Remember to Remember
Have you ever felt forgotten?
Perhaps you have felt forgotten by your family, friends, co-workers, or even society at large. Whatever the case, it is a hurtful experience to feel forgotten.
And it is especially hurtful, if we have ever felt forgotten by God.
It is a feeling we may not readily express to others for fear of being judged as a “bad” or “weak” Christian. Indeed, we may have trouble admitting this feeling to ourselves. But that does not change the reality that times may arise when we feel forgotten by God. Even the most mature Christ followers can experience the heartache of feeling forgotten by Him.
If that has ever been the case for you—or perhaps if it is true for you right now—I want you to know that you are in great company. A man who God described as “a man after [His] own heart” (Act 13:22), David, expressed the very same feeling. Let’s read one of David’s prayers to God:
1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.
~ Psalm 13
Did you catch how David began this prayer? He did not ask God if He had forgotten him. He asked God how long would He forget him. David’s words presuppose that he felt forgotten by God.
In last month’s blog, I encouraged readers to not lie to God when praying. Instead, I encouraged them to openly express their feelings to our Heavenly Father who knows everything anyway. Taking the time to lament (express grief/sorrow) is a crucial part of cultivating good spiritual, emotional, and mental health. Negative emotions, in themselves, do not destroy people. The failure to process negative emotions in God-honoring and healthy ways destroys people. So free yourself to lament before God as you need to, my friend.
However, when we lament, we must be careful not to get stuck at the point of our pain. Our emotions should get a say, but they should not get the last say. They should get a word, but they should not get the last word. God’s truth should always get the last word.
So how do we give God’s truth the last word?
To find this answer, let’s observe a few principles from David’s lament to God in Psalm 13. Whenever we feel forgotten by God, we should…
Pray to God anyway:
Isn’t it interesting that even though David felt like God had forgotten him, David nevertheless prayed to God? Why would he pray to someone he felt was paying him no attention? David grasped that even when we do not understand God’s activity (or apparent lack thereof), He is still the only one, true God. There is no one exactly like Him, and there never will be. He is God Almighty, and He is who He is. So, even though David did not like his situation, perhaps he reasoned as Jesus’ disciple Peter did when Jesus asked the 12 disciples if they were going to leave Him as many others had:
“Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69)
My friend, even if you feel as though God has forgotten you, pray to Him anyway. Anywhere else you go will be insufficient and likely harmful to your soul. No amount of self-medication through relationships, food, substances, or any other distraction can heal you. It is better for us to bring our questions to the living God than to seek answers outside of Him.
Ask God to help our perspective:
Notice David’s request that God “give light to his eyes” (v. 3). David asked God to help him see better. Apparently David understood that whenever we feel as though God has forgotten us, it means we need help with our perspective. Many factors influence our perspectives, and pain can be chief among those factors. How we feel can (and often does) affect how we see.
The bottom line is this: if there is ever a problem in our relationship with God, God is not the problem. So we should ask God to help fix whatever is damaged in us, so that we can view Him, others, ourselves, and our situations properly.
Remember God’s character:
David ends this prayer by declaring God’s unfailing love, salvation, and goodness (vv. 5-6). There is no indication that David’s circumstances had changed. So what did change? David’s view. He shifted his perspective to what he knew to be true about God.
Whenever we feel forgotten by God, we must remember to remember. Remember what? Who God is and what He has done. What David wrote of God back then is just as true today. God loves us with an unfailing, loyal, and everlasting love. God has saved us from sin and death. God has been good to us, because we do not deserve to be a part of His family, yet He has adopted us as His very own children.
So, my friend, if you feel forgotten by God in this season or a future season, you can admit it. Tell God all about it. Ask Him to help your perspective. And then be sure to remember to remember. Remember who God is and what He has already done. I’m praying for you.
Your Sister-Friend,
Leah
