The Promise to Never Leave

For many of us, one of our biggest fears or greatest sources of anxiety is being left, alone or abandoned. And for some of us, we don’t have to face that fear very much; if we have faithful family members, being truly abandoned is something we might be able to avoid. But, not all of us do have faithful family members. Some people have parents who leave, and in some cases, those children never even get to know their parents. Some people have a spouse who decides to walk away, determining that the commitment they made at their wedding is something they can no longer fulfill. We never expect for those people to leave us, which makes it even harder. But even those of us who have the best relational outcomes can expect to be left behind by our closest loved ones because of death. When someone dies, we will not likely blame them for leaving, but that may not change how alone we feel.

Wherever you are, whoever else may leave you, you can guarantee that even in your lowest moments, the Lord will be walking with you every step of the way.

Amid the hurt and complexity of these situations, we often ask ourselves why these people left us. Is it because of something we did? Did we drive them away? Did we make their lives miserable? Or, is it because of something wrong with them? Do they not care? Are they weak? Is there someone else they love more? None of the answers to those questions bring us any comfort or help in the middle of our pain.

The only one we can count on to never leave us is the Lord. We can read that promise multiple places in the Bible. In Deuteronomy 31:8, Moses is speaking to Joshua, encouraging him and helping him prepare to become the new leader of the Israelites, and he says to Joshua, “The Lord is the one who will go before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” And if that wasn’t convincing enough for Joshua, the Lord Himself says the same thing to Joshua just a short time later. In Joshua 1:5, the Lord personalizes the claim Moses made by saying, “I will be with you, just as I was with Moses. I will not leave you or abandon you.” The writer of Hebrews also quotes Moses in Hebrews 13:5. And Jesus even echoes this just before he ascended into Heaven after he was resurrected. At the end of what we call the Great Commission, he says to everyone listening, “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

This all sounds really great. But how can we trust this is true? God does not change (1 Samuel 15:29), so the way He feels about us now will be the same way He feels about us later. And He loves us perfectly (Psalm 136), so what He has to offer us will never be inadequate. God also exists eternally (Psalm 90:2), so there is no need for us to worry about even death separating us. And mercifully, no matter how badly we behave, nothing that we do would ever drive Him away from us (Lamentations 3:22–23). And the best news of all is that those of us who follow Jesus have the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16). God is literally in us every moment of every day, and that is a promise even better than the one Joshua received. Wherever you are, whoever else may leave you, you can guarantee that even in your lowest moments, the Lord will be walking with you every step of the way.

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