart. We question God’s goodness or what He says because it honestly doesn’t look good at times. But if we read carefully, we see that this is the working out of God’s plan for our lives, not our plans for our lives. It is based on God’s terms, not ours.

On this journey, God’s mercy holds us fast.
God is kind and He is gentle with us.

His mercy endures forever

At times, without being able to see the big picture, it feels like being stuck in a maze with the exit point being a blur. But in those moments, may we pause and remember that God holds us close. Through the heartaches and pain, or the frustration and tears, this verse clearly says that God’s faithful love is present. In the NKJV translation, it speaks of God’s mercy being upon us. His mercy endures forever. 

On this journey, God’s mercy holds us fast. God is kind and He is gentle with us. Isaiah 64:8 reminds us, “Yet You, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.” God is mercifully at work in our lives, making us beautiful.

In the second half of Psalm 138:8, David pleads, “Don’t abandon me, for You made me.” This is a call on God’s character, His perfect character that never changes. Therefore, just as David did, I can trust in who God says He is. Despite my flaws and failures, God will hold me fast in the good times and the bad times of my life and His mercy endures forever. 

Through this journey, I will emerge complete, beautiful and refined in Christ who never fails. 

So when you feel forgotten, remember the promises God has given — He is working out that which concerns you and He does so with mercy and faithfulness. Let this truth shape your life and your thoughts because you are loved and remembered.