Are You Feeling Forgotten by God?

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and in due season He will exalt you. 1 Peter 5:6

I was sitting on my couch trying to have some time spent with Jesus, but I was distracted. This particular morning I wasn’t feeling thankful or filled with any expectant hope. I know that I do have SO much to be thankful for and felt guilty for even feeling that way on top of it! I have plenty to look forward to, but for some reason this particular day I was wondering if my best days were behind me. I was trying not to give in to a full blown pity party. I was thinking of all the times I had missed opportunities or had been passed up for someone else. I was feeling old. My back hurt. And to top things off, I’ve had a pinched nerve in my lower back for months. I had a horrible cold. It hurt to move. I was feeling fat, very fat! You know, when you don’t feel well physically, you often start not feeling well mentally.

But after I took a moment and dug a little deeper, I realized I had been feeling that way for a long time.  Just kind of down.  It was starting to impact my outlook on life. My hopes and dreams were starting to fade away like a distant horizon I would never see come to pass. It felt like every time I turned around someone was getting a promotion or opportunities to live out their dreams. They seemed happy, living in the promised land of abundance with a perfect marriage, amazing health, plenty of money, and high esteem from the community. I was seeing their highlight reel on Facebook and believing that their life was perfect and that they were God’s favorite while I was his forgotten child or the one who was not good enough to be used by Him. I felt that I had offered my life for His service and He said “no thank you.”

But I know the truth is that my emotions will lie to me every time and the devil would love nothing more than for me to give into discouragement and despair and believe the lies that my emotions serve me on a silver platter.

The truth is, just because someone else is having success doesn’t mean that I can’t have success too.

Just because it doesn’t look like God is working doesn’t mean that He isn’t working. He is preparing you even when it doesn’t feel like it. If you are suffering, if you are in some sort of emotional pain then chances are you are growing. And pain accompanied with purpose is a powerful thing.

God has not forgotten you.

Just remember all the great men who were given a God-sized dream or promise and held on when they had absolutely no reason in the natural realm to believe it would come to fruition. Abraham and Sarah were told they’d have a child when they were well past the child-bearing age, Joseph was shown he’d have a position of great power and high esteem but ended up as a slave and falsely accused and imprisoned. Moses was called to deliver the Jews from slavery, but ended up being a lowly Shepard for forty years first. David was anointed king twenty years before it ever came to fruition and had to live his life on the run and hide in caves because the current king was so jealous of him.

Even after all the time that these men spent waiting, God never forgot them. He knew exactly where they were when the appointed time came.

So today, lets choose to enjoy life now and be fully present with our loved ones. Lets make the most of each day and not wait for our dreams to come true to be happy. Lets be happy while we wait.