Will God Ever Give Up On Me?
by Philip Asselin
Many of us will have done things we deeply regret. In the aftermath, the enemy will often come along and take full advantage of our sense of failure and tell us that we have gone too far, because we have done something too bad, or just are too bad for God to accept us into His kingdom. We’ve blown it! But what does the Bible tell us about this?
What started this thought process for me was the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19. After a miraculous victory over the prophets of the god Baal on Mount Carmel, Elijah received a threatening letter from Queen Jezebel the next morning promising his imminent death. He immediately runs away and asks God to take his life. On his way to Mount Horeb, he rehearses a complaint to God that he repeats twice.
What is often ignored when looking at this incident is that, after the defeat of the prophets of Baal, Israel was on the cusp of revival. It just needed Elijah to press in with God’s anointing and turn Israel away from Baal worship back to the worship of the One true God. However, this was not to be, because Elijah had run away and couldn’t be found anywhere. I’m sure Jezebel took full opportunity to declare how she and Baal had defeated Elijah and his God!
If you read the whole story in Chapter 19, you will find that God never once condemned Elijah for this catastrophic mistake (let me make it clear that I’m not saying I would have behaved any differently to Elijah!). He listens to Elijah’s twice-repeated complaint and gently corrects his mistake about being the only one left who had not bowed the knee to Baal and worshipped him. This is a fact that Elijah was aware of through Obadiah in 1 Kings 18:13, but which he seems to have forgotten in the stress and fear of the situation.
God’s response to Elijah’s failure was the opposite to what many of us would do to someone in that situation, maybe even in the Church. He recommissions Elijah and gives him three vital tasks to perform (1 Kings 19:15-16). God never mentions his failure or takes him to task over what might have been. No criticism, rejection, or punishment, just unconditional love. Elijah takes these new tasks on board and never looks back. He has a new purpose and a new view of the God he served.
The truth, dear reader, is that we do fail God and others. We get it wrong more often than we would like to admit. But God never ever gives up on us. We are still His beloved son or daughter, and He has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us. God’s ‘never’ means exactly that – never ever!
So, if you are experiencing a sense of failure today, and the enemy is trying to drag you down into despair, rise up in your spirit and tell him to get lost. Remind him of what God says about you. Then get up and start serving Him again. What angers the enemy most is when we keep the time between failing and getting up and starting again as short as possible.
Philip Asselin Philip is on the associate ministry and teaching teams with Glyndley Manor. He and his wife Gillian attended the second Healing Retreat at Glyndley Manor in 1992, and were greatly helped. They have two grown up children, one grandson, and a step-granddaughter in California, and a daughter and granddaughter in Eastbourne. His desire is to see people healed and set free to serve God.
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