1 Samuel 12:22: How We Know that God Won't Leave Us

"For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself." 1 Samuel 12:22

Have you ever doubted that the Lord would leave you? We all know that he's promised us in scripture that he wouldn't leave us nor forsake us (see Hebrews 13:5-6), but how many times do we doubt that? Perhaps you never doubt it, or perhaps you doubt it all the time. Either way, we are going to find this morning how we might confidently know that God won't leave us.

In 1 Samuel 12, a chapter we looked at a few days ago, Samuel says these great words: "For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself." In this one verse, we find the reason by which we can have firm confidence that the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us. Did you catch it? If not, read over the verse again, and see if you can figure out the reason why God will never leave us nor forsake us.

From the verse above, we see that God will never leave us nor forsake us ultimately because he didn't save us for us, he saved us for him! Samuel tells us that "for [God's] great name's sake. . .it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself." In other words, God delights and takes pleasure in you, thus why would he ever leave you? Since God loves you and sent his one and only Son to die on your behalf, we can be sure that God will never change his mind and cease to love us and therefore leave us! Furthermore, God get's great glory in your salvation, and if he were to let you go, he would lose some of his glory. And last time I checked, God didn't like to give up his glory to any other. Did God save you that you might enjoy him forever and because he loves you more that we could every imagive? Certainly. But he also saved you for the sake of his great name! And therefore, as sure as we are that God will always be God, we can be sure that God will never leave us nor forsake us.

Matthew Henry says a great word about these verses: "“Had [God] chosen [us] for our good merits, we might fear the he would cast [us] off for their bad merits; but, choosing [us] for his name’s sake, for his name’s sake he will not leave [us]." So, how can you live more confidently that the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you now that you know that your salvation isn't all about you? Remember: God is the one who saved you, and scripture tells us that he will hold you in that salvation (see 1 Peter 1:4-5). How can you live more confidently in Christ in response to that fact?

P.S. Sorry for the lack of devotionals lately, I've been busy!