But God, What About Me?

Are you in a long season of waiting and wondering if God has forgotten about you and the things He has promised you? Or are you looking around at what He’s doing in the lives of others and wondering, “God what about me?” As God began to download this topic in my spirit, I could sense that some of you are feeling this way. Some of you are wondering where God is, if He will come through, if what He promised will come to pass, and why things seem to be moving for others but not for you. Sometimes we get to a place where we are tired of waiting – especially if the wait has been long. Sometimes we’ve been fighting in the spirit so much and we get tired and weary. And sometimes we feel like God has forgotten about us all together and simply feel abandoned by Him. I’ve learned that in these seasons it’s important to tell God exactly how you feel and not try to cover it up. Healing and refreshing begin with an honest confession. If you are feeling like God has forgotten about you or if you have feelings of abandonment, confess these feelings to God. When we honestly confess to God how we feel, then He can begin to deal with those areas. I pray that this blog post will help you to identify areas where you feel abandoned by God, encourage you to confess those feelings, and refreshes your soul and gives you the strength you need to continue on in your relationship with the Lord.

To forget means to cease or fail to remember; be unable to recall; to omit or neglect unintentionally; to leave behind unintentionally. Synonyms for forgotten include: unremembered, out of mind, left behind, neglected, overlooked, ignored, and unrecognized. To really deal with an issue, it’s important to identify the root of that issue. What is the root cause of you feeling forgotten by God? Is it because you expected your life to be a certain way by a certain time (unmet expectations or discontentment)? Is it because it seems like things are happening for people around you but not for you? Is it because people close to you are putting pressure on you to be where they think you should be? Is it deep rooted abandonment issues from your past? Or it is due to a very difficult season that you are in at the moment? Whatever the root cause is, it must be identified so that you can be healed and set free from it. When we notice issues in our heart we can’t just sit on it and let it continue to grow, we must deal with it head on. Many people don’t like being honest with God about their negative feelings because they think He might be mad at them or they feel like they have to always portray a strong Christian image. But if you can’t be honest with God, who can you be honest with? God wants us to come to Him with an open and honest heart about how we feel and how we are doing. When we come to Him with an open heart then He can really have His way and do what He wants to do in our heart. So, if you’re feeling forgotten, abandoned, or overlooked by God – for whatever reason – be honest with Him about it so that that area can be dealt with. Don’t feel like you have to hide or overlook the area. I’ve found that when I come to God honestly about things that are going on in my heart, not only is He patient with me like a father should be but I draw closer to Him through the process of allowing Him to work on that area.

The God that we serve is not a negligent God, He does not neglect, overlook, or ignore His children. He’s not an absentee father who births children and leaves them to fend for themselves. What He began in us, He sticks around to complete (Philippians 1:16), and He makes it His business to see about us. God sees you, He has always seen you and He will forever see you. Psalm 121:2-4 tells us that He never sleeps nor slumbers. He is a good Shepherd who watches over His sheep. It is so important that we combat every negative thought or feeling with the word of God. It’s the enemy’s job to break down our spiritual defenses. The enemy will have us wallow in our emotions to the point that they seem real and it becomes more difficult to actually believe God’s word. For feelings of neglect and abandonment, the word of God says, “He will not leave you nor forsake you” (Deut. 31:6) and “I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken nor His children begging bread” (Psalm 37:25).  God will never leave you, even in your most difficult storm. A stormy season does not mean that God is punishing you or that He has left you. Prayers not being answered does not mean that God has stopped hearing you. He has a reason for everything that He does and everything that He does is motivated by His LOVE for us. Romans 5:8 says, “but God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” That means while we were still in sin, God was thinking about us, we were on His mind. How much more do you think He thinks about us now that we belong to Him? Don’t allow the enemy to distort your image of God. Cast down every thought that tries to exalt itself above the word of God. Don’t wallow in feeling forgotten and overlooked, don’t wallow in abandonment, FIGHT against it! Fight with the WORD!

There was a time when I was in a very rough season. I was getting hit by one thing after the other and one battle after the other. It was just a very difficult season. I felt very overwhelmed and I felt like God left me there to get beat down by the enemy. Although I knew deep down inside that God would never abandon me, I still felt abandoned and forgotten because of the weight of that season. It didn’t help that the season was also very long. What I failed to realize at the time was that God was allowing me to go through it to take me to another level of strength and endurance in Him. He was trying to teach me how to endure on another level in spite of how I felt. He was strengthening my LONG-SUFFERING muscles. Can you hold on to God even when you feel like He’s not with you? How quick will it take you to quit on God or on the process He has you in when things aren’t going your way? God processes us in levels. It’s just like weight lifting. He puts a little on us at a time. He builds up our endurance and grows our fruit little by little. When you’ve mastered one level then He’ll take you to the next level. That’s why it’s so important to get the lesson that God is trying to teach you in the season you’re in now because it will prepare you for the next season. 1 Peter 2:5-8 says, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement (add to) your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God wants us to continuously increase in godly attributes. We can’t increase in these things if everything is always easy. To increase in something, you need to be challenged to rise above where you are right now. If God made everything easy our spiritual muscles would never be developed. We would have no endurance, no real faith, and no love. Oftentimes God puts us in difficult seasons to teach us to endure. We can’t become giants in the faith if we’ve never had to go through battles and endure through difficulty. Count it not strange when God tries your faith, but when He does try your faith, do not mistake the testing and trying for Him abandoning you or punishing you. No matter how difficult it may get, God is still with you and He’s given you what you need to endure the season that you are in.

At times God will speak a word and things will begin to look the very opposite of what He said, or a lot of time will pass and nothing will happen. Yes, it’s difficult at times to continue to believe, but again, remind yourself of God’s word and His nature. We must get to a place where we place His word above EVERYTHING, especially our own thoughts and emotions. Our emotions may say one thing, but God’s word says that He is not a God that makes promises and does not keep them. If He said something, it WILL happen no matter how much time has passed. Isaiah 55:11 lets us know that when God speaks a word it does not return void! Meaning when He speaks something, His word goes out and manifests what He spoke. Numbers 23:19 describes His nature like this: “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” Lying is not in His nature, making promises that He does not intend to keep is not in His nature. No matter how much your mind tries to lie to you that somehow God has forgotten about you or that your situation looks bleak, REMEMBER HIS WORD and who He is! So next time you start wondering, “what is God doing with me” and “my life looks crazy, does God even care,” remember the word. Search out the scriptures for verses that combat the lie that God has forgotten you and STAND on them. While we wait for His promises to manifest, He wants us to walk in FAITH. “Without faith it’s impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). There is a reason why the promise has not come yet. It’s not that He has forgotten about you, it just isn’t time yet and He’s doing something else in you.

Feelings of being forgotten by God can also stem from comparing ourselves to others. It’s so easy to look at what God is doing with other people and wonder if you are behind or if God has somehow forgotten about you.  We’ve all wondered, when is this or that going to happen or why hasn’t this or that happened yet? What we forget is that our times and seasons are in God’s hands. Do not compare your life to other people’s life. Don’t compare what’s going on in your life with what’s going on with someone else. Someone close to you may be in a season of blooming, where things are manifesting and springing forth, while God may have you in a season of planting, where you’re hidden underneath the ground in a dark place. What God is doing in each of you is equally beautiful and significant; there’s no need to wish to be where someone is or have what they have. You are right where God wants you and if you focus more on the beauty of what God is doing in you right now, you won’t have time or room to receive lies of abandonment. The person you are comparing yourself to may be in a season of spring while you’re in fall. It’s like comparing your chapter 5 to someone else’s chapter 17. God does not do the same thing in everyone’s life at the same time or the same way. God may choose 3 years to do something in someone’s life while He may choose to take 8 years to do it in your life. And what He does in each of our lives is based on the future He has for each of us. When you focus on what God is doing with you instead of others then you won’t miss the lessons and the beauty in each season. God loves each of us so much that He is very intentional about what He does in each of our lives. He doesn’t withhold things because we are not good enough, everything He does or does not do in our lives is because we are so valuable in His sight that He won’t allow just anything to happen to us. Don’t allow your desires (of what others have) cause discontentment, it’s just a distraction from the enemy; deny your flesh and stay focused.

If today you find yourself asking, “God what about me?” Know that it was because He thought about you that He sent His Son to die for you. Everything He does in your life is because He is thinking of your good. If He chooses not to do something, He has your best interest in mind. Sometimes He may simply be hiding you. What you may think is good for you to have right now, God knows you need to be hidden from at the moment. Believe it or not, under God’s covering from that thing, you are safe. There’s purpose in every “no” and purpose in every wait. You just don’t know the magnitude of the anointing and the fruit that is being birthed when you stay hidden where God has you. Instead of wishing you had something you don’t, thank God that you are where He wants you to be! Rejoice with those who rejoice and rejoice in your God given portion. Rejoice in the anointing that is being birthed in you in the secret place – the place where you are tried, tested, and made. Rejoice in the glory that will be revealed you because of your endurance. Hold on! The enemy wants you to take your eyes off of purpose, that’s why he tries to get you to receive the feelings of being forgotten and abandoned by God, he wants you to jump ship so that you don’t fulfill purpose.

Hebrews 10:36 says, “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” The Amplified Version says: “For you have need of patient endurance [to bear up under difficult circumstances without compromising], so that when you have carried out the will of God, you may receive and enjoy to the full what is promised.” AFTER you’ve done the will of God – after you’ve passed every test, birthed all the fruit He wants you to birth in that season, after you’ve gotten every lesson, after you’ve experienced certain things that will prepare you for what’s to come, after He’s gotten all the glory that He desires to get out of your life in that season – THEN you will receive the promise (remember, the promise is His word, not your desire). Stop wondering when God is going to do a-b-c-d, just focus on living out His will and pleasing Him. There is so much more taking place right now than you can see with your natural eyes. God wants you to be so content where He has you that your main focus is pleasing Him and doing His will.

So, if you’re feeling tired, weary, wounded from the process, left alone, forgotten, and abandoned by God, here is a scripture that always encourages me: Isaiah 49:14-16, “But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before Me.” God will NEVER forget about you! You are continually on His mind. Even in the process that you are in right now, you are on His mind. Tear down the thoughts of abandonment and receive AND believe His everlasting, unrelenting love for you.